After shutting down the Ferrari rumours, Lewis Hamilton returns to his criticism of Mercedes with a visible silver lining: I think we have…

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Lewis Hamilton was aiming to start the 2023 season on a high, however, Mercedes continued to struggle. After the season opener in Bahrain, he lashed out at Mercedes in frustration. Since then, speculation about his move to Ferrari has circulated on several occasions. Before the start of the race weekend in Monaco, the Briton categorically denied any such links. Pleased with his performance at Monaco, he praised the Silver Arrows with a sly dig at the team he was recently linked with.

Earlier last week reports started making the rounds of Ferrari sending a $49 million offer to Hamilton. The rumors continued to run unabated until the drivers and crew chiefs showed up for press conferences and interviews. When asked, the Mercedes driver flatly denied such strings while digging into the reporter who started it all.

Lewis Hamilton praises Mercedes team after beating Ferrari drivers in Monaco

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Just as the Monaco GP was starting to tread into the usual territories of rare overtaking and absolute dominance by Max Verstappen in front, the rain gods decided to make things a bit more interesting. The wet track made the drivers slip and slide, making life difficult for them and providing great entertainment for the spectators. Despite all the difficulties, Hamilton finished in P4, moving up a place from where he started the race.

via Reuters

Formula 1 F1 Monaco Grand Prix Circuit de Monaco, Monaco May 25, 2023 Mercedes Lewis Hamilton before the grand prix REUTERS/Piroschka Van de Wouw

Outlining his race while chatting with the media, including RaceFans, he said: A good result. Good progress overall as a team.

I think we have taken a step forward. To get a fourth and a fifth place in a race as difficult as this today, I think is a very good result. The team did a really solid job today with the strategy. Getting ahead of the Ferraris, I think was great.

Charles Leclerc finished in the same position he started the race, P6. Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, had a nightmarish outing from the start when he suffered damage to his front wing. Later he entered the barriers and finally finished the race in P8.

Hamilton describes why the race was particularly difficult for him

The Mercedes ace didn’t start the weekend on the best note. During FP3 he crashed his car carrying the latest upgrades. As the crane lifted the car off the track, its underbody design was exposed for all teams to see. The upgrades also didn’t show much improvement in qualifying as the Brit only managed P5. The race was also very demanding as the track became more and more slippery over time.

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via Reuters

Formula 1 F1 Monaco Grand Prix Circuit de Monaco, Monaco May 25, 2023 Mercedes Lewis Hamilton during a press conference ahead of the grand prix REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

Hamilton continued, There isn’t even a word to explain how difficult it was.

For my part, I just couldn’t get my intermediate tires to warm up, so I was on tiptoe. I think our crossing [pit call] was good, it’s just that I lost ground to everyone when I had to stop and it rained. So, I just put it at a bit of a disadvantage and just made it a little tricky. But no errors. Kept on track.

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The relatively more open track in Spain with longer straights will give a better assessment of where the Silver Arrows are with their latest improvements. Ferrari plans to bring its new set of changes to the same circuit. It will be interesting to see which team wins over another in Barcelona.

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