October 22nd 2023.
Sir Lewis Hamilton came agonisingly close to claiming his first victory in nearly two years in the USA, but was narrowly beaten to the post by Max Verstappen. Despite claiming his 50th Formula One victory on Sunday, it was not the dominant performance one has become accustomed to from Hamilton this season.
Mercedes had brought upgrades to the Circuit of the Americas, but Red Bull's RB19 was still the quickest car. With this in mind, the team opted to try a different strategy with Hamilton, which seemed to be a poor decision initially, with the three-time champion fuming over the team radio.
However, eventually it paid off as he overtook Lando Norris for second place in the closing stages. Despite the gap to Verstappen appearing to be too much, Hamilton began to close in on the Dutchman in the final few laps. Unfortunately, he ran out of time to make the pass for the win.
After the race, Hamilton was full of praise for his team, thanking them for not giving up on them. His battle with Norris also gave the grid hope that they can compete with Red Bull, this year's constructors' champions, very soon.
Post-race, Hamilton said: "First of all, we have to congratulate these guys [Red Bull]. The team has done an incredible job all year long, just dominated and Max has been flawless."
He also reflected on the deep process he went through to get to this point, saying: "I had to go through a real deep process of getting back here. It's one of those experiences of not how you fall but how you get up."
It has been over a year since Mercedes have won a race, with George Russell claiming victory in Brazil last year. Hamilton's last victory came in Saudi Arabia in December 2021.
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