Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton Finished Fourth In 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix On Pure “Adrenaline”

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton had admitted that “adrenaline” propelled him to a fourth-placed finish at 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Hamilton had struggled all weekend for pace en route to a fourth-placed finish as he continued to battle porpoising issues alongside Mercedes teammate – George Russell, which the latter described as “brutal” to deal with within the cockpit.

The seven-time champion though endured a much harder race than his teammate after he lost position to Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel at his first pit stop, which left him fighting to recover positions but a second stop enabled him to finish fourth ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.

Hamilton however reported back pain on Lap 29 due to the rough porpoising and admitted that grit and determination saw him to the checkered flag, as he explained: “I just got through that race on adrenaline, biting down on my teeth through the pain.

“I can’t express the pain that you experience, especially on the straight here. And at the end, you’re just thinking of all the people relying on you for the points.”

Hamilton though believes that Russell and himself finishing third and fourth respectively after a double retirement at Ferrari marks “a great result”, although he believes that Mercedes will be back in the mix for race wins once they fix their porpoising issues.

Mercedes’ Team Principal, Toto Wolff added that it is imperative that a solution to porpoising issues are found quickly, after Hamilton endured a “tough” car throughout the race with back pain all weekend.

Wolff also warned that the task ahead isn’t set to be easy as the team continues to look at how best to salvage their season, as he continued: “There are no holy cows, everything is being looked at and we’ve got a great team trying to solve our issues.”

Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin however suggested that their issues are track specific, as he contributed: “The bumpier tracks seem to be a particular problem for us and Montreal is not especially smooth so we’ve got one area there to work on over the next few days before we get running again.

“The team is determined to continue pushing to find solutions, to find performance and to get back to racing at the front.”