Hamilton admits his Ferrari was ‘very hard to drive’ at Silverstone after P4 finish

Lewis Hamilton assessed the British Grand Prix as a “difficult race”, with the seven-time World Champion admitting that his Ferrari had been a “very hard car to drive” in the mixed conditions at Silverstone.

After showing flashes of strong pace during the weekend, Hamilton lined up in P5 on the grid for his home race and suggested that he would not give up hope of a podium.

That dream very nearly came true as the 40-year-old found himself in fourth and chasing down third-placed Nico Hulkenberg in the latter stages of the Grand Prix, before ultimately missing out on the rostrum by just over five seconds.

Sharing his reflections after jumping out of the car, Hamilton said: “[It was a] difficult race, not a great one from my side. I did the best I could.

“As it showed there was plenty of mistakes out there and very, very tricky conditions, in really a very, very hard car to drive here – this car doesn’t like those conditions. Not ideal, but we got some points at least.”

Hamilton’s pace appeared to drop off slightly as he embarked on a second stint on the intermediate tyres before switching to the soft compound in the final phase.

Asked to summarise that segment of the race, he explained: “The tyres [were] dropping off, the car doesn’t like low-speed corners, lots of understeer, and I started knocking out the left front and then just couldn’t keep up.”

Despite the disappointment of missing out on a top-three result, Hamilton could still take the positives from racing in front of his home crowd.

“What I take from it is the amazing energy from all the fans,” the Briton said.

“They’ve been incredible this weekend and it’s been amazing to see so many people switch to red and, yeah, got some points.”