Hamilton reflects on Silverstone Sprint battle with Antonelli after 'giving absolutely everything'

Lewis Hamilton insisted he gave "absolutely everything" after he was unable to hold off Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli in the Sprint at Silverstone.

The Ferrari driver had started from pole position after a last gasp lap in Sprint Qualifying saw him set a time just 0.011s clear of the young Italian’s effort.

As Saturday's Sprint got underway Hamilton managed to keep Antonelli at bay for some time but was soon overtaken on Lap 8 by the current championship leader – who eventually crossed the line 2.745s ahead to take his maiden Sprint victory.

Reflecting on how his Sprint panned out after jumping out of the cockpit, Hamilton explained: "I said yesterday, that could be difficult. With the strong headwind down the back straight today, Kimi came flying past.

"I was pushing as hard as I could and gave it absolutely everything. Well done to Kimi. We’ve got work to do to close that gap."

As Antonelli extended his championship lead with his triumph in the Sprint, Hamilton further explained how the energy management played a significant role in his race on Saturday.

"(Mercedes) were particularly quick up to Turn 6, so sometimes I had to use the Boost there," he said. "One of the biggest areas was coming out of Stowe, Turn 15, where you get all the power. That’s where he was catching me massively.

"Once he got into Overtake mode, I couldn’t hold him back because he had extra deployment throughout the lap. I couldn’t keep him outside the one-second gap anymore and, once that was gone, I knew he was coming."

However, despite missing out on another victory in front of his home crowd – Hamilton's nine British Grand Prix wins at Silverstone is a record at a single circuit – the Ferrari man seemed pleased with his P2 result.

"It’s never fun to go back, but great day yesterday," he continued. "We were right in the fight, which I was really not expecting this weekend.

"So, with that, I’m really, really happy, and I’m really happy with the effort the team is making to try and close that gap. We’re slowly getting closer, but just not quite there yet".

On the other side of the Ferrari garage, team mate Charles Leclerc finished the Sprint in fifth after a slow start saw him drop places.

"It was a very poor start in general," he explained. "I mean, it’s quite rare this year to have poor starts, but this one was very bad.

"After that, the car felt quite okay. I mean, there are still things that I’m not super comfortable with, but I’m making a lot of progress that unfortunately isn’t very visible yet because it’s small steps after small steps."

However, the Monegasque was hopeful that things could improve for Saturday's Qualifying and Sunday's Grand Prix.

"I feel like I saw a few things that I’ll be able to change for Qualifying, and they seem to be going in the right direction," he said. "If they do work in Qualifying, I’m optimistic it’s something I can carry over to other tracks because it’s a bit of a philosophical change to the car, trying to make it suit my driving style a little better."