Hamilton battled tooth and nail with Leclerc in the twisties at Silverstone and even went wheel-to-wheel with the Ferrari driver at the infamous Copse corner. The 37-year-old credited Leclerc for driving sensibly before making a subtle reference to last year’s high-speed collision with Verstappen, which took place at the same point on the track and resulted in Hamilton receiving a 10-second time penalty. “For a while it felt great,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 as he ran the post-race rule. “A lot of things went against me. The gap was like five or six seconds to catch the Ferrari, but I had a really good long run and I thought maybe we could fight for the win, but the pit stop wasn’t very quick and I struggled. to warm up [the new tyres]. JUST IN: British Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton claims stunning podium finish “Charles did a great job, what a great battle. A very sensible driver, clearly very different to what we experienced here last year [with Verstappen]. “We had to have the tire gap to get past him, but yeah. Really, really amazing weekend.” This year’s result at Silverstone marked only Hamilton’s second podium finish of the campaign, with Mercedes struggling to keep pace with their Constructors’ Championship rivals during the season to date. He will be desperately hoping that the Silver Arrows can maintain their newfound positive momentum when F1 returns to Austria next weekend to compete for another strong finish in Spielberg. DON’T MISS OUT “We’re still in repair, we still have work to do,” Hamilton added when asked about where Mercedes stand after impressing at Silverstone. “A big thank you to the team for all the upgrades this weekend, but we have to keep pushing and stay positive. It’s great to be back in the race.” Carlos Sainz finally took the checkered flag to secure his maiden Grand Prix victory ahead of Sergio Perez and Hamilton, with a horror first-lap crash involving George Russell, Alex Albon and Guanyu Zhou sparking a long period of red flag at the start of the race. . The latter, who flipped upside down before sliding into the gravel and barriers, had to be helped out of the cockpit and was rushed to the medical center for checks before thankfully being released after being listed in good condition. FOLLOW OUR NEW DAILY EXPRESS SPORT INSTAGRAM PAGE