Mercedes closer, but Red Bull pace 'undeniable' - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton was happy to finish on the podium in Saturday's sprint race ahead of the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin but remained acutely aware of the challenges facing Mercedes.

The seven-time world champion had earlier secured third place on the grid at the end of the Sprint Showdown to put himself on the second row of the grid for the 19-lap sprint later in the day.

And when Charles Leclerc was swept wide by pole sitter Max Verstappen at the start of the race, Hamilton took the opportunity to slip past the Ferrari for second place which he held on to until the chequered flag.

Although he initially stayed within DRS range of Verstappen, in the end he was left behind as the Red Bull swept to victory. The winning margin averaged out as about half a second every lap.

With that in mind, Hamilton was happy to pick up P2 - but sobered by just how much work there remains for Mercedes to do to get itself into race-winning form compared to their chief rivals.

• Read also: Verstappen cruises to sprint win over Hamilton in Austin

“That was a fun race,” Hamilton told the media in parc ferme after the end of the sprint. “Good start down to turn one, and good battle with Charles.

“Then I was trying early on to get closer to Max, but their pace is just undeniable at the moment," he acknowledged.

"I'm happy we're a little bit closer, [but] we’ve still got a long way to be able to eke out the pace that he was doing throughout the race.

"Nonetheless I'm really happy to be back on the podium," he added, as his thoughts turned to tomorrow's full length Grand Prix where he will once again start from P3 on the grid - but this time with Verstappen back in sixth.

“Ultimately I think he will be breathing down our necks before too long, with the pace that he had today,” Hamilton said, realistic about his prospects for the race.

Instead his focus is on battling for one of the remaining podium places with Leclerc and McLaren's Lando Norris, who will both be starting ahead of him on the front row.

"I think that will open up for a good fight with Charles and Lando," he said. “We're all quite similar in pace, so hopefully we get to have a good battle tomorrow.

"If we can all keep Max behind, that would be awesome. But if not, no worries," he shrugged.

Hamilton will have his team mate George Russell closely to help him in the Grand Prix. In today's sprint Russell had a three place grid penalty for impeding during qualifying, and got a further penalty five second penalty in the race.

He ended up in the final points-paying position in eighth place on Saturday but will be aiming for better tomorrow from fifth on the grid - hopefully without clashing with his team mate at the first corner as he did in Qatar.

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