The seven-time world champion finished a strong second-place behind168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Max Verstappen’s dominant Red Bull at the Mexico City Grand Prix to cement Mercedes’ไ rece🅷nt progress and put the disappointment of his Austin disqualification behind him. 

Mercedes’ competitiveness has taken a notable upturn since the introduction ꧑of their last major upgrade in the United States, with a modified floor giving Hamilton more confidence in the W14. 

But despite the improvements, Hamilton cautioned that Mercedes still h🍌ave plenty of work to do i🅺n order to catch Red Bull over the winter. 

“It defin💃itely gives 🦄us a lot of confidence,” Hamilton said. 

“I mean, last year, at the s🌺ame time, we were doing the same thing, but last year, I think we were three-tenths behind Max in quali ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ– or something like that, and I came second again but he walked off with it. 

"So, we🌳're really just mirroring what we did last year. So, we have to make some real big changes for next year. Because obviously, in Bahrain earlier this year, they’re 1.5 seconds a lap faster 🦄than us at least. 

“So key is to make sure that's not the case in Bahrain [next year], but I think hopefully these next couple of races will be close. But I’d probably put mone🌸y on it that he’d get to 18, 19, with that car.”

Encouragingly for Mercedes, Hamiltoꦛn set the fastest lap of the race on the final tour, suggesting he had more pace in hand as he finished 13.8 seco𒈔nds behind Verstappen at the chequered flag. 

Asked whether he could have pushed harder during the final stint on mediums, Hamilt🔜on replied: “Yeah, for sure. I could have pushed a little bit harder but I did at one time try to see, okay, I think I've saved enough, let me see if I can tr🌼y and close this gap to Max. 

“I think it was like 10 laps to go, and I did a 22.0 and Max did a💜 21.9. I was like, ah, I’ll leave it. He was just cruising at 21.9. So yeah, so I thought I'd leave it th♋ere. 

“And also, I had to be cautious, just careful because obviously my tyres… if I really pushed them for the last 10 laps, they probably would have opened up, and who knows, maybe Charles would have 🔯caught me up. So, I just had to be cautious with that.”