Hamilton thrilled to enjoy 'tough battles' amid season-best result in ...

There were contrasting emotions in the Mercedes garage after the Miami Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton left in high spirits after enjoying some close on-track battles en route to P6, while George Russell rued his lack of pace following his P8 result on a “difficult weekend”.

It was a busy afternoon for Hamilton in Miami, as the seven-time world champion initially struggled for pace on the hard tyre in the opening stint before engaging in a fierce fight with the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg across several laps.

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With his pace appearing stronger on the medium compound in the latter half of the race, Hamilton looked to be on the tail of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. While he was ultimately unable to find a way past, the 39-year-old was encouraged by the level of performance in his W15 across the weekend, with P6 also marking his strongest race result of the season so far.

Asked after jumping out of the car if the race had been fun for him, a smiling Hamilton responded: “So much fun. I’ve really enjoyed this weekend race-wise. It’s been a lot of fun on track, [I’ve had] really great, tough, close battles. I mean, going out to Turn 11, up against the wall, wheels locked – I was like, ‘oh jeez, this could be either a big crash into this corner or I’m going by’.

“So I love that I had that, in zero fear in that moment, so I’m super grateful for that. Then to be able to hold onto the [Red] Bulls, to a Red Bull, was really quite cool, great job by my team.”