Hamilton sees Mercedes creeping towards Red Bull: 'Good step made'

Lewis Hamilton said after the United States Grand Prix that he saw a chance to beat Max Verstappen if only Mercedes had chosen a different strategy. Nevertheless, the 38-year-old Brit is happy with the step his team has taken with the new updates.

He came dangerously close in the closing stages of the race, but Hamilton failed to get close enough to outsmart Verstappen. In those final laps, the Mercedes driver - who was disqualified after the race - also realised that it was no longer going to work.

"No. I was pushing, but three laps to go, two laps to go, and the gap was still four seconds. I was like, it's not going to happen," admitted the seven-time world champion.

Hamilton sees Mercedes approaching Red Bull

He is, however, pleased with Mercedes' latest updates, which he sees as a big step in the right direction. "The upgrade was a really good step, in terms of confidence levels really taking a step up this weekend for me, which I'm really happy about. But, a couple of small mistakes on track, a couple of slow stops and strategy. So I think we've got lots of areas [to work on]. We've got everything perfect," he explained.

He continued: "We would have had to have got everything perfect and no mistakes on track, and no mistakes in pit stops and all those things to be in with a shot at beating these guys. But this is something we can work on, and hopefully, we can try and bring it in the next races."