Lewis Hamilton was satisfied with fourth place after a difficult Austrian Grand Prix, which saw the Brit struggle with a damaged car.

Hamilton, who had struggled to match the pace of championship leader Max Verstappen throughout the Austrian doubleheader, made a good start from fourth on the grid before inheriting third after Sergio Perez went off the track at Turn 3.

That later became second after Hamilton finally got past Lando Norris. Shortly afterwards, Hamilton went on the team radio complaining of damage to his W12 after running over the volatile Turn 10 kerbs.

With limited downforce, Hamilton was unable to fend off teammate Valtteri Bottas for second, with Norris repassing the Brit with 16 laps to go as Hamilton pitted for the second time as well as adjusting his wing.

However, it made no improvement to Hamilton’s race as he could only manage a distant fourth place as the gap between him and Verstappen increased from 18 points to 32 points heading into the British Grand Prix held at Silverstone in two weeks.

Nevertheless, Hamilton was content to secure a decent haul of points after a tough second weekend in Austria.

“It’s not the result I wanted but it’s still some decent points. I sustained some damage just before I overtook Lando – the rear of the car started to feel strange, and it just got worse throughout the race. Otherwise, it would have been a straightforward second place for me.”

With Verstappen taking another commanding victory in Austria, Hamilton said that Mercedes need to start improving their car if they want to catch the Dutchman for the championship.

“Max is clear out front at the moment so we need to improve our car and start performing better each weekend. The team are working incredibly hard and we need to continue that so we can find performance.”