We made it hard for ourselves, says Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton said Mercedes made life difficult for themselves with a cautious race strategy in the United States Grand Prix.

The 33-year-old Briton, who finished third, but missed out on clinching his fifth drivers title, told reporters that he was surprised when he was called in for an early pit-stop to take advantage of a Virtual Safety Car intervention on lap 11.

"It was a little bit of a surprise," said the Mercedes man after finishing behind race winner Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

"And once we'd done the stop on 11, I knew I would be doing a two-stop.

"We just made it so hard for ourselves. When we came out, I had to catch Kimi, I caught him, but my tyres were dead.

"Then he did his stop and was catching me with fresh tyres -- and then I came out, after the last stop, and had 12 seconds to catch up. It just made it so hard for us even to compete today."
"Still, to get a third, I'm still grateful, but naturally, starting first and finishing third is never a good thing."