Lewis Hamilton says he was so lonely during Austrian GP he watched Verstappen and Leclerc's F1 battle on TV | The Sun

LEWIS HAMILTON admitted he was so "lonely" once he climbed up to third in the Austrian Grand Prix that he just watched Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc battling it out.

Hamilton sealed third place on Sunday but was about 30 seconds behind rival Verstappen and eventual winner Leclerc so he decided to enjoy their fight for the gold.

The British superstar praised his Mercedes team after a "rough weekend" that saw him crash in the qualifiers.

Hamilton said: "It’s massively satisfying. I was a bit lonely once I got [into third].

"These guys were like 30-something seconds ahead of me, so I was just watching their race on the TV.

"So, down the straights I was just watching where they were. I could see them coming through Turn 6 as I was coming out Turn 1.

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“So I was getting a bit of a fan view of what was happening. I saw some of the overtakes they were having. I think they did replays and stuff.

"But after such a difficult weekend, with the crash, with a monumental effort from the team to rebuild the car this is a really great result. So I’m very grateful.”

Hamilton added: "It’s been a bit of a rough weekend. But I’m really grateful.

"As a team, we got a third and fourth. That’s great points. And we move forward from here.

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“I do really want to say a big thank you to the guys, the men and women in the garage, who worked so hard to rebuild the car. I had a brand-new car on Saturday morning.

"Unfortunately, something I don’t do too often [crashing], but so thankful to them for working so hard and we made some improvements this weekend, so we just have to keep chipping away.”

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