Lewis Hamilton, who finished fifth at Canadian Grand Prix, was more concerned about finishing rather than losing to Vettel.
German driver, Sebastian Vettel, managed to cover the championship lead that Briton had over him. The victory at Canadian Grand Prix put him in lead by one point.
Hamilton was grateful to finish with problematic engine, he said: “It could have been a lot worse. I could have lost a lot more points.
“I was waiting for it to let go. I am incredibly grateful it kept going.”
Mercedes planned to test upgraded engine on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The reliability issues pushed Hamilton to go on track with old engine.
Old engine encountered cooling issues from the start of the race, which pushed Hamilton for an early pit stop. Extra cooling ducts were opened during pit stop.
He said: “The whole race I was thinking it was going to blow up. I will take this loss with my head held high and then hopefully have a better couple of races.”
Briton was critical of his team performance which cost him 18 points in last two races. He said, “That is a lot.
“Ferrari have been doing the better job, particularly this month and their whole package has just been a little bit ahead of us. Their whole package has just been a little bit ahead of ours. We have to do more and keep pushing, hopefully there are some good things to come.”
Toto Wolff, Mercedes F1 team principal, marked Canada as “major wake-up call” for his entire team after losing championship lead.
“You need to get the right balance between pushing the development very hard and adding performance to the car and at the same time keeping reliability,” Wolff said.
“The team has been extremely strong in the past at keeping reliability on a high level so that is not a part that worries me, it is more we have seen today a Ferrari that is the stronger car – strong in qualifying, strong in race and at no time we had a chance to fight for the win.
“We are leaving Montreal seeing that we haven’t been where we should have been, where we thought we should be.
“It is a three-way fight. Six cars can win races and you can’t take anything for granted. You can’t come to Montreal and think it is going to be a walk in the park. That is the kind of wake-up call you get.”
