Lewis Hamilton has revealed he was forced to nurse braking issues in his Ferrari throughout much of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Hamilton finished fourth behind McLaren race winner Lando Norris, with Oscar Piastri second and Charles Leclerc the first Ferrari to the flag in third.

Lewis Hamilton battled brake issues throughout Austrian GP

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Hamilton took the flag more than nine seconds adrift of his counterpart at the end of the 70-lap race, maintaining the position he’d qualified in.

To do so, he was forced to go wheel-to-wheel with George Russell in the opening stages to hold on to the position as his former Mercedes team-mate attacked.

“Great start, and had a great battle with George from Turn 1 all the way through to Turn 6, and managed to hold on to the outside, which is awesome,” Hamilton told media, including PlanetF1.com.

“After that, the car didn’t feel too bad. I was able to hold on for a second, but then I was really struggling with the balance.

“We have brake issues,” he added, “so having to manage these brakes really early on, which is losing, definitely, some time.

“That’s something I’m really pushing to get fixed, because that’s not great.

“Then, just balance. I was really struggling just with balance.”

Ferrari introduced an upgraded floor at the Austrian Grand Prix, with revised fences, edge, and body.

It’s an update the team said is intended to deliver “an overall load gain across the car operating envelope,” according to the FIA car presentation submissions list.

In reality, Hamilton suggested it added nothing in terms of time over the course of the race, but had other benefits.

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“The upgrade was quite small, so we didn’t really know… they didn’t even mention any time, because it was that small,” the seven-time champion said.

“Perhaps there was a bigger result from putting the floor on, so that’s a real positive; really great to see the team bringing the upgrade and moving us forward.

“Being the second fastest [team] this weekend, getting fourth is a real positive, so there’s lots of good things to take from the weekend and there’s lots of areas to focus on.”

A different approach at the Red Bull Ring saw Hamilton adopt a car set-up closer to team-mate Leclerc’s, netting broadly positive results.

Though he still finished behind the Monegasque driver, the 40-year-old felt he made gains as he continues to get to grips with the nuances of his Ferrari.

“He drives a massively oversteering car,” Hamilton explained of Leclerc’s driving style.

“Somehow he slides the rears and doesn’t have degradation. When I slide the rears, I get massive degradation.

“I suppose it took Carlos [Sainz] a couple of years to get used to. I don’t want to do that! I think I’m improving… I was a lot closer in quali, didn’t have the race pace.”

With third and fourth for Ferrari in the Austrian GP, the Scuderia now sits second in the Constructors’ Championship with 210 points, one more than Mercedes and 48 clear of third-best Red Bull.

McLaren remains the runaway leaders with 417 points to top the standings after 11 races.

Hamilton, meanwhile, holds on to sixth in the Drivers’ Championship, the 12 points from Sunday’s result moving his tally on to 91.

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