Lewis ꦡHamilton is confident that everyone in the Mercedes Formula 1 team will "kick ourselves up the backside" following their defeat to Ferrari in Sunday's United States Grand Prix as the drivers' championship title race continued for another we𝔉ek.

Hamilton was on course to clinch his fifth F1 world title in Austin on Sunday after securing pole position, only for lose out to Kimi Raikkonen off the line and drop behind Max Verstappen after being forced into a🦄 two-stop strategy.

Hamilton ultimately finished the race third ඣfor Mer💧cedes, which with title rival Sebastian Vettel fourth meant the championship race continued for another week.

The result marked Mercedes'⭕ first deꦦfeat since the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August and a return to form for Ferrari, as Raikkonen ended a win drought dating back more than five years.

Speaking after the race, Hamilton said Mercedes had identified a number of areas in which ꦗit had slipped up at the Circuit of The Americas, but added he believed it would only invigorate the team heading into the final three races of the season.

"We’ve had a debrief, and ꦿthere were a lot of things we could have done better today, and there were certain things that weren’t optimum for us which made it look even worse than it was," Hamilton said.

"It was not an ideal Sunday for us, but I think up until today it had been a good solid weekend, and I think the decisions and steps we took༺ were good. However, I think Ferrari gained a bit of 𓃲pace and we seemed to lose a bit of pace here.

"But we’ll go back to the drawing board and do what we do best as a team, ꧂because in there nobody is to blame. We all take the blame together, we all kick ourselves up the backside and realise we’ve got to keep working and keep push♎ing.

"I know that the guys will 🤪do great analysis from this weekend, and today, in the next couple of days and we’ll come strong in the next race."

Hamilton spent the closing stages of the race trying to 🃏pass Verstappen and Raikkonen, but denied he had the championship on his mind as he went wheel-to-wheel with his rivals, instead only focusing on winning the race.

"I honestlyꦫ haven’t given a care about the championship," Hamilton said. "I haven’t had a single thought about the cℱhampionship this weekend, there were a lot of questions about it and I was just here to win.

"The sole goal is✃ to win these foܫur races that is what my mind was set on, and naturally if you do that, you could win the championship, but I was just thinking of doing my best performance for the weekend.

"There were a lot of things that were against us today, particularly today, that I’ve only just discovered which makes a lot of sense. Naturally being on the backfoot, you could say because of strategy or all these dꦇifferent things, but we were not quick enough today.

"We are still in a great position and we lꦏ🎶eave here with frustrations but I want to win the title for the team but today we lost points in the constructors’ and collectively we have lost some performance in some areas.

ꦍ"I think we know where it is, and we still have three races to go."