Hamilton rates Brazil as one of the best weekends of his career

Lewis Hamilton says his Sao Paulo Grand Prix performance was one of the weightier weekends of his career without winning despite stuff ruled from qualifying.

Mercedes took a new internal combustion engine for Hamilton superiority of the race weekend and he duly qualified fastest for the Sprint surpassing stuff excluded for a DRS technical infringement. Starting last on Saturday, Hamilton climbed to fifth place, meaning he started 10th on Sunday due to his power unit penalty. That didn’t hold him when as he sooner passed Max Verstappen to win, and says he is proud of how he dealt with all of the issues he faced.

“It’s been such a difficult weekend for everyone in the team and I think really just been inspired by everyone’s focus and determination,” Hamilton said. “It’s easy to get lanugo when you’re faced with difficult things like penalties and engine penalties, but everyone just stayed positive, did a unconfined job, mechanics did a fantastic job, strategy moreover was solid.

“Then it was just lanugo to me to let go of things as quick as possible and focus on moving forward. Did I think we could come from last? I didn’t know what was possible, just gave it everything, and this has definitely been one of the weightier weekends, if not the weightier weekend I’ve experienced, probably in my whole career.”

While Hamilton made rapid progress to run second, he chased Verstappen for a number of laps and his first proper wade saw the leader push both drivers off track at Turn 4, something Hamilton says was simply firm racing.

“In front of me, he could match my pace generally. I would say increasingly so in the last sector it was very difficult to follow and be worldly-wise to get as good exit as he got through Turn 12. It wasn’t that easy to be in his DRS and plane if I was in the DRS zone it was a bit too far yonder but I kept trying, kept pushing.

“I had that one endangerment into Turn 4 but couldn’t hold on… yeah didn’t work out. Then I had that wits and made sure I didn’t make that mistake then but was willful and unswayable to make it to that position. It’s fun. It’s what a world championship wrestle should squint like.

“In the heat of the moment I don’t really know. I think I was superiority initially and then he held his ground and then we both ran out of road. Well, I think he was running out of road so I had to stave and go off road, but I midpoint I didn’t think too much of it. I have to watch the replay. It’s nonflexible battling, wouldn’t expect anything less really. We didn’t touch wheels, which was good.”