Lewis Hamilton hopes his recovery from the pit-lane to finish fourth at the Brazilian Grand Prix was proof of the “fire in my heart” to continue succeeding in Formula 1.
The Briton had it all to do after what he admitted was an “unusual” mistake from him in qualifying, when he crashed out in Q1, but with Mercedes installing a fresh engine into his car, the four-time world champion eased back through the field.
So rapid was Hamilton’s fight back, which was also helped by incidents on the first lap, that he would take the lead when the front-runners pitted before stopping himself later and the enjoyment of being able to make some moves made up for the disappointment on Saturday.
“That was fun it felt like very reminiscent of my karting days when I would always start at the back, particularly in my first year or two,” he said afterwards.
“I think on one side for sure I messed up yesterday and put myself in the worst position, I was quick enough to win the race from pole to the flag but I didn’t do that, so it made the job a lot harder today.
“But I think waking up this morning, my goal was really to try and redeem myself from yesterday’s mistake and really do the team proud and try and get the points back.”
Using the alternate tyre strategy, Hamilton’s pace on the Supersoft in the final 25 laps or so was remarkable as he closed in on the leaders by over a second per lap.
The 32-year-old would dispatch Max Verstappen in that run to the finish but would just lose the grip when he needed it in the closing laps, struggling for traction when trying to pass Kimi Raikkonen for the final place on the podium.
“I tried to get back to third but I just ran out of tyres at the end,” he said. “But I enjoyed the race. I enjoyed the battle and hopefully, that continues to show me but hopefully everyone that I still have a lot of fire in my heart still. Still young at heart and have got many, many more races to go.”
