“You keep your head up, you keep going. The guys back at the factory shouldn’t
be disheartened. We all need to work harder.
“Congratulations to Kimi Raikkonen, he really drove a fantastic race. I knew
at some stage Lotus would win a race this year.” Hamilton, however, could
not hide his disappointment over his own fate. “I’m gutted,” he added.
“I’d had really good pace all weekend and I feel certain we could have won
today. I had a fuel-pressure problem – it was very sudden, I was just
entering a corner and the car just died on me.
“The only mistake I made all weekend was having a brief moment on lap two,
when my brakes weren’t fully up to temperature and I locked up into Turn
Eight. After that, however, everything was going really well.
“The car was a dream to drive – I was cruising and still pulling away when I
had my problem. Nonetheless, we’ll have more opportunities in Austin and Sao
Paulo. I hope we can get back to the front – I’d love to take a win or two
more with McLaren before the end of the season.”
He may need to take advantage while he can. Mercedes have not managed to score
one point in the five races since Hamilton announced his intention to quit
his boyhood team and move to Brackley.
Raikkonen won the race after taking over from Hamilton, following the
Englishman’s mishap, but it was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel who held on to
his championship lead after a gutsy display saw him finish third behind
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Vettel’s mental strength after
one of the German’s career-best performances to go from pit-lane to third.
“We know how consistent Fernando has been this year, so it was entirely
predictable that starting from sixth on the grid he was going to be on the
podium,” said Horner.
“I mentally had an image of him taking 15 or 25 points out of us, so for
Sebastian to limit the damage to only three and finish behind him shows what
a great drive it was. He showed he is world class. It was one of the best
drives of his career.
“He really went for it, and to go from the pit-lane to the podium is
phenomenal.”