Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) only in P9: “Lucky not to end up in the wall”

The Tifosi could hardly believe their eyes: Ferrari superstar Lewis Hamilton, who had started from the back of the grid following the fitting of new engine components, came back from the first lap in an incredible ninth place!

But after that, things somehow didn’t really go his way. On the contrary, Hamilton had to give up a place to Haas driver Oliver Bearman to avoid a penalty (Hamilton had overtaken on the right-hand side of the track), and there were – yet again – discussions over the radio about the correct approach to tyre strategy.

Hamilton pushed hard early on to switch from intermediates to soft dry tyres (which was the right call), but he wasn’t really able to capitalise on it.

“My start was phenomenal,” Hamilton confirmed after the race in Brazil. “Unfortunately, this was a day when we had enormous problems with the tyres.”

“At first, it was quite tricky to get the tyres into the correct temperature range, and then the rear tyres degraded much sooner than expected, whereupon the car started to oversteer wildly.”

“But these tyre difficulties in the Grand Prix weren’t new to us. We’d already had our fair share of trouble with the tyres in practice.”

“So I was experiencing this oversteer on the intermediates, which is why I pushed hard over the radio to switch to slicks as early as possible. The track looked as though it would be manageable on slicks.”

“I was convinced that we could make up ground that way. In the end, I got the tyres a lap later than I’d hoped, but I don’t think that made a huge difference.”

“The timing wasn’t right later on either. I was battling with Lawson and was just about to overtake him when the order came to pit. But I was in the middle of an attack, so I stayed out, and straight away the first corner was dangerously slippery due to more rain – and I nearly spun out! I’m lucky not to have ended up in the barrier.”

“All in all, we simply weren’t quick enough this weekend. Now we have to make sure we secure second place in the Constructors’ Championship.”