Lewis Hamilton on overcoming his 'horrible' Brazilian Grand Prix error - Daily Star

Lewis Hamilton: How I overcame nightmare Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying

LEWIS HAMILTON exceeded his own expectations by just missing out on a podium finish in the Brazilian GP after his nightmare crash in qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton GETTY

All did not go to plan for Lewis Hamilton in Brazil

The newly-crowned World Champion believes he surrendered a likely victory at Interlagos when an error at the start of qualifying resulted in him hitting the barriers and starting from the pit lane.

But Hamilton proceeded to carve up the field, briefly lead the race, and eventually finish within one second of third place.

"Many years ago [2009] I came from the back and came up and I was thinking that might be a chance of that," Hamilton said to Sky Sports.


"Vettel was only three seconds behind me [before Hamilton pitted] so he had a whole pit stop window pretty much. It was a steep hill and whilst it was nice to be in the lead for a second.


“It felt just as c*** as it felt when I was eight years old and did the same thing”

Lewis Hamilton



Despite arriving in Brazil as 2017's world champion, Hamilton said crashing out in qualifying felt just as bad as it did when he made mistakes at the start of his karting career over 20 years ago.

"[Qualifying] was horrible," he admitted.

"It felt just as c*** as it felt when I was eight years old and did the same thing. It doesn't get any easier to handle those experiences.

"But it created an opportunity to shine and hopefully that's what I did and continue to show I've got that fight in me and that drive and the skill to manoeuvre my car.

"It was cool to be able to brush up on some of my tools. That's actually my biggest strength anyway, the race.

"To be good at the other ones is a bonus but the race is how I won championships when I was younger."