Downhearted Hamilton vows never to give up

Never all that good at hiding his emotions, Lewis Hamilton was clearly deeply unhappy with the way that Sunday's British Grand Prix turned out.

Hamilton started the race on pole position but got a poor start and was then tipped into a spin by Kimi Raikkonen going through turn 3 which dropped him to dead last.

Amazingly he managed to recover to second place behind Sebastian Vettel, but not being able to win before his home crowd was clearly a huge disappointment.

"It was okay. It was alright," he shrugged. "But it's definitely a tough day, to leave having lost points having been on pole.

"It is the way it is and we live to fight another day. I'm grateful to have got back to second and minimised the loss.

“This is the greatest race of the year and this is the greatest crowd, and I am sorry that I wasn't able to bring it home for you today," he said. "But thank you so much for all your support.

"It's you guys that help me get me through today. We take it on the chin, keep pushing hard. Just believe me, I will not give up - I won't give up."

He avoided the immediate post-race interview with Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle. He later made a comment about Ferrari's "interesting tactics" in recent races, suggesting that he didn't think the first lap contact had been entirely accidental.

But after calming down, he was more conciliatory about how the day had gone.

"Already from the start, being a poor start, and then end up seeing every single car coming past you is definitely a big hit," he said. "You've just got to keep your head down.

• Vettel on top at Silverstone as Hamilton charges back to second place

"I knew I had a big crowd who were there, I could see them in the corner of my eye cheering me every single corner, every single lap so I just used that to spur me on and inspire me to drive to where I did.

"To be able to get back to second is huge for us and I'll definitely take it of course. I'm happy with the drive I did and what the team was able to do.

"I'm very very grateful that the car was still in one piece after the first turn 3 incident. Whilst I appeared at the beginning to have lost something at the rear end, when I looked at the car afterwards it seems to be okay.

"The rear of the car was moving around a lot, particularly through the left-handers, and I'd obviously been hit on the right. So I was nervous that I'd lost part of my floor since the car was moving for unknown reasons.

"But then it started to get better and better and better throughout the run.

After some tweaks to the settings I was able to get the car more under control and the pace started to pick up. I'm grateful that the car was generally in one piece and good to fight through."

Hamilton opted to stay out when his rivals pitted under a late safety car, and he insisted that this had been the right call.

"When the guys in front of me pitted under the safety car, it was an opportunity for me to get up into third," he said. "It was absolutely the right decision.

"If I had followed them into the pits I would have come out behind them on equal tyres and I would have struggled to get by them and most certainly would not have been second."

While second place might not have been the result Hamilton was after this week, it was definitely a better not o which to finish the triple header run of races that last week's strategic mishap and double DNF in Austria.

And next up is Mercedes' home race in Germany, where Hamilton will be seeking to close the eight point gap to Vettel in the drivers championship.

"Obviously we're in a tough battle this year," he said. "It's the most intense battle I think we've probably all had."

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