Hamilton 'had a blast' racing Ocon in Suzuka 'sprint'

Lewis Hamilton relished Sunday's shortened and wet Japanese Grand Prix despite the challenging conditions, the Mercedes driver insisting he "had a blast" battling Alpine's Esteban Ocon in the race.

Ocon and Hamilton were in close proximity of each other for the entire duration of the race, the pair running nose to tail in the closing stages, but with the Mercedes driver unable to mount an attack for a lack of straightline speed while the Frenchman also superbly defended his position.

"It was a sprint race. I'm happy that we got at least got some points today, we were just so slow in a straight line," commented Hamilton at the end of the race.

While the wet conditions allowed for a standing start, several offs and incidents on the opening lap triggered the safety car and eventually a red flag.

After a lengthy wait, the action resumed with a rolling start and a 22-lap timed sprint. But conditions remained highly tricky.

"Once we got racing today, I had a blast out there – it was so tough in the conditions, hard to see and that’s exactly how motor racing should be; a real challenge for us all," added Hamilton.

"I wish we had been able to go longer and do more laps for the fans who waited so patiently, but we ran to time and were beginning to lose the light."

• Read also: Verstappen says he found title confusion 'quite funny'

Hamilton pulled out the stops to try and overhaul Ocon, but Mercedes' straight-line speed deficit kept him in the Alpine's wake.

"In terms of my race, I tried everything I could against Esteban but like we saw [in qualifying], we were just too slow in a straight line.

"As soon as I pulled out of the tow, he was able to pull away from me, and I just couldn’t get past even though we had a big pace advantage.

"I was trying every line and got so close, but he drove very well and didn’t make any mistakes, so that was the maximum we could do.

"Now we need to pick the bones out of these two races and learn our lessons to maximise the points we can score in the final four races."

Finally, Hamilton had a few words for newly-crowned F1 world champion Max Verstappen who dominated Sunday's proceedings, securing his 32nd career win and second world title.

"Red Bull did an amazing job this year with their car," said Hamilton. "So big congrats to the whole team and to Max.

"For us? We know what the problems are with this car.

"I believe that we, as a team, have not gone from world champions to not being able to build a good car.

"I have no doubts we will have a better car next year.

"Whether we rectify every issue that we faced this year? We’ll find out when we get there."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter