Hamilton 'enjoyed' run to P6 after Mercedes car 'came alive'

Lewis Hamilton battled his way from thirteenth on the grid up to sixth at the checkered flag in the Miami Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver enjoying a few good mid-field battles along the way.

Hamilton cast a disappointed figure after Saturday's qualifying, having failed to reach the session's top-ten shootout after his team had mistimed his final run in Q2.

But twenty-four hours later, the seven-time world champion felt happy after a job well done in a race that had seen him bide his time behind a string of cars stuck in a DRS train before he progressed up the ranks overtaking Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and both Alpine drivers.

"It’s been a good day, much better than yesterday," the Briton said after the race.

"Yesterday was a difficult day in qualifying, to be qualified 13th is not great obviously. It made the whole race much, much harder for us.

"The first 20 laps were a little bit difficult because we were in a DRS train, but after that I was able to then start chipping away.

"So, the car came alive a bit midway through the race and I really enjoyed battling with all the different cars.

"It was great at the end to be able to catch the Alpine and overtake a Ferrari, for example. I'm pretty happy with that, unfortunately we started so far behind."

• Read also: Team Talk - Sunday in Miami

Hamilton said that his bit-by-bit progress in Miami spurred him on during the race.

"The sprint race in the last [round] for example, I was going backwards and it’s just demoralising when you’re going backwards because it’s really tough," he explained.

"So it was great to have pace, be seeing the cars up ahead, seeing the progress and knowing that we were going to be battling with people, and had a couple of great overtakes as well – that’s what I live for."

The Mercedes charger was particular satisfied to have outpaced Leclerc in Sunday's proceedings in light of Ferrari's superior single-lap pace in qualifying.

"It felt great to see the Ferrari up ahead and be just catching it bit by bit," he added. "It’s really impressive that they’re so quick on a single lap, but I don’t know what was going on within their race.

"But to come from 13th and then get back into the hustle with them was great.

"I think if I qualified where I should have probably qualified, I would have had a much easier, smoother day.

"But I prefer days like this where there’s a bit of adversity and you have to pull it all together and deliver, so great fun to do that."

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