Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton upbeat despite 'a pretty horrifying race'

Lewis Hamilton described his Chinese Grand Prix as "a pretty horrifying race" but is not too disheartened by Nico Rosberg's championship lead.

Rosberg took his third victory in a row to continue his 100% start to the season, leaving him 36 points clear of Hamilton in the drivers' championship. Hamilton himself recovered from starting last on the grid and suffering a broken front wing on lap one to finish seventh and believed the gap to be bigger than it actually is.

Asked if his race had been a roller-coaster, Hamilton replied: “Yeah definitely, definitely, it obviously was.

"A pretty horrifying race really but there some good experiences, with the overtaking. At one point I went around somebody around the outside of Turn 7 and around the outside of someone at Turn 8 so I love doing that stuff you know -- catching people where they are not expecting it and even with the damage on the car, so there are some proud moments out there today, but is it 50 something points now?"

When it was put to Hamilton he is 36 points adrift, he replied: “36 behind? Oh ok. That’s not as bad as I thought, I feel pretty good right now. I thought it was 50 points so I was like… wow.”

However, Hamilton says he feels his current situation is as mentally challenging as when he fell more than a race win adrift of Rosberg late in the 2014 season.

“It doesn’t feel any nicer than it did back then, if anything it probably feels worse. Perhaps now because it has just gone one negative after another but of course there is a long, long way to go.

"Lots can happen, it’s just I have no more jokers available really. My start was good today, I was dead last and had a good start finally! Trust it to happen when I’m dead last so that’s something positive to take into the next race and hopefully utilise and use to my advantage from now on.”

REPORT: Rosberg cruises home ahead of chaos in China

Relive the Chinese Grand Prix lap-by-lap as it happened!

Eric Silbermann has breakfast with photographer Crispin Thruston

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.