Hamilton admits Japanese grand prix was a day to forget
Sunday, 12 Oct 2008 11:06
Hamilton saw his lead in the drivers' championship cut to five points
Lewis Hamilton has admitted he had a day to forget after finishing in 12th place in the Japanese grand prix despite starting from pole position.
The McLaren driver made a number of errors and got caught up in tussles with both Ferraris on a day when he was only trying to protect his championship lead.
He saw that lead cut by a further two points by the end of the race after Ferrari's Felipe Massa finished in seventh place.
But Hamilton says he has already moved on from the disappointing result and is focused on trying to win the Chinese grand prix next week.
He said: "Obviously, I'm not happy after a result like today's - but I'm already getting over it and tomorrow will be another day.
"There are positives to take from today; I've only lost two points to Felipe in the drivers' championship, so it's definitely not over. Now I'll forget today ever happened and move forward; we've got two more races to go and my target is still to win both of them."
The race in Fuji was won by Renaults Fernando Alonso, who claimed back-to-back victories for the first time in over a year having won in Singapore two weeks ago.
Alonso started in fourth place but was able to capitalise on mistakes by Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen to move into second after the first lap.
A clever pit stop strategy then helped him beat BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica for the race win.
The Spaniard was delighted with the recent progress of his team and felt the win in Japan was even better than the one in Singapore.
He said: "It's still difficult to believe what we have done today! Winning in Singapore was unexpected, but we benefited from special conditions. Today we won again on a circuit that was not supposed to suit us."