Hamilton - "I know that we'll bounce back"

After a difficult weekend for Mercedes of being off the pace of the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari, as well as a DNF for Lewis Hamilton, the world champion is confident that normal service will resume for the Silver Arrows at next week’s Japanese Grand Prix.

“I was feeling super optimistic in the car, I really was,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1, “The guys in front were on the option tyres and I was on the prime, and I was easily keeping up with [them]. So, I was thinking ‘You know what? We’ve got a race on our hands here.’

“I was just waiting for that time when I had to push and see what I could get from the car, but obviously I didn’t get that. I lost power, and I was hoping that they might have a quick fix, but it never came.

“They were telling me to make all these changes but none of them were making any difference. When I got overtaken by the Marussias I knew I was around last place, I knew that winning was definitely out of the question, and then they started to pull away and I knew points would be out of the question.

“I feel content with the job that I did this weekend. I came here, I trained, I drove the best I could, qualified ahead of my team mate, in the race I was quicker than my team mate, which is always a good thing. And I was feeling good in the car, and I think that everyone did an amazing job. It’s not been the most positive for the team the last couple of races. I know that we’ll bounce back.”

Nico Rosberg managed to finish 4th and close up on his team mate by 12 points in the championship.

“Of course there’s the small positive of closing the gap [in the championship],” he said, “but the big one is that it’s been such a disappointing weekend for all of us. To be so far off the pace all of a sudden, to not understand it, is really bad because then how are you going to improve it?

“We can just hope that at the next track it’s going to come towards us again, of which the chances are extremely good because on all other tracks we’ve been so fast. But who knows?”

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