Hamilton ‘happy’ to battle through German GP ‘negativity’
Lewis Hamilton says he was hit with a ‘weird’ emotion of relishing the chance to fight through ‘a lot of negativity before the race’ during his dramatic charge to victory at the German Grand Prix.
Following his nightmare in qualifying at Hockenheim when a hydraulics issue forced him out early to see him start down in 14th place, the Mercedes driver took to his Instagram account to hit back at critics and explained the issue was ‘nobody’s fault’.
Lewis Hamilton says he was hit with a ‘weird’ emotion of relishing the chance to fight through ‘a lot of negativity before the race’ during his dramatic charge to victory at the German Grand Prix.
Following his nightmare in qualifying at Hockenheim when a hydraulics issue forced him out early to see him start down in 14th place, the Mercedes driver took to his Instagram account to hit back at critics and explained the issue was ‘nobody’s fault’.
The reigning Formula 1 world champion went on to produce a stunning charge through the pack and despite a rain-hit hairy final few laps, plus a pit call mix-up, he claimed victory to retake the points lead from Sebastian Vettel who crashed out of the race while leading.
Hamilton expressed his emotions on an extremely mentally-straining race weekend from the low of qualifying to the high of the race win and felt he used the negative comments and pre-race boos from sections of the German GP crowd as motivation for his fightback.
“There was a lot of negativity before the race. When I came here, there was a lot of booing,” Hamilton said. “The weird thing is that I was really happy about it. It was unusual. It’s weird that I’m still happy.
“It was because I kept seeing individually, a couple of different British flags in amongst a hundred or a thousand… a sea of red and then you’ve got a British flag in there.
“Then you have people from Mexico, people from England, you have people I think from Nigeria or somewhere in Africa with Hamilton shirts on – the name Hamilton on, standing in amongst the red. And it was just so positive for me.
“That’s why I said at the end, that love conquers all. And I really feel that the rain’s come down and just washed away any negativity.”
Hamilton now leads the F1 world drivers’ championship by 17 points from Vettel, while Mercedes retook top spot in the world constructors’ standings by eight points ahead of Ferrari with Valtteri Bottas helping secure a 1-2 for the German manufacturer.
