Damon Hill comment leaves Lewis Hamilton purring

Lewis Hamilton with his winner's trophy in Brazil — Photo: © LAT Images

São Paulo Grand Prix

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Hill comment leaves Hamilton purring

Mercedes driver felt it was one of his best drives

Ian Parkes

Monday 15 November 2021 10:30

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Lewis Hamilton has expressed his gratitude towards Damon Hill following a tweet in which he eulogised over the Mercedes driver's São Paulo Grand Prix victory.

Hamilton delivered a tour de force performance across the Interlagos weekend as he overcame disqualification in qualifying and an engine grid penalty to claim the 101st win of his F1 career.

After rising 15 places in 24 laps in Saturday's sprint race, Hamilton followed up in the main event by clinching the win from 10th, the highest grid slot at Interlagos from which a driver has triumphed.

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It prompted an in-awe Hill to proclaim: "That was one of the best drives I've ever seen in F1. By anyone. Utterly awesome."

Asked for a response to Hill's remark, Hamilton said: "Well, it never gets old hearing positive comments from such a great driver in Damon.

"I remember being such a big fan of his when I was younger, when he was racing and obviously we’re now men, we don’t kind of get too much…

"But I’ve always admired Damon and I think he’s always been super supportive, so I really do appreciate that.

"I really do feel, from my own personal experience, it’s been one of the most challenging, if not the most challenging weekends with the things that we’ve faced.

"In terms of driving, I feel like it’s maybe been my best. It’s difficult to say because I’ve had so many races.

"I’m getting on now, catching Damon up, but no, I’m grateful for that. Thank you Damon."

Hamilton has now closed the gap on Verstappen to 14 points with three races in the Middle East to come to conclude the season in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

Assessing the championship picture, Hamilton said: "This year has been so difficult, I think for all of us.

"We came in after the August break hoping we would be in a better position and we weren’t. We’ve not really had a spectacular showing. I would say we’ve had two races that we’ve been ahead but the others we’ve really struggled.

"Coming here [to Brazil] 19 points behind and only one point ahead in the team championship, we really needed a solid result.

"Then, obviously, we had all these penalties, which just made it… mentally you could just think it’s over, it’s impossible but then nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it.

"So that’s really just why we cultivated a positive mental attitude and went in fighting, guns blazing."