Lewis Hamilton has vowed to enter the winter break in a positive frame of mind, despite retiring from the season finale in Brazil on Sunday afternoon with a gearbox problem. The McLaren driver was challenging Felipe Massa for fifth place when he was forced to pull off the circuit, leaving the Briton to return to his garage prematurely.
"At the start I wanted to avoid any aggro, and that meant I lost a position to Fernando (Alonso)," Hamilton said when he stepped out of his car. "After that I had reasonably decent pace, and I was able to stay close to Fernando and Jenson (Button) until I encountered a gearbox problem.
"It occurred quite early on - I was having problems with first and second - and it meant I started losing quite a lot of time and Fernando and Jenson were able to pull away. The problem meant I stopped being able to make good, clean gearshifts. Then I lost seventh, and then the whole thing just let go.
"Of course, it’s not the way I’d like to have ended the season, but it wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed my race while it lasted. I was challenging Felipe and I was hoping I’d get him, but then the gearbox failure stopped me.
"It’s been a long year, and I want to say a huge thank-you to the team. They’ve never given up, and they’ve worked incredibly hard all season. We didn’t get the ultimate result we wanted, but we had some great times along the way."
Further post-race feelings from McLaren:
Button: Third was the best I could achieve
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:32:17.464 |
| 2. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | +16.983 |
| 3. | J. Button | McLaren | +27.638 |
| 4. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +35.048 |
| 5. | F. Massa | Ferrari | +1:06.733 |
| 6. | A. Sutil | Force India | +1 Lap |
| 7. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | +1 Lap |
| 8. | P. di Resta | Force India | +1 Lap |
| 9. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | +1 Lap |
| 10. | V. Petrov | Lotus Renault | +1 Lap |
| Full results | |||
| Lewis Hamilton | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Lewis Hamilton photos | |||
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