'Hamilton's strength and determination made for his best ever race'

Despite it being a difficult weekend for Lewis Hamilton due to the talks with the stewards, the grid penalty and the disqualification, the Brit still managed to win the Brazilian Grand Prix. In the Formula 1 Nation Podcast Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director, says he is very happy with the result.

Hamilton started the weekend in a tricky position. It looked like Red Bull Racing were dominant in the first free practice session and the seven-time world champion was unhappy with his car and the set-up. By the end of the session and in qualifying, there was no sign of that, as the Brit easily took pole position. The disqualification for the DRS violation meant he had to start the sprint race from the back, but he managed to fight back and finish that race fifth and Shovlin is terribly impressed with that. “To see his strength and determination right now is really impressive. I’d say that at this moment I haven’t thought of a better [race].”

Mercedes is hopeful

During the first runs on Friday, Mercedes had already seen that they had a strong car. This was therefore a good time to do the engine change, as they knew they could minimise the damage. The Briton's great performance in the sprint race meant that the team did dare to hope for a win.

"Probably the thing that set our hopes on having a minimum a podium, a win possible, was just the performance in the sprint race. In that, we saw that Lewis could attack practically anyone out there. We saw that we had a good pace advantage, but importantly we saw that we could sit behind a car, we could do a good turn twelve, we had good traction and those are the ingredients you need to be able to overtake here."

Cooler conditions prevailed during the sprint race, while warmer conditions prevailed in the race. Shovlin is pleased to see that the car performed well in all conditions and that also gives the British racing team high hopes for the upcoming races. "It’s an aggressive circuit and the car was still working really well. To perform over the various sessions in such a range of conditions has been really encouraging when you look at the challenges that we’re going to get over the next three tracks.”