‘It’s how you get back up’: Hamilton happy to finish second after Imola error
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Lewis Hamilton has said he believes that reacting well to setbacks can define a Formula One driver. The world champion insisted he refused to even countenance giving up after a mistake that may have ended his race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Instead the British driver acknowledged his error, fought on and drove a stunning comeback from ninth to finish second.
Related: Max Verstappen wins Emilia Romagna F1 Grand Prix after Hamilton blunder
Hamilton went off the track midway through the race at Imola, clipping the barriers at the Tosa hairpin. He struggled to get the car moving again but eventually did so and charged himself with making the best of his situation during a brief lull when the race had been stopped. After the restart, he moved up to second four laps from the end, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen taking the win.
“I remember sitting there looking at the barrier and I refused to think that the race was over, I refused to believe that the race was done,” he said. “I could have just tuned the power off and got out but I am grateful I didn’t. [I was] trying to switch the anger and turn it into positive energy so I could go out and race forwards, there are so many lessons to be learned.
“When you experience whatever form of adversity in terms of challenges and mishaps, barriers or hurdles you find its always more satisfying when you overcome them. It’s not mistakes that define us, it’s not how you fall but how you get back up.”
Hamilton and Verstappen have now shared one win and one second place each but the world champion leads the title race by one point by virtue of clocking the fastest lap in Imola. He admitted that had he gone out of the race because of his error, it would have been potentially severely damaging to his hopes of winning an eighth title.
“Without doubt getting back to second, getting these points will be very valuable through the season,” he said. “If I had lost 25 points it would have been very hard to recover. Based on the fact that Red Bull for the first time for some time they have an incredibly fast car, a championship-winning car, faster than us this weekend. We have a real close battle which we love, that it is a close battle.”
