Enlarge imageBy Brian Homewood
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton refused to be downhearted after dramatically missing out on the Formula One title in his first season and promised to bounce back next year.
"It’s been a crazy year and I honestly can’t say I’m really, really gutted," he told reporters. "I’m not."
Hamilton went into the race as championship leader with a four-point lead over estranged McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso.
But he could manage only seventh in the Interlagos sunshine as Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen won the race and the title, leaving Hamilton to finish as runner-up with Alonso in third place.
"I finished second in the world championship, I beat my team mate, under extremely difficult circumstances. I beat the two-time world champion, that was the goal," said Hamilton.
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"I have every confidence we can go into next year with a good car and we can do a good job or an even better job.
"We’ll be even better prepared and the team are going to keep pushing, I’m going to keep pushing. We’ve got the experience now, we can start afresh."
Hamilton started on the front row but had dropped to eighth at the end of the first lap after running wide as Alonso forced his way through.
Hamilton then slowed dramatically eight laps later and plunged to 18th place, leaving him fighting a desperate rearguard battle to claw his way back into the points.
"I went into the race and I said to myself that, whatever happens, it’s been a hell of a year, and who would have thought that I would be leading the world championship going into the last race," Hamilton said.
"The team have done a phenomenal job all year. It’s been amazing, it’s been a huge rollercoaster ride.
"For sure, we all wanted to win, we wanted to win the World Cup, we wanted to win the world championship, it’s obviously not England’s turn this year," he said, referring to England’s defeat by South Africa in Saturday’s rugby World Cup final.
COASTED
He added: "It wasn’t a great start to the race. I locked up behind Fernando, basically to avoid hitting him, and went a bit wide, came back on, was quite relaxed.
"I had the pace to gain back my position and I was down shifting into turn four and it just went into neutral.
"I coasted for quite some time and eventually, I don’t know how, it just clicked back in again.
"I never stopped pushing and I kept going until the end. I was told at the beginning we could still get it and I truly believed that."
Hamilton had also blown a chance to wrap up the title in China two weeks ago when he skidded off the race and into a gravel trap.
"I just thought for sure that someone doesn’t want to me to win this championship, because I’ve had some tyre problems, my mistake in the last race, but going into this race, something happened again," he said.
"Kimi did a fantastic result all season, he drove very, very well today so he deserves to have it.
"I think everyone had their fair share of bad luck, it’s just unfortunate that mine all came at the last few races. It’s been a hard few weeks we’ve had."
