Hamilton vows to ‘get back up’ and give Mercedes farewell ‘best shot’ after extremely difficult Qatar race

Lewis Hamilton says he will “get back up and give it another shot next week” in the aftermath of a troublesome weekend for the Mercedes driver in Qatar.

Hamilton endured a raft of setbacks through the course of the evening at the Lusail International Circuit and wound up finishing outside the top 10 at the end of an eventful race for most of the field.

The seven-time world champion was handed a time penalty for a false start, before he suffered a front-left puncture – seemingly after running over some debris on the main straight. To complete his evening, he was later issued a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

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He was swift to apologise over the radio for the false start, which ended up costing him three places when he eventually made it away from his pit box, but later had some discussions over the radio with his race engineer as he asked to retire the car - only to be told to stay out.

He also complained of poor grip from the W15 along with steering issues in the opening stages of the race.

“With the under balancing, you didn't get the wing set properly. It's happened many times. Just basically not having enough front wing in the car. And the car just wouldn't turn,” he explained afterwards.

“So, it was understeering massively for a long period of time. And I think that's honestly for me felt like that's what led to the tyre failure, but maybe it was, I didn't see any debris. It happened just at the pit lane entry...”

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Hamilton went on to finish in 12th position – his first time seeing the chequered flag outside of the points this season – but vowed to reset ahead of his final Grand Prix with Mercedes at the Yas Marina Circuit next weekend.

“I’m still standing, it’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up, so I’ll get back up tomorrow and give it another shot next week,” he said.

“I think what's important is that we turn up and give it our best shot.”