An upbeat Lewis Hamilton said he "had a blast" racing at the Japanese Grand Prix despite only about 40 minutes of action and an underwhelming result for his team.
The seven-time world champion finished fifth after being overtaken by Esteban Ocon shortly after the race resumed after a two-hour stoppage for the terrible weather at Suzuka. George Russell also struggled to make an impression and had to settle for eighth.
Carlos Sainz was the one who had crashed out early on, but the other Ferrari driver by Charles Leclerc and the Red Bulls were in a different league to Silver Arrows once again. Even in a much shorter race than usual, Hamilton was more than 40 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen by the end.
The Brit made sure to commend the Dutchman on his achievement as he gave his post-race thoughts. "Once we got racing today, I had a blast out there – it was so tough in the conditions, hard to see and that's exactly how motor racing should be, a real challenge for us all," he said. "I wish we had been able to go longer and do more laps for the fans who waited so patiently, but we ran to time and were beginning to lose the light.
"In terms of my race, I tried everything I could against Esteban but like we saw yesterday, we were just too slow in a straight line. As soon as I pulled out of the tow, he was able to pull away from me, and I just couldn't get past even though we had a big pace advantage. I was trying every line and got so close, but he drove very well and didn't make any mistakes, so that was the maximum we could do today.
"Now we need to pick the bones out of these two races and learn our lessons to maximise the points we can score in the final four races. Finally, congratulations to Max – he's done exactly the job he needed to do to win his second title. We know what our problems are with this car, and I believe we have the team to come back stronger next season."
Meanwhile Russell, clearly unhappy with a second consecutive finish outside the top five, said he was looking forward to the debrief. "We need to review and see what we could have done better today. I think we had a stronger car than the result reflects, and that we could have been P6 today. I think that stacking in the pit lane cost me positions, and that made it a frustrating afternoon, so we need to look at it and see what the other options were," he said.
"I made some good overtakes after that, but it was a case of trying to recover what we had lost. It was a strange afternoon overall – the conditions at the beginning were impossible, not with the grip but in terms of visibility and the amount of spray this generation of cars generates, and we need to learn the right lessons from the incident with the recovery vehicle on track while we were running behind the Safety Car.
"Overall, this has been a difficult double-header for us, and we've not scored the points we should have – so we need to regroup, focus on the final four races, and try to extract everything from the car we have under us. And of course, congratulations to Max on his second championship – the outcome has been clear for a while, but he and Red Bull have done an exceptional job this year."
