"A thousand times more enjoyable"- Lewis Hamilton prefers race battles over starting first in an F1 race

Lewis Hamilton admitted after the 2022 F1 Italian GP that the races where he has to come through the field are far more enjoyable than the ones where he is starting from the front. Speaking to the media after the race, Hamilton was questioned if he preferred races where he had to make his way through the field, to which the Mercedes driver admitted that it was far more enjoyable as it took him back to his karting days. Hamilton said:

"[It’s] a thousand times more enjoyable, battling with people. I remember my first go-kart was like an old kart, we always had to start at the back, old tyres, that’s what I’ve always enjoyed doing. So having those battles is way more fun than starting first. It’s a different chapter but I much prefer battles.”

Lewis Hamilton has a record of winning a race in every F1 season he has been a part of. The driver has been doing that since the 2007 season when he first stepped up to drive for McLaren alongside Fernando Alonso.

This season, however, with the car not being up to the mark and Red Bull transforming itself into a race-winning juggernaut, Lewis Hamilton admitted it's going to be tough to keep that record going. He said,

“We have to be realistic. That Red Bull is almost unbeatable. It will take some real doing to beat that car. Performance-wise they are fully ahead of everyone. We haven’t caught them and we don’t have upgrades coming to overtake them, so it will take some fortune going our way. Not impossible because we could potentially have beaten them at Zandvoort, maybe could have beaten them in Budapest. But [Verstappen] has generally chilled at the front, so you never know the true pace. We’ll see.”

A P5 result felt like a stretch before the race: Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton started the race at the back of the grid in P19 but was able to make his way through the field in a calculated manner to finish P5. Looking back at the race, the Briton admitted that he did not think a P5 result was possible before the race. He said,

"This morning, the team said anywhere between sixth and fourth was possible. That always feel like a stretch when you're looking ahead at the race - but I had a lot of fun working my way to P5. The beginning was a struggle, with a heavy fuel load and the tyres overheating in traffic, but then we started to make progress as the race unfolded - and I had some fun after the stops working through the traffic. At the end, we stayed out to keep the position on track and it might have been a tough battle if the race restarted, so I'm glad it finished the way it did!"

Hamilton will now be heading to Singapore, a bumpy track that might not be the best for Mercedes as the car struggles to ride the bumps.

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