Hamilton: That was the drive of my life

The Briton had never before won from so far back on the grid, claiming victory number 44 in car #44 at Hockenheim after a storming drive through the field. Fortune favoured him on the day as he benefitted from Sebastian Vettel's momentary brain fade which cost the Ferrari driver a sure victory.

Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas, who late on in the race had a faster car and was poised to launch an attack for the lead, was told to hold fire from the Mercedes pitwall and thus the world champion led home the Finn to claim a one-two in Germany.

The reigning world champion, speaking in a team video as he departed Hockenheim, reflected on his afternoon, "That was the drive of my life. The most trying day and the greatest day. The most emotional day, probably. I'm exhausted and I put everything I had into the race. I always do, but I managed to have more and bigger today."

It was a victory, not even he dared predict a day earlier, it was going to be a race of damage limitation where a podium would have been a bonus for the world champion.

Instead, it turned to a famous triumph on Mercedes home soil and in front of the company's top brass in attendance. Unthinkable 24-hours earlier when he was pictured vainly pushed his car after it stopped on track during Q2.

Hamilton continued, "I just can't believe... well I can believe it, but things happened that I way I prayed about and the way I focused. You throw the ball up and serve it doesn't always go as an ace but today every single lap was as I planned."

"[Saturday] was a difficult day and when I sat by the car, I wasn't in tears or anything like that, obviously I was heartbroken, but when I stood up I was like: there's nothing you can do about what's just happened, all you can do is turn your positive energy to tomorrow and try to make something out of it."

"Ultimately every time there's a day like this or day like the last one it's always a chance to show what you can do. Driving from the back is so much more fun than driving from the front, but you never know how far you can go. Sometimes you get the shorter straw, sometimes you are able to go the distance, and today I feel like I drove the best I can remember driving. I didn't make any mistakes."

"I've obviously had a lot of races and there have been other great ones. Silverstone 2008 was pretty great, but I went off - so it was 99.8. This one I didn't make any mistakes at all so I'm just really proud."

When asked about Vettel's mishap, Hamilton replied, "It would be really hard for me to answer that. I haven't heard his radio calls and stuff, so the only way that could be possible is if they've said 'Lewis is this far behind'. So I couldn't tell you."

"Ultimately the pressure was huge on all of us, particularly in the tricky conditions," who took the lead of the world championship by 17 points over Vettel who led the standings before his home race.

Round 12, the Hungarian Grand Prix, takes place this weekend in Budapest which, the last race before the summer break.