Hamilton: You can't just give up, you have to keep pushing

It was a masterclass in which he turned 20th into fifth place after 24 enthralling laps, after cheekily delaying the grid, Hamilton was past four backmarkers by the time they exited Turn 1, and thereafter he set about picking them off making around a place every lap.

His ambush of Lando Norris into Turn 1 was of the highest order, as he flung caution to the wind for the cause of damage limitation. Finishing fifth in the Sprint means he will start tenth for the Grand Prix, dropping five grid places due to a engine penalty, and on today's evidence a podium is very realistic.

On the cool-down lap, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told Hamilton over the radio: “Lewis, brilliant job, damage limitation. Fuck them all.”

Hamilton replied: “Copy. It’s not over yet.”

Afterwards, he added in the Mercedes team report: “Honestly, I had no idea what was possible today. I didn't set a limit or a maximum.

"When I was at the back of the grid at the start before we pulled away for the formation lap, I think I might have been able to see like, 10 and I was like 'okay, that's my goal, I've got to try and get up as far as possible' but then all of a sudden I was chipping away at it much faster and I really used a lot of different things for motivation today.

"I just never give up, you can't ever give up you have to keep pushing. It has been tough today: while the team was working away, talking with the stewards, I was just trying focus on my work with my engineers and keeping the morale with my mechanics high and just focusing on the job at hand. Not thinking about it.

Regarding his disqualification, announced only a couple of hours before the Sprint race, Hamilton said:

“It was definitely tough and whilst the team were working away with the stewards I was focusing on my work with the engineers and keeping the morale of my mechanics high and focusing on the job at hand and not thinking about it.

"Of course, it was devastating when I heard about the verdict but you can't let that hold you back. You've got to keep your head down and keep going. I quickly reset, got my mind focussed on doing what I could do and just giving it my everything," revealed Hamilton.