Hamilton hails 'bittersweet' podium in Sepang after comeback drive

Lewis Hamilton says his podium finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was “bittersweet” after completing a comeback drive to P3 having at one stage been a minute behind the leaders.

The race in Sepang was initially delayed due to thunderstorms in the area, and the first race start procedure then got suspended as several drivers, including Hamilton, struggled to maintain speed on the initial formation lap.

When the race eventually got under way in mixed conditions, the Briton – who was second on the grid after a strong performance in Qualifying – dropped 15 places having opted to fit his Ferrari with slick soft tyres instead of intermediates.

With the track not drying up as quickly as hoped, Hamilton dropped to P17 to run a minute behind the leading cars on the first lap – prompting the Scuderia to suggest a switch.

However, the seven-time World Champion made the call from the cockpit to "gamble" and stay on the softs instead – a decision that ultimately saw him roar through the field to cross the line third behind Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli.

Asked how he felt after the race, Hamilton wasn’t sure. “I think it’s bittersweet," he said. "We had an opportunity and ultimately didn’t maximise it.

"I had a tough [time] at the beginning, but after the race got going and I managed to keep it on track — which, I’m telling you, was so, so hard.

“I didn’t think that I’d be able to get back to third place, so I’m very, very grateful for that and very happy with it.”

"Obviously we had the wrong call in the beginning, which was so difficult and I could see everyone just pulling away," he added. "I could see on the screen it was a minute down, and I thought that was kind of race over for us. But I just kept my head down, the guys did a great job with the pit stops – obviously lots of tyre changes and lots of chasing."

Although Hamilton felt like it was a missed opportunity, he is looking more comfortable in his Ferrari than in recent races.

He told media it was one of his better weekends in red: “I think we did a really good job yesterday. The engineers did a great job, the mechanics did a great job with changing and fixing the car, getting the car where it needed to be.

“And then I think the car felt good in the race. We often talk about execution, I think [Saturday] we executed really well, and I think we’ll go back to the drawing board and look and see how we could have done better today, and we’ll try and take this performance onto next week.”