Hamilton admits he choked again

Lewis Hamilton pulls one of his unfair dive-bomb moves on Kimi Raikkonen at the start that forced Raikkonen wide and the Race Stewards penalized Hamilton for it with a drive-through penalty

Ferrari

As he did last year when he threw the F1 title away by choking at the end, Lewis Hamilton has admitted he had a day to forget after finishing in 12th place in the Japanese grand prix despite starting from pole position.

The McLaren driver made a number of errors and got caught up in tussles with both Ferraris on a day when he was trying to protect his championship lead by driving over aggressively after having been warned by the Race Stewards in the drivers meeting about exactly that. All the other drivers complained about Hamilton's driving tactics.

He saw that lead cut by a further two points by the end of the race after Ferrari's Felipe Massa finished in seventh place.

But Hamilton says he has already moved on from the disappointing result and is focused on trying to win the Chinese grand prix next week.

He said: "Obviously, I'm not happy after a result like today's – but I'm already getting over it and tomorrow will be another day.

"There are positives to take from today; I've only lost two points to Felipe in the drivers' championship, so it's definitely not over. Now I'll forget today ever happened and move forward; we've got two more races to go and my target is still to win both of them."