• Indian Grand Prix

Car must improve for final McLaren win - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, 12.3s ahead of team-mate Jenson Button © Sutton Images

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Lewis Hamilton thinks he was in the best form of his season at the Indian Grand Prix and is confident he can win one more race with McLaren if the car is improved over the final three races.

Hamilton finished 0.6s off a podium in India after a bad start from third saw him fight back from fifth. He closed in on Mark Webber's Red Bull towards the end of the race, but said the car needs to be quicker if he is to win another race for McLaren before leaving for Mercedes at the end of the year.

"At the end of the race it felt fantastic," he said. "But I was not able to close down to Webber as fast as I would have liked and I guess he had a problem so we definitely need to improve pour car. The fundamentals of the car are fantastic so we just need to somehow bolt on more downforce to be able to close up with those guys."

Asked if he could win at one of the final races, he added: "I don't really know what's coming in terms of development over the next three races, but I still have faith in the team. It will be incredibly tough, but if I'm driving like I did here today, which I think was the best I've driven all year, and we have the pace at one of the races then I believe we can [win]."

Hamilton dropped from third to fifth in the opening lap and blamed another slow start for dropping him out of contention.

"I keep asking the guys every time before the race what we can do to fix it," he said. "I really need the start to be better and I ask what we can change to see if there is anything I can do. But they say that I'm doing everything perfect so I want to know how I can get off the line quicker and it's just something we need to work on."

Hamilton had a problem with his radio early in the race and changed the steering wheel at his pit stop to solve the issue.

"We had a steering wheel failure, which I've never had before in the race," he said. "It was so quick. I took it off before the stop, then the new one came on and I put it into first gear and boom we were gone. It was a quick stop and felt awesome."

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