• Malaysian Grand Prix

Hamilton 'very happy' with sixth

Lewis Hamilton made a flying start © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Malaysian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren

Lewis Hamilton confessed himself happy with sixth place at the Malaysian Grand Prix after the McLaren driver fought his way up from 20th on the grid.

Hamilton made his customary flying start, passing several cars on the opening lap before pushing Adrian Sutil hard until the end of the race.

"I had a great start, went down the inside and got past a lot of cars on the first lap. I was able to keep going for much of the race on my first set of tyres, and even nearly got past Sebastian [Vettel] after his pitstop," said Hamilton. "After my pitstop, I tried my best to get past Adrian [Sutil], but he was very smart at getting clean exits and was simply too fast down the straights. He drove a fantastic race, actually; faultless, in fact."

Had McLaren not mistimed its qualifying run, leading to the low grid placements of both cars, Hamilton thinks he could even have been fighting for the race win.

"From 20th on the grid, I think sixth was a brilliant result. I reckon we showed today that we were fast enough to compete with the guys at the very front - and, that being the case, if we'd started farther up we could've had an even better result this afternoon.

"Overall, then, I'm well happy with my race - I couldn't ask for any more to be honest. The team really deserved this, and we're now closer to the top in the constructors' championship than we were before the race. So we'll take forward a lot of positives with us into the next race."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.