• Hungarian Grand Prix

Hamilton defiant despite retirement

Lewis Hamilton's car broke down with a gearbox problem © Getty Images

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• News:
• Button looks for positives
  
• Report:
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• Race:
• Hungarian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• McLaren

Lewis Hamilton is focused on helping McLaren bounce back after his retirement from the Hungarian Grand Prix knocked him off the top of the drivers' championship.

Hamilton pulled off the circuit on lap 24 with a gearbox problem, having worked his way up to fourth ahead of Felipe Massa's Ferrari. The retirement was Hamilton's second of the year and drops him four points off Mark Webber in the standings with seven races remaining.

"It's a pity to have a fault at this stage in the year, but that's racing - when you push the car to the limit, these things can happen," he said. "We'll learn from this, though, and we'll just have to work even harder to make sure we don't have any further problems this year, and that we can catch back up to the front-runners - which I'm certain we'll be able to do."

Hamilton said he knew there was a problem with the car from the start, after experiencing vibrations on the way to the grid.

"I was accelerating out of turn one when I felt a sudden vibration and then a loss of drive," he said of the moment the car failed. "I initially thought it was a driveshaft failure, but it now appears that it was a gearbox problem. Actually, I may have had an issue with the gearbox from the very beginning of the race, when I initially feared I had a brake-related vibration.

" Whatever, it's a bit of a shame because, as always, the guys had worked very, very hard all weekend, and I think we'd done more than enough in the race to get up to the front and score some decent points."

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh felt a podium was possible without the problem.

"As the race unfolded, it became clear that, had he not suffered a gearbox failure, Lewis would probably have finished third. So that's very frustrating."

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