Hamilton surprised by team's strategy

The Briton had dominated the opening part of the race, but was one of only three drivers not to pit when the safety car came out following Timo Glock's huge crash on the pits straight on lap 35 out of 67.

McLaren were believed to be concerned about the prospect of such a long final stint on the softer Bridgestones, and also believed that Hamilton's speed advantage was such that he would be able to pull out a sufficient gap before his final stop in any case.

In the event, the safety car stayed out longer than the team were expecting, and Hamilton was left with just nine laps before his stop, after which he managed to re-pass teammate Heikki Kovalainen, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and shock leader Nelson Piquet (Renault) to secure a marvellous victory.

"I didn't plan to do that, I would have much preferred an easy and comfortable afternoon out front, but it didn't work out that way," said Hamilton.

"The team opted for me to stay out and I guess they thought that I could have pulled a gap, but it was a 23 second gap I needed and I had about seven laps...

"I said 'are you sure about this?' But we all have opinions on certain things and make decisions, and for sure we'll learn from this one and move on for the next race.

"But still we had the best and quickest car this weekend, and we came out on top. That's due to a lot of hard work from all the guys. The team is just fantastic, they've all done a phenomenal job."

Hamilton rejoined immediately behind teammate Kovalainen, and expressed his gratitude to the Finn for allowing him to overtake soon afterwards.

"I came out behind Heikki and I have to say a big thank you to Heikki, who has been a great teammate - he didn't put up a huge fight and saw that I was quicker," he said.

The McLaren driver then overtook Massa for second seven laps after his stop, before quickly closing on Piquet and taking the lead from the Renault with eight laps remaining.

"With Felipe, I saw that I was a lot quicker than him at the time, so I just tried to keep up the pace," Hamilton said.

"I knew that I was on the early laps with my tyres so I knew I only had a small window to get past him before they grained and started sliding around, so I had to push and get as close to him as possible.

"But the great thing about this track is that you can follow other people, or so I found. So I was able to get quite close in the last two corners, follow him down towards Turn 2 and just slipstream him, but at the end of the straight he matched my speed, so it was a bit difficult to get past and I had to do it on the brakes. But he gave me plenty of room. I think it was quite a fair battle and it was good fun.

"I thought my work was done and they said 'you still have to get past Nelson'. I thought 'okay, I've just worked my backside off, but that's fine', and again he put up a really good battle but was very fair."