Hamilton happy despite no home win

The McLaren driver led from the start of the race but was then unable to match the pace of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso following his first pitstop.

After that, the Briton fell behind and had to settle for a distant third place, nearly 40 seconds behind race winner Raikkonen.

Despite the result, Hamilton is still ahead in the championship standings, 12 points in front of teammate Alonso.

"We had an interesting race," said Hamilton. "I started off quite well and at the beginning I was trying to open a gap to Kimi but he was extremely quick. At the end of the stint the tyres were falling away and I was struggling to keep the  pace and he came to challenge me.
 
"In the pitstop I made a mistake, I didn't hesitate but I thought the lollipop was lifted and I went. I don't know how much time I lost but a little. My mistake.

"We just lacked the pace so I don't know what happened in the last two stints.

"We came away with the points, the ninth podium, so I am happy with that and happy for the team to get all the points."

Hamilton was thankful to the British fans that crowded the stands, and vowed to go for victory again next year.

"I must say thank you to all the fans, they have been tremendous this weekend," he said. "Without their support it would have been a much harder race. Hopefully next year here we will give it another shot."