Hamilton: I thought I had blown it

Hamilton dominated the feature race at Nurburgring, but was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane following his mandatory pitstop.

"I just pressed the speed limiter button too soon," he admitted. "You want to get back on as soon as possible. It was a small mistake, but hopefully that's all the mistakes out the way now."

Hamilton clocked 63.5mph in the 60mph zone.

"When I heard I had the penalty, I thought 'bugger!'," the Briton added. "I was saving the rear tyres, but after that I had to push to make up as much time as possible."

Hamilton's charge meant he rejoined in second, behind teammate Alex Premat. Within three laps he caught the Frenchman and passed him for the lead in Turn 3.

"It was harder to catch Alex than I thought, but I got a good exit out of Turn 2, and he left me plenty of room. It was very fair."