Mexico (AFP)

"I did not expect to win," said Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) after winning the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday, but he did not win the World Championship crown for the sixth time.

"It's a strong feeling," said the Brit who admitted to having had a difficult time with the controversy triggered by his positions on environmental protection and the absence in Mexico of his usual race engineer.

"It's unbelievable, it's the 83rd victory of my career and the 10th of the season, I came here thinking that it would be difficult but I put my head on the handlebars and we arrived at this result" .

Starting 3rd behind the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel and alongside Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Hamilton had to make his way in the first corner.

"I was expecting a bit of friction between Leclerc, Seb and Verstappen and I had to avoid hitting them, I was surrounded by cars at the first corner and I almost took Seb out of the grass but I I managed to stay in control and continue, after the accident with Max, a lot of my chassis was damaged and the behavior of the car was different, I had to drive differently by changing my style. "

"I approach Max differently than other drivers, some are smart, some are different, some are given more space and some are not respectful, but in this case I did not have a lot of space to give him, "said the British champion about his clash with Max Verstappen in the first round.

After being titled in 2017 and 2018 world champion at the end of the GP of Mexico, but without winning the race, Lewis Hamilton emphasizes that he prefers an unfolding like this year where he won the race but not the championship.

"When you win the championship and not the race, you see someone else on the podium while you are celebrating your championship and you are not sure where you are."

"Today, I take every race in a row, it's better than in the past and there are still some races to fight, that's good," said Hamilton, who will only need to score four more points than his teammate at Mercedes Valtteri Bottas to be crowned at the next US Grand Prix in a week.

(Interviewed at a press conference)

© 2019 AFP