'LEWIS HAMILTON WAS THE RACE TODAY.' "I absolutely loved watching him. It was vintage Hamilton, working his way through those lowly positions, but it all started here, didn't it? On this first lap, on the parade lap, when the car had no drive. And it looked for a moment like we were going to be seeing him retire from this Grand Prix before it even got going in the wet conditions." "Grinds to a halt, stops on the pit straight, and I'm looking at his dash here, and I'm thinking he's cycling through different menus, and desperately trying to get the engine going. And finally, it does. It gets going, and it was a big relief for everybody. And then, of course, as I can see, the crowd cheering as he gets going. But others were stopping on track as well." "But as you get going, he was instantly in trouble. And it was never accelerating as well as these flying Mercedes coming through. It wasn't so bad compared to Verstappen, but now, for me, this is the most impressive moment of driving that Hamilton displayed today. Because this, I know, is incredibly hard. You've got cars overtaking you, left, right, centre. You're so scared of spinning the car. Watch the little snaps of oversteer that he has, especially as he starts to build up speed. It is like trying to run on ice as you try and put your foot down. And it's so tempting to try and go with these guys overtaking you, but every step of the way, your heart is in your mouth. Judging every braking distance properly and sensibly is something that many drivers would fall foul of, and he's using all of his experience here, all of his skill, to just survive. And survive he did." "It doesn't stop. It's never ending. Lap after lap, he had to survive like this. So he did, and finally, they came up to temperature, the track dried enough, and he could get going properly." "And this is when Lewis is at his best, and he's fighting his way through the field, gets past the Audi into Turn 1, and Hülkenberg next on his hit list is Piastri in front of McLaren, who he displaces nicely on the run-up towards Turn 4. Piastri tries to defend. Lewis has the speed there from his exit from Turn 3, out of Turn 2 even, and then now we're on Lindblad towards the final corner. Sets himself up nicely in the slipstream. This is still a little bit damp on the inside, so you have to judge that quite wisely. And he does, another car passed, and onwards and upwards for him. Next up, we have Ocon into the same corner. And it's another fairly straightforward pass under the braking. And he was flying at this stage." "The soft tyre was suiting him, suiting the car. He overtakes Lawson. But finally, we're on Hadjar. Hadjar was suffering a bit of straight-line speed problems, and Lewis then crosses the line on the exit of Turn 1, keeps it a bit tighter to then open up Turn 2 on the exit. But we've got Albon there on the left-hand side, and Lewis has to back out of it. He can't attack Hadjar that time around. Second time around, though, he does get the job done into Turn 1, and that put him in a position where, when George had his failure, ended up with the podium. So it was a real up-and-down day for him." "Like I say, I loved watching it. He wouldn't have liked moments from today, but, wow, what a comeback. He should be proud of that one." - Anthony Davidson