Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton described his drive for victory at the Yas Marina track as "one of my best", saying that he was "ecstatic" to secure his first grand prix victory since July after a trying few months.
Hamilton took a dominant win in Abu Dhabi, taking advantage of Sebastian Vettel being eliminated by a puncture on the opening lap to secure his third win of the season.And it was the first time since July that Hamilton had stood on the top step of the podium, with the McLaren man having endured a disappointing run of form in recent races.
After the race, Hamilton beamed that he was delighted with his success at the Yas Marina track, after finishing 8.4 seconds clear of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.
"I think it was one of my best races," he smiled in the post-race press conference, "I said that as I slowed down: being able to hold off one of the best drivers in the world is tough to do.
"Looking after the tyres, managing the gap... I am ecstatic, really very happy to be back up here. This is great and I can get on the flight tonight and smile."
He was more cautious about describing the moment as a 'turning point' after his recent poor performances, but said that he felt the win was the start of a return to form.
"It is early days yet but this is definitely a start," he mused, "We have another great race ahead of us in Brazil, so we will focus on that and try to keep the momentum.
"You know how it goes, anything can happen. I have to keep my focus on it."
As for the race itself, he added: "It's very rare for us and me to get the opportunity to maintain a gap and control a race, but today I had the pace and was able to put in the laps when Fernando went quicker.
"There was a stage where he would close the gap. It seemed as if he would start the stint slower than me but get quicker at the end, but I am very, very happy with how it went."
His team mate Jenson Button finished third in the race, making it a double podium for McLaren, but afterwards, the 2009 champion said that he was stmlied for the whole race by a KERS issue.
"I'm not sure my pace was entirely there on the soft tyre anyway," he muttered, "But by lap 13/14, I didn't have any KERS, which wasn't great.
"In the next stint they [the team] said what I could do to get KERS back, and I got it back, but it only lasted two laps so I had to keep resetting it."
He added: "The problem's not just when you accelerate, but it's under braking too. You get a certain amount of engine braking from it when it's working, but every time I arrived in a corner I didn't know what to expect.
"I had to fend off [Mark] Webber and [Felipe] Massa, which was quite interesting without KERS. Coming home third I'm relatively happy."
Button maintained second place in the championship behind Vettel by virtue of his third place finish.
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