Hamilton: Not a revival, a work in progress

Monday 13th July 2009

Lewis Hamilton insists his performance in Germany is not a revival but rather "a work in progress."

After months of tears and trials for the defending World Champion, his MP4-24 finally showed signs of promise of Germany when Hamilton set the pace in two of the practice sessions.

He followed that up with a fifth place on the grid, right in front of his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, but alas it all came to nought when he got a puncture at the start, dropping him to the very back of the pack.

And although Hamilton and his team are drawing from some comfort from the pace shown by their MP4-24, the 24-year-old Brit insists McLaren are not suddenly a race-winning outfit.

"It is not a revival, it is as I've said before a work-in-progress," he told his official website.

"The team has more improvements planned, and it would be great if we could further close the gap to the leaders and think about attacking at some of the races, but we are remaining realistic: Red Bull and Brawn have both got fantastic cars and it will be incredibly hard to just turn up and be able to compete with them.

"At least we are now on the right track with our upgrades and the development process continues for both this year and the next - and while it's nice to think about race results and running at the front - as I've said before I now look at this year as a development year for all of us and one which will only make us stronger.

"I'm confident that we'll have some stronger showings in the next few races, and then we should have a clearer idea of just how we'll go at the end of the season."

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