Zoom Hamilton confident for wins this season

Lewis Hamilton delivered a superb drive at the Australian Grand Prix, taking the start from 18th on the grid and pushing all the way to fourth position. The result, accomplished at the wheel of an admittedly off-pace McLaren Mercedes MP4-24, showed just how much the reigning World Champion worked hard on the Albert Park track.

Pending Jarno Trulli's penalty appeal, Hamilton's fourth position was changed to a third-place result, giving the Briton an extra reward for his efforts.

Next Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix offers a very different venue however, as the demanding nature of the Sepang circuit will put the MP4-24 to a harsher test than was the case in Melbourne.

Within this Q&A appearing on his website, Hamilton looks back at his Australian race, considers the upcoming challenge in Malaysia, and reiterates his full confidence in the McLaren team's abilities in returning to the forefront.

Given all that's been said about the pace of the car, what were your thoughts ahead of the race on Sunday?

"I was sat on the grid thinking, 'Shall I take it a bit easy into the first corner, knowing it's a long race, and be patient... or shall I just go for it and try to overtake as many cars as I can before Turn One?' In the end, I decided to be cautious: I knew there was likely to be trouble going into the first corner and I didn't want to be part of it. Then, after that, I just put my foot down, and I didn't back off for the entire race. "

We could see your commitment via the onboard footage - there were some hairy moments, particularly exiting Turn Nine.

"Yeah, actually Turn Nine was one of my best corners. The car was quite planted through there so I felt reasonably confident in getting the throttle down hard and being able to deal with the rear-end. In other places, it wasn't so easy. It felt like there were four or five times through each corner where the car could snap away from you. And I was pushing so hard, and you knew it was coming, you were waiting for it, worrying about it, knowing that the car was going to break away and you were going to have to wrestle it back under control. That happened in every corner for 58 laps - it was an exhausting race for me."

Do you think this was one of your best drives in Formula 1?

"It was one of the most unexpected results of my Formula 1 career and, yeah, I think it was one of my best drives too. I'm a fighter, I've never given up at any stage of my motorsport career - both on and off the track - and last weekend was the same. I pushed like crazy on every single lap of the race, always looked for the gap and worked with the team over the radio to find every possible way of making us go quicker."