Hamilton: Good times will return

Lewis Hamilton vowed to bring the good times back to his legion of fans after enduring a British Grand Prix weekend to forget.

The reigning world champion finished 16th out of 18 runners at the chequered flag yesterday as his underperforming McLaren chose Hamilton’s home event at Silverstone to put on one of its most lamentable displays of 2009.

Hamilton’s woes played out before a sell-out crowd of 120,000 at the Northamptonshire circuit, which last year was the stage for arguably his greatest F1 performance to date as he waltzed to a crushing victory on a saturated track.

Nearly one year on the best Hamilton could manage by way of entertainment was a hairy dice with old rival Fernando Alonso, the Briton pulling off a superb move into Copse corner in their battle for 16th place before ceding the position half a lap later after an error.

Not that it mattered much. Sixteenth or 15th, this was always going to be a race to be swiftly forgotten. But Hamilton, who qualified down in 19th place on Saturday, did at least sign off the weekend in style as he performed ’donut’ turns at Stowe and Copse to say thank you to the fans in the grandstands who cheered him throughout.

And after climbing out of his much-maligned car, the 24-year-old promised his fans would soon be rewarded with a repeat of his 2008 victory.