Determined Hamilton aims to hit the heights again

LEWIS HAMILTON is desperate to savour that podium feeling again.

It is a remarkable nine months and 10 grands prix since the world champion last sprayed champagne after a top-three finish, that in the wake of his victory in China in October.

Arguably, Hamilton should have enjoyed such an experience at the end of the last race in Germany as McLaren handed him a car free of the woes that blighted the first half of this season.

Hamilton’s whoops of joy over the team radio during practice at the Nurburgring emphasised his uplifted feelings, only to suffer a down-in-the-dumps moment again within seconds of the start of the race.

The 24-year-old was poised to emerge out of the first corner with the lead, but was clipped by eventual winner Mark Webber’s Red Bull on entry, sustaining a puncture that wrecked his dreams.

It is now five scoreless races for Hamilton, without question the worst run of his F1 career, but again hopes are high that will come to an end in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. At the end of today’s two 90-minute practice sessions around the Hungaroring, Hamilton and team-mate Heikki Kovalainen finished first and second quickest.

As Hamilton has started on pole in the last two races here, winning in 2007 and with Kovalainen victorious last year, it is not beyond the realms of possibility such a sequence will be extended. Agreeing it is likely to be a season of two halves, Hamilton added: “We got the upgrade package at the last race, which was exciting to see, and here we will try to extract a bit more from it.

“So to finally get that step forward, it’s something we waited a long time for.

“Now it’s great to be able to push, to have the confidence in the car and to be able to race because that’s what we’re here to do.”

It was a case of what might have been in Germany, which is why Hamilton is now fervently hoping fortunes will turn in Budapest.

“I reckon I would have been in the top three,” assessed Hamilton with hindsight on the race at the Nurburgring.

“We were competitive enough to have retained the position I would probably have emerged out of turn one.

“Say I had come out second to Rubens (Barrichello), which was most likely, potentially with the troubles they (Brawn GP) had through the race, we’d have been competing for a good podium.

“That’s just guessing, but that was the feeling we had in the team.

“We were very positive, that finally we had a car we could push and enjoy the race weekend. We can never get ahead of ourselves,” replied Hamilton, who knows Red Bull Racing, Brawn GP and Ferrari will all be in the mix.

“Ferrari have gone very well here the last couple of years. In fact, ourselves and Ferrari have been the strongest teams here. It’s funny because the two teams that competed for the world championship last year have been a good six months behind.

“Now six months into the new season we’re starting to catch the other guys up – unfortunately a bit too late.”