Hamilton: good to be back

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After two difficult races, Lewis Hamilton was delighted to be back on the podium at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The McLaren Mercedes driver started the season in fine style with victory in Australia, but then went off the boil in Malaysia and Bahrain, respectively finishing fifth and 13th.

Hamilton started Sunday's race in fifth place and moved up a position when he passed BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica at the lights. He then took third after Renault's Fernando Alonso retired on lap 35.

The result, behind Ferrari duo Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, has also moved Hamilton up to second place in the drivers' championship, albeit nine points behind Raikkonen.

"It is good to be back and obviously when we qualified fifth, we knew it would be difficult to beat the Ferraris, so the key was to get a good start and make up as many places as possible," Hamilton said.

"We knew Fernando [Alonso] would be lighter so he didn't cause us any problems, in the middle stint I had to try and keep with Felipe [Massa] but they seem to look after their rear tyres better than us. Still, in the last stint I could keep quite close.

"It is amazing how close all the cars are, [Robert] Kubica was extremely close to me. It is impressive all the cars are so close."

Of his manoeuvre past Kubica off the line, Hamilton said: "I know from past experiences in F3 that Robert is one of the hardest to overtake, very, very aggressive on the first lap but I was able to get up the inside of him and I was pretty much past him and had to make sure I covered my ground.

"A good start for us, we had two bad races and to come back on the podium is fantastic."

Relief

Hamilton also expressed relief that team-mate Heikki Kovalainen escaped from a head-on 140 mph crash at the Circuit de Catalunya with little more than concussion.

The Finn was airlifted to hospital for precautionary checks, with Hamilton saying the crash reminded him of his own accident in qualifying for last year's European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

"I am glad for Heikki that he is okay," Hamilton continued.

"I came past and saw there was a car in the wall and it just looked red and didn't know if it is was us or one of the Ferraris, but I saw a glimpse of the footage on the TV and it was reminiscent of my experience at the Nurburgring.

"The team told me it was Heikki and Ron [Dennis] came on the radio and said he was okay but slightly concussed. I am sure he will bounce back."

Hamilton added that thoughts of the same thing happening to his car during the race had not crossed his mind.

"No, I think if you have those problems... if you let those things get to your mind you are in trouble," he said.

"That would put you in the wrong position, it didn't cross my mind once, we did a great job, the car was reliable and we were able to keep pushing."