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Lewis Hamilton has denied a damp patch near his grid slot was the reason for his poor start in the Japanese Grand Prix.
Overnight rain meant that damp patches appeared all over the Suzuka circuit prior to the start of Sunday's race, and it was believed that one of those was to blame for his poor getaway which saw him drop down from second to eighth.
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"Yeah, just from the getgo, lots of wheelspin, and then I just lit them up and I was just losing ground as everyone gained traction moving away," said the Mercedes driver. I could have been partly with the wet patch but in general, it was just the getaway was not good."
The start left the Brit clawing his way back through the field. He would eventually finish third, further losing ground on his championship-leading team mate in the battle for the title. But despite his woes, Hamilton was "generally happy" with his performance.
"Yeah it was really hard and when you've got all the turbulence of the cars in front of you, there's not really a lot I could do," he conceded. "And I didn't really have the pace of Kimi [Raikkonen], I knew I had to go longer than the guys in front so I wasn't trying to attack them early on in the race."
"And then the second half got a lot more interesting," he added. "I was able to put some real good times in and after that, generally happy with it."
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