Hamilton: Mercedes must 'hold heads high' despite race to forget

Lewis Hamilton has insisted his Mercedes team must "hold their heads high" despite a São Paulo Grand Prix "to forget".

The seven-time World Champion started fifth on the grid at Interlagos but jumped both Aston Martins off the line to assume third by the time red flags were thrown for a start-line incident that took out multiple cars.

But it was downhill from there for Hamilton and teammate George Russell, with neither of the W14s having any answer for rivals as they swarmed past with DRS assistance.

While Russell retired from the race with rising power unit oil temperatures, Hamilton fell back behind Lance Stroll's Aston Martin, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Alpine's Pierre Gasly to finish only eighth.

Put to him by Sky Sports F1 that there were only two races remaining with the W14, which has yet to win a race, Hamilton replied: "Yes, thank God.

"It didn't feel as disastrous as [in the Sprint], where I had literally no tyres left, they were worn to zero.

"So I feel like I drove a better race in terms of managing the tyres to the best of my ability.

"But the car, there are moments it works and moments it doesn't, it's so inconsistent throughout the lap.

"So we have to figure out what that is.

"We are really slow on the straights and then really slow through corners, so one to forget but hopefully there are lots of learnings from it."

Mercedes 'unpredicatable'

"The car is really unpredictable in that one weekend it feels good, one session it feels good and then it's not," explained Hamilton when addressing the issues faced with the car.

"I'm sure we will go and look at these and find out we should have done things differently, but the one session is difficult.

"I am so proud of the team that they still came here and did their work, they can hold their head up high and that's what we have to continue to do, just keep pushing forwards."