Lewis Hamilton reveals moment 'heart sank' before staging remarkable recovery

Lewis Hamilton has revealed the exact moment his "heart sank" and he thought he was "really in trouble" during the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

The race at the Sepang International Circuit was thrown into chaos by a torrential downpour in the build-up, leaving standing water across the circuit and forcing race control to delay proceedings.

Matters then worsened on the formation laps, with multiple power units, including that of Hamilton's in his Ferrari, suffering energy management cutouts in the low-grip, low-engine-speed conditions.

After an extended race suspension of just over an hour, the track started to dry.  Ferrari opted to send both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc out on slicks, a decision that initially backfired as both drivers lost grip and slid down the order, while polesitter Max Verstappen and most of the front-runners started on intermediates.

Hamilton, who had qualified second behind Verstappen, was as low as 18th and 100 seconds behind early race leader, Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, after the opening couple of laps.

"We were having a good weekend," said Hamilton. "The car felt great in qualifying. It felt amazing to get to second.

"My engineers and I were here until 11:30 [p.m.] just going over everything, and I really felt it was the opportunity to have at least a good battle with Max.

"But then the rain came, [and] the big panic with everyone when we all lost power. Particularly, my power didn't come back, and I had to stop on track and restart the car. And then we all ended up in the pit lane.

"Thankfully, we all got back to our positions, but then after that there was such a long wait, and we were debating what tyre to go on to. I said, 'Look, there was a lot of spray on the laps to the grid'.

"I went into the pit lane, looked at the ground, and I was like, 'It's still wet'. I went to the pit wall, and I was like, 'It's still wet'.

"And they're like, 'Yeah, but because it's been so long, it's definitely going to dry up real quick, and maybe we're already in the crossover'."

[Article continues below]

Hamilton - 'My race is in trouble'

That gamble looked disastrous almost immediately once the cars lined up for the restart.

"Anyways, as a team, we ended up taking the soft, and when we were at the end of the pit lane, and these two [Verstappen and Antonelli] took off their blankets and they're on inters, my heart sank, and I knew we were in trouble," said the seven-time champion.

"As we pulled out, all the spray came out of the back of Max's car, and I was like, 'Okay, I'm done. My race is really in trouble'.

"I nearly didn't make it around on the formation lap, so then we just had to stick with it. We'd made the decision and [we had to] live with it.

"Through that, as everyone's overtaken me, they're like, 'We stop,' because I know we've already made another 26 seconds. What's the difference from that with one minute 40 or whatever I was down? So I was just,

"I said, 'Let's just wait it out for the track to dry'. Once it did, it felt good that I was catching people. The car felt great.

"Then after that, really good pit stops from my guys in the garage and then good strategy."

At the chequered flag, Hamilton salvaged a remarkable third behind race-winner Verstappen and runner-up Antonelli, much to his surprise.

"For us to get back to the podium, I never thought that was going to be the case," he said. "I'm really, really grateful that we managed to get back here."