Hamilton vows to bounce back

Updated 10.06 Mon Apr 07 2008

Keywords: Raikkonen, ferrari, McLaren, hamilton

Lewis Hamilton insists a disastrous Bahrain Grand Prix has not rocked his confidence.

The lowly 13th place was the lowest finishing position of Hamilton's 20 grands prix career, costing him the lead in the drivers' championship.

"There's still a long way to go, so don't count me out yet" - Lews Hamilton

Heading to Spain in three weeks' time, Hamilton is now in a three-way tie for third alongside his McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen and the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica.

But he refused to be despondent, saying: "It was inevitable this was going to happen because I've had such a good run in Formula One, but this is all part of it.

"The confidence is there, and I know I've got the pace. I know in the next race we'll be quite a bit quicker.

"There's still a long way to go, so don't count me out yet."

Kimi Raikkonen took over leadership of the drivers' title race by three points from BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.