Hamilton hopes bad luck is over

Lewis Hamilton hopes he used up all his bad luck for the season after failing to claim a podium finish for the first time in his maiden Formula One campaign.

The 22-year-old McLaren racer emerged unscathed from a 175mph smash in qualifying for the European Grand Prix to take up tenth place on the grid.

But a torrential downpour shortly after the race had begun at the Nurburgring resulted in the British rookie aquaplaning off the track into the gravel where he was rescued by a crane.

Following a 22-minute stoppage as conditions had become so bad, he went into the gravel again shortly after the restart having changed to slick tyres while the circuit was still damp.

A brave charge followed, but Hamilton could only finish ninth and with his team-mate Fernando Alonso taking the chequered flag ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa, his lead at the top of the World Drivers' Championship has been cut to just two points.

The British sensation reflected: "I hope this is my one bad weekend of the year - fingers crossed. But you can't have perfect race weekends race after race."

He continued: "I told you from day one this was going to happen eventually, that it would be inevitable that I would not finish on the podium.

"So I was ready for it. You need to have these experiences, and this was all a big experience for me, and it's still not over. But I have learned ten times as much today than in the last race."

Despite seeing Alonso crank up the pressure in the title race, Hamilton is anything but downbeat after failing to finish in the points.

He added: "If I'm being honest, I had more fun than I have had in the past.

"I still feel quite positive going into the next race (Hungary in a fortnight), and I'm still leading the world championship, which I find quite amusing considering it was such a bad weekend.

"When you are still leading the championship it just shows how hard everyone else is having to push to catch me up."

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