Fighting Hamilton takes aim at media critics
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-23 13:41

MAGNY-COURS, France - McLaren's Lewis Hamilton left the French Grand Prix empty-handed but defiant on Sunday, blasting media critics and vowing to fight his way back into the Formula One title race.


McLaren Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton walks in the pits of the Magny-Cours racetrack in Magny-Cours, central France, after the French Formula One Grand Prix. Hamilton and the McLaren-Mercedes team reacted angrily Sunday to a controversial race-wrecking penalty imposed on the British driver during the French Grand Prix. [Agencies] 

The 23-year-old Briton, penalised 10 places on the starting grid and then hit by a further drive-through penalty, started 13th and finished 10th.

It was the third time in eight starts this season that Hamilton had failed to score and the driver is now 10 points adrift of Ferrari's race winner and new championship leader Felipe Massa with 10 races left.

Two races ago, after winning impressively in Monaco, the McLaren driver was leading the Formula One standings.

Hamilton's message to Formula One officials after the race was uncompromising.

"There is nothing you can do that can distract me. So you can keep on giving me penalties, whatever you want to do and I'll keep battling and I'll keep trying to come back with a result," he told reporters.

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone is next on the calendar, marking the halfway point of the season, and Hamilton said he would be a contender there.

"I absolutely 100 percent aim on bouncing back there, regardless of what's written in the papers tomorrow," he declared.

"I'm going to go back to the workshop tomorrow...and we're going to focus on the next race and we're going to hit them hard."

"I feel cool. It's all good," continued the Briton, denying he was angry. "Racing is racing. I'm still here and there is nothing you can do to get me out of it.

"I am going to keep battling, and there is a long way to go. I don't care how far I am behind, Kimi (Raikkonen) was 17 points behind with two races to go (last season) and he still won it. If I'm 20 points behind I don't care, I will still come back."

Hamilton, who has moved to Switzerland for tax reasons and to escape public attention, has been hailed as a hero in Britain since he stepped into the limelight as a sensational rookie in 2007.

However he was panned for ramming into the back of Raikkonen's Ferrari in the Montreal pit lane, the crash that earned him the Magny-Cours penalty, with newspaper headlines ranging from "Crash Dummy" to "Lew Silly Boy."

"I found out that there was a lot of negativity in the media, and that's to be expected," Hamilton told Britain's ITV television before the race.

"That's what they do: they build you up and then they break you down, but they can't break me.

"I'm here to race, and I don't want all this stuff. But I'm very strong mentally, and my belief in my own ability is stronger than ever and there's nothing that can break me."