Lewis Hamilton has expressed his astonishment by how quickly he charged through the field in yesterday's Sprint Qualifying session.

Although he had secured pole position for Sprint Qualifying, Hamilton was sent to the back of the grid after scrutineers found a technical infringement relating to his DRS flap. 

Nevertheless, Hamilton rallied in Sprint Qualifying, producing an outstanding charge through the pack to finish an excellent fifth ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris.

However, Hamilton will have to produce yet another charge through the order in today's Grand Prix, with the reigning World Champion starting from 10th on the grid after receiving a five-place grid drop caused by a change of ICE.

After the race, Hamilton reflected on what had been a challenging but successful day for him and Mercedes.

“Honestly, I had no idea what was possible today - I didn't set a limit or a maximum. When I was at the back of the grid at the start before we pulled away for the formation lap, I think I might have been able to see like, 10 and I was like 'okay, that's my goal, I've got to try and get up as far as possible 'but then all of a sudden I was chipping away at it much faster and I really used a lot of different things for motivation today."

“I just never give up, you can't ever give up. It has been tough today: while the team was working away, talking with the stewards, I was just trying focus on my work with my engineers and keeping the morale with my mechanics high and just focusing on the job at hand. Not thinking about it."

Although the penalty had put Hamilton on the back foot, the seven-time World Champion remained relaxed and quickly got his mind focused on the 24 lap race.

“Of course, it was devastating when I heard about the verdict but you can't let that hold you back. You've got to keep your head down and keep going. I quickly reset, got my mind focused on doing what I could do and just giving it my everything."