Hamilton admits to “strange experience” of fearing Azerbaijan GP accident
At times the bouncing was so bad that Hamilton had to lift in the series of sweeping kinks at the start of the pitstraight.
Hamilton confirmed he was suffering more than team-mate George Russell because of a difference in specification between the two W13s, as revealed by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff after qualifying.
He also had to battle intense pain in his back caused by the car bottoming on the straights.
Despite his problems, Hamilton moved up from seventh on the grid to fourth at the flag - albeit aided by both Ferraris failing to finish.
"There were a lot of moments where I didn't know if I was going to make it," he said. "Just whether I was going to keep the car on track, because I don't know if you saw it, I nearly lost it in the high speed several times.
"So the battle with the car was intense. And then at the end, the last 10 laps to the flag, I was just having to go internal, like ‘You can do this, you've got this. Just bear with it.’"
Hamilton confirmed that at times he had to lift on the straight because he thought he might lose control.
"Yeah, because the thing was bouncing so much sometimes,” he said. “There were so many times I was nearly going into the wall. So that was a concern, safety-wise at 180 miles an hour, smashing into the wall, I don't think I've really ever had to think about that too much as a racing driver.
"You don't really ever think about keeping it out of the wall at that high speed. A very, very, very strange experience."
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Hamilton admitted that the spec chosen for his car as the team pursues parallel development directions hadn’t worked out.
"I’m happy it's over. That was the most painful race I've experienced, the