Lewis Hamilton rightly delighted by fine comeback drive at Spanish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton said it ‘felt like the old days’ in his Mercedes at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon, as he sealed a fifth-place finish following a battle through the field.

The Silver Arrows have had a tough season so far but this weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya could prove to be a turning point in their campaign.

Indeed, from the early stages on Friday it looked as though they had solved a great deal of their issues around porpoising – though not perfectly – and that was reflected in their lap times.

For the race, meanwhile, they started P4 and P6 but as Russell scampered away and eventually finished in P3 to earn a podium, Hamilton’s Grand Prix threatened to prove as another low point in his year.

A first-lap collision with Kevin Magnussen sent them both to the pits and tumbling down the running order but, from there, Lewis got himself into recovery mode.

This season, of course, he’s not been able to battle through the pack as much as he has in the past but here we saw him rekindle that talent he has of working his way through the field, with the car responding far more to what he wanted from it.

And, speaking to the gathered press here in Barcelona, the 7-time champion said today felt like a performance of the past, and one that saw him salvage a really positive result from the early setback.

“I’m so happy.

“Obviously I was hoping for a smoother race without the issue at the beginning and I was 30 seconds behind [after that.]

“If you think back to Jeddah when I was 15th and struggling to get into the top 10, I was thinking here ‘this is going to be impossible to get back into points positions,’ but the team said you’re on for 8th and I couldn’t understand that at the beginning.

“I gave it everything and