Hamilton "overwhelmed" and "devastated"

While admitting to being left "devastated" by the stewards ruling, Lewis Hamilton says his subsequent fight back in the Sprint left him "overwhelmed".

Somehow it was fitting that as he staged one of the most exacting fight backs of his career, Lewis Hamilton was sporting a helmet that paid tribute to his all-time hero, Ayrton Senna in front of the three-time world champion's cheering countrymen.

"It's not over yet," said the defiant Briton as he crossed the line after slicing through the field like the proverbial hot knife through butter, words of comfort to his team but also a clear warning to his rivals.

"I'm overwhelmed with it to be honest, I definitely wasn't expecting that," he subsequently told reporters. "You never really know whether or not overtaking's going to be possible on a track like this, but that long straight enabled us to progress faster and the car was really great."

Admitting that the penalty was a hard pill to swallow, the seven time champ added that it motivated him up for the task ahead.

"Really it was just the mental state of mind that I went into, which was just never give up, keep pushing, still I rise, you can do this. Because it was really difficult to swallow the result that we got but we won't let that hold us back.

"Now I've got to start focusing on tomorrow," he admitted. "I'll give it everything. It's a much longer race tomorrow so hopefully we can get further."

Asked how the stewards ruling affected him, he told Sky Sports: "It was definitely tough. While the team were working away, delegating with the stewards, I was just trying to focus on my work with my engineers and keeping the morale with my mechanics high and just focusing on the job at hand and not thinking about it.

"Of course, just before I heard about the result, it was devastating, but you can't let that hold you back, keep your head down, I've got to keep going.

"And so I quickly reset, got my mind focused on doing what I could do you know, and just give it my everything.

"Honestly, I had no idea what was possible," he said of the Sprint. "I didn't set a limit or maximum. I think when I was at the back of the grid just before the start, before we pulled away for the formation lap, I think I might have been able to see like 10th. And I was like, 'Okay, that's my goal, we've got to try and get as far up as possible'.

"But then all of a sudden I was now chipping away at it much faster. And I really used a lot of different things for fuel today. But you know, you can't give up you got to keep pushing."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Interlagos, here.