Motor Sport: Hamilton hoping to end his 14-year McLaren career on a high in Brazil

Friday 23 November 2012

Lewis Hamilton admits that he expects this weekend to be "tough" as it dawns on him that he faces his last race for McLaren before he joins Mercedes on a three-year contract worth £45m over its duration.

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Ian Parkes

After a 14-year association with the team – the last six of those in Formula One – Hamilton brings the curtain down on his time with the Woking-based marque in this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Interlagos is the scene of Hamilton's greatest memory as it was in 2008 he became world champion in the most dramatic of circumstances. On that occasion, with rival Felipe Massa having crossed the line to take victory ahead of him, Hamilton made a move on Timo Glock, then with Toyota, into the final corner on the last lap of what was the last race of the season to finish fifth, and take the title.Giving his thoughts on his final days with McLaren, Hamilton said: "This is quite a unique experience for me. I've obviously never been in this situation where it's my last race with the team I grew up with. It's tough, but I take away with me only the positive memories of our journey together. We are going to push as hard as we can, as we did in the last race, and try to win,"Fernando Alonso has declared himself "proud" of Ferrari's controversial tactical approach to last weekend's United States Grand Prix.With both Alonso and team-mate Massa starting on the dirty side of the grid, Ferrari opted to break the seal on the latter's car, so incurring a five-place grid penalty.That allowed Alonso to move up from eighth to seventh, while Massa dropped back to 11th from sixth, but with both on the clean side to allow for greater traction.It proved a successful move as Alonso had launched himself up to fourth coming out of the first corner, eventually finishing third behind championship rival Sebastian Vettel who was runner-up, while Massa was fourth.That at least allowed Alonso to limit the damage to Vettel, who has a 13-point cushion going into Sunday's race.Asked if he would be comfortable winning the title on the back of such a move, Alonso replied: "I am proud of my team for the strategy decision to start on the clean side with both cars. It worked well and perhaps because it worked well maybe that is why rivals are not happy. I am proud of my team because they told the truth. Not every team has told the truth when they've made strategic decisions."

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Motor Sport: Hamilton hoping to end his 14-year McLaren career on a high in Brazil

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