AUSTIN, Texas -- Lewis Hamilton says he is 100 percent fit ahead of this weekend's U.S. Grand Prix despite skipping a tyre test last week with an injured foot.
Hamilton was scheduled to test Pirelli's 2017 tyres in Barcelona last Wednesday but pulled out at the last minute to rest his foot. He revealed that it was an ongoing injury related to his training regime.
"I am 100 percent and feeling great," he said. "I basically had an injury that I've been carrying generally all year long, in both feet. Just induced by running.
"Unfortunately the physio said that it just takes a lot of stretching and it just heals over a long time. At the time I woke up in the morning, I was feeling quite a lot of pain the day before, and it hadn't diminished, so there was very little ... the most important thing was to be fresh for here and feeling better for here. This is actually the first week that it's felt good."
Hamilton also visited Mercedes' factory on Tuesday last week to celebrate the team's third constructors' title.
"Honestly, it's kind-of daunting when you go back to the two factories because there's so many people. I remember joining the team and having to stand... they're like 'we want to introduce you to everyone,' and having to stand in front of 800 people at the first place and then 500 people at the next place and speak to them.
"That's always a difficult thing. But then, after you've grown to know everyone and you've gone on the journey that I have with this team and reached the success, it's an incredibly proud moment for us to stand up there and show our appreciation -- because those guys are not travelling like us but they are working crazy hours to enable us to get off the line, to be up the front and win these championships. And it takes a huge amount of work for these people to come together and every single individual operate at the best they can possibly do.
"I remember joining this team and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the majority of the people that were in here, said that it wasn't the right decision. I had the belief that this team would really go somewhere and I've been a part of that journey and very proud of it. It was incredible. Everyone was just so happy - and now they're turning all of those energies to next year."