[top: The car of McLaren Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain is seen reflected in the helmet of a member of his pit crew during the qualifying session for the British F1 GP at Silverstone, central England.]

SILVERSTONE, England (AFP) - Defending drivers world champion Lewis Hamilton was philosophical Saturday after qualifying on the back row of the grid for Sunday?s British Grand Prix.

One year earlier, in 2008, the Briton won the race in torrential rain in thrilling fashion on his way to becoming the youngest champion in Formula One history.

But this time, he was left down in 19th place on the grid and condemned to start from the last row alongside his friend German Adrian Sutil of Force India, whose crash in Q1 prevented Hamilton attempting a last gasp fastest lap.

?I don?t think I would have done anything special after all that,? he shrugged. I lost quite a bit of time in the first sector anyway.

?As racing drivers and people we all have some good years and some bad.

I?ve had a run of four good years and I have finally come to a year that is pretty disastrous to say the least.

?We continue to push and work as a team to try and improve things and there will be a better day. It?s just a long, long struggle for us at the moment.

Hopefully we?ll get back there one day.

?I?m devoting all my time to help the team move in the right direction and learn from mistakes. I?m not an engineer or an aerodynamicist, but I?m always asking them questions trying to get them thinking and it?s the same for me.

?It?s tough in the sport right now and I can only hope I?m racing next year because I want a shot at winning the world title again next year.

?I?m in the simulator every week. Sometimes two days a week. Me and Heikki (Kovalainen) are flat out and we?re busy every day. There?s little more we can do as drivers, we go to all the meetings and we talk with the engineers and we push for different development parts and generally we try to make sure that whatever we request is in the right direction for the team.

?We need more rear end and that?s a fact, there?s nothing I can do to my driving style to stop it apart from to drive slow. We have been working so hard and we?re just as committed as ever before but I think unfortunately the error was made a long time ago. The unfortunate route that we took happened a long time ago.

?In this race, it?s going to be very tough. At the beginning of the weekend we wanted a point, but that?s going to be very difficult. In front of my home crowd, I wanted to at least give a little bit back.

?I?m kind of in a position where all I can do is drive my heart out and give it my all. Getting into the top 15 is the only real target we have right now. Starting from 19th is a long way back and it?s a high speed circuit so following people is difficult.

?You have to remember that pretty much everyone is quicker than us through the high speed corners. Even the Toro Rosso and Force India?s are faster than us in turn one, to be able to attack them and overtake is going to be very tricky but we?ll just have to see what happens.?