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The McLaren driver had been disappointing to end up only fifth on the grid, but he passed BMW's Robert Kubica off the start and gained another place from Fernando Alonso in the first pit stops.
"It's good to be back (on the podium)," Hamilton said.
"Obviously when we qualified fifth, we knew it would be very, very difficult to beat the Ferraris, but the key was to get a good start and make as many places as possible.
"Fortunately I was able to do that.
"We've had two bad races, to come back on the podium is fantastic."
Lewis reckoned that getting past Kubica at the start had been crucial, as the BMW driver stayed on the McLaren's tail for the rest of the race.
"I know from past experiences in Formula 3 that Robert is one of the hardest to overtake - he's very, very aggressive on the first lap," Hamilton said.
"But I was able to get up the inside of him and pretty much past him, I just had to make sure I covered my ground, and it was pretty plain sailing from there, so it was a good start for us.
"It's amazing how close all the cars are - even Kubica was extremely close to me, and I kept looking in the mirrors and he was always in the exact same spot."
After the safety car period for his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen's frightening accident, Hamilton was able to keep the Ferraris within sight, although he believes the Italian squad still has some key advantages.
"In the middle stint I had to try and keep up with Felipe, who I knew was (running) a lap shorter than me, but they seem to look after their rear tyres a little bit better than us still," Lewis said.
"But in the last stint I was able to keep quite close, and was pushing right up to the last lap."
Team boss Ron Dennis acknowledged that McLaren has ground to make up on Ferrari, but reckoned the gap was encouragingly small.
"There's a bit of work to do," he told ITV Sport's Ted Kravitz.
"The Ferraris weren't as dominant today - although we don't know what pace they could have had towards the end.
"I think we were pretty quick and Lewis was happy with the car, but we need a bit more speed.
"If we'd had one lap less of fuel and qualified at the front, it might have been a different race, but hindsight doesn't do you any good."
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