Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he still loves Nicole Scherzinger and still hopes they could get back together.
The Formula One star and the pop singer split up last month after four years together as the strain of barely seeing each other took its toll.
It is understood that Lewis's failure to commit to starting a family further undermined their relationship and forced them apart.
The break-up was said to have resulted in Lewis adopting a negative attitude, combined with poor results and incidents on the track, the 26-year-old has cut a forlorn figure for a number of weeks.
That appeared to be underlined this week when pictures were published of what appeared to be a frosty meeting in a Los Angeles car park between him and X-Factor judge Nicole.
But as he prepared for this Sunday's final race of the season in Sao Paulo, Lewis said that could not be further from the truth.
Sporting a long black set of rosary beads overlaid with white gold given to him by his ex as a present in LA, Lewis said of the photographs: "Well, they didn't catch us at the best of times. What you didn't see is that we had a really good week."
"It's very early days and we still have very strong feelings for one another. I still love her very much. So, who knows? Maybe we will be together in the future."
Hamilton's trip to the United States also included a visit to New York in which he "got to hang with Mary J Blige, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz in the studio, which was really cool".