Lewis, from your point of move where did that overtaking manoeuvre start? How did it happen for you?
LH: Probably at the beginning of the lap. I knew that I was catching him and I knew that if I could keep close to him at the beginning of the lap I'd be able to tow him down the back straight. The good thing here is you are able to follow at some of the high speed corners, it is not too bad. I knew that also he was having a bit of traffic, so it was a perfect opportunity for me to get up behind him. So I just had to make sure I capitalised on that. I got a late braking into turn nine and managed to get on the power really early. The car was very nicely balanced but right at the end of the straight they are very quick, so even then once I pulled out of the slipstream he began to pull away again. But nevertheless I was able to outbrake him and pass and pull away. Perhaps if that had happened earlier we could have won the race or if I had done a better job in qualifying we probably would have won the race.
How close was Kimi coming to challenge you at the end?
LH: At the end of the race we turned the engine down and just looking after the car really. We knew that we had second place. If I needed to go a little bit quicker I could have, but there was no real need as he was never close enough to do anything. I just tried to keep him at bay. I was quite happy with the car on the hard tyres, but on the soft tyres it was a little bit trickier to maintain a decent gap. There was a lot of traffic at the end and I think they did quite a poor job in getting out of the way. I was behind someone for quite a while and although it looks like they were quite far away it does affect the handling of the car. They are not in my race as such, we are not racing us at the front and it made it quite difficult. But nevertheless I got on with it and came home with second.
You have said you were almost pushed into a three stop strategy. Is that likely to happen elsewhere or is it something you can change on the car?
LH: It won't happen anywhere else. Last year I had the tyre blow-out here, so they were already quite worried. Coming into this weekend they thought they had fixed the problem and somehow we seemed to have the problem again. But then again in the race the tyres were fine. We were sort of put on the back foot going into qualifying knowing that we were not really in the shoot for the win even if we did get pole position. I struggled on my Q3 lap to get a good time, so even with a lighter car I was not able to put it on the front row. However, going into the race I remained optimistic and so did the team and we pushed through. I think the result is the result of hard work from all the guys. They did fantastic pit stops and I think for me I probably drove the best race I have ever done.
[QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR:]
(Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, you mentioned the tyre problems that you suffered this weekend. Just how much of a fear was it for you driving round today knowing that the tyre could have gone at any stage as it did in last year's race?
LH: For sure it was on my mind at some stages. I was having some vibrations and I wasn't sure whether that was the tyre or whether that was a flat spot that I possibly picked up earlier on. So for sure it was in the back of my mind. I was checking the tyre nearly every lap on the exit of turn eight to see if… last time it was on the exit of turn eight it delaminated and the tyre exploded, so I was just making sure I kept an eye on that, so I could report to the team as quickly as possible and possibly come in. Fortunately the tyres were fine but no, it was all down to safety really, that was why we were forced into that because they didn't want to have another incident, a bit like the last race or like last year. There's nothing worse than having a tyre blow out at 200mph, so they tried to avoid that. Unfortunately, it put us on the back foot, as I said. Without a three stop perhaps we would have had a better chance of winning the race, but nevertheless, I'm very happy with second.
(Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Lewis, did you say that you thought that that was the best race you've run and if so, what makes it that?
LH: It doesn't particularly matter whether you win or not, it's whether you drive at one hundred percent, it's whether you extract the most out of the car. It's one of those times when you end the race and you ask yourself and you ask the team, could we have done a better job? And I strongly feel we couldn't have done a better job. The pit stops were almost perfect, if not perfect, and I think my in laps, my out laps, they were stronger than ever and I just feel my race pace is getting stronger and stronger over the year, at each race. We had a strong showing in Barcelona and even stronger here. And we overtook a Ferrari.
Can I just go back to why I think it was my best race. Just another thing: my predicted race finish was fifth. It could have been a lot worst. If I had got a worse start and didn't get away in second, then I probably would have come sixth or even worse, so with a three stop strategy that no one else had, I think, I just feel we did a fantastic job to bring it back up.
(Will Buxton – Australasian Motorsport News) A question for all three of you: you've pretty much all admitted that the hard tyre is the one you would have preferred to have been on all weekend for the race. With that in mind and looking at the final stage of the race – the only time you were on the same fuel weights – how much do you feel the teams are now more on an even playing field, given that your sector times were pretty much identical to each other for the last ten/fifteen laps?
LH: Coming into this weekend we knew that we had closed the gap, that we were going to be competitive and possibly be able to win the race. They still have a strong car but so do we, as you can see. The first two sectors were very strong. We need to figure out exactly how we can improve our last sectors because that's where we are losing. If we didn't have the problem in the last sector then we would be winning, so that's something that we need to fix.
(Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Lewis, you said earlier that you could have won the race if you'd done a better job in qualifying, but isn't that being a bit hard on yourself, given the limitations and restrictions that Bridgestone put on you?
LH: Yeah, I'm always hard on myself. I sat down last night and I was ticked off yesterday, I wasn't particularly happy with the job I did and at the end of the day the team give me a car and I've got to go out and drive one hundred percent and I didn't extract one hundred percent from the car. That's why I'm always hard on myself because we're top drivers, we should be able to do it. But it appears to be a lot harder for me or in our car to do a solid lap. It looks a lot easier for them, so that's something we need to keep pushing. Perhaps we've sacrificed a bit of qualifying pace for race pace, perhaps we need to work on bringing them both up.
(Will Buxton – Australasian Motorsport News) Lewis, going back to the question of tyres, obviously we've got two compounds running each weekend. Was the fear of delamination equal with both compounds of tyre and what does the team think it is that's been causing that fear of delamination over the Turkish weekend?
LH: It was with both sets of tyres but we're not sure of the reason. Basically we need to look into it more, but they've taken the tyres away and analysed them and saw there was some problem with the tyre, it was failing, or looking like it was going to be failing. Fortunately they made the right choice, it was the right choice at the beginning, and we made the best job that we could with them.
Lewis, I guess from where you were yesterday, when you weren't too happy, to split the two Ferraris today is a great result for you.
Lewis Hamilton: Absolutely. I am thrilled to have come second from third, but with the strategy we were on as you could tell yesterday I was a little bit disappointed with it. Heikki did a fantastic job and was able to out-qualify me with more fuel. But after looking at the data I realised I was happy with the tyre choice. I lost a little bit of time in my middle sector. Today we started on the harder tyre and knew it was going to be very tough to challenge the Ferraris and to be honest, we were just hoping to get some points. To finish in the top five would have been good. But the balance of the car was great and on the hard tyres I was able to keep up with Felipe and even overtake him. After that I was gone and I was able to keep pushing and pushing. At the end it was quite tough, the softer tyre was definitely the worse tyre but I am much happier.
Do you think your second place is a result of switching to that three stop strategy?
LH: Perhaps. The reason we went with a three stopper was due to Bridgestone being concerned as they thought the tyre was going to fail like it did last year. Therefore, they made us do a three stop as it was the safest route to go. Unfortunately for us, that put us in not such a strong position to win the race. However, I am given a problem and I deal with it and so do the team and that's why I still believe that we are the best. I really have to say a big thank you to the team who did a great job in all the pit stops.
When you were really quick with relatively light fuel it was sector three you were losing ground to the Ferraris, or not gaining ground. Is that a worry going into Monte Carlo?
LH: I don't see it as a worry. In Barcelona, the last sector which was all the tight corners, they were a little bit quicker than us there. It was the same here with the last three corners on the straight where they seemed to take quite a lot out of us. We are going to go back and try to understand exactly why and keep pushing to improve. I have no doubts that we can do that.
Lewis, the fact that you set your time on hard tyres surely looks good for the race itself, even if it maybe wasn't the right choice?
LH: Yeah, for sure. I'm expecting to be quick tomorrow in the race.
Was that something that was in your mind when you were on those harder tyres?
LH: No, not really. As I said, Q1 seemed to go a lot better than Q2 and I felt that perhaps the prime tyre was so close that it would probably give me a better performance throughout the lap and I think that was a mistake.
Third on the grid, you're ahead of Kimi, still a good position?
LH: Could be better, for sure, and the lap wasn't very good either, so pretty disappointed in qualifying. Not frustrating, disappointing.
How crucial was tyre warming?
LH: Didn't seem to be much of a problem for me on both sets of tyres. For sure you had to work them well enough but I managed to be able to get them up to temperature and it was OK.
You were saying disappointed, but it is a circuit where you can overtake.
LH: It is, it is, so we should have an exciting race tomorrow.
[QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR:]
(Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) A question for all drivers: sorry to come back to the question of the temperature of the tyres but are you worried in the case of the safety car on the first lap of the race when it restarts?
LH: No problems.
(Frédéric Ferret – L'Equipe) I have two problems for Lewis: first of all about qualifying. You seem quite unhappy with your lap, any mistake or was it because of the handling of the car or traffic or something else?
LH: I chose the wrong tyre. It didn't give me the performance and the car didn't feel great, no.
(Frédéric Ferret – L'Equipe) The second question is about the race tomorrow: you said on Thursday that you miss winning, do you think you can win tomorrow?
LH: I think tomorrow we just have to wait and see. For sure we are not in the best position to do so.
(Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, you have said you are very disappointed and your body language suggests you are not too happy if you don't mind me saying…
LH: I just need the toilet, that's all! And I'm really wondering whether Heikki's really Finnish because his answers are longer than I've ever known!
(Ian Parkes – The Press Association) … is this a question of perhaps being a bit too hard on yourself?
LH: No, definitely not. I'm always hard on myself and that's the way I do it, that's how I do my business, that's how I go about it. I don't feel that I made any mistakes, I did the best I could with the car, that's the quickest it's ever gone. But we need to improve in terms of preparing and making decisions. I do it all on my own.
Lewis, you chose the harder of the two Bridgestone tyres and a very nice moment was captured on television when the back-end jumped out going through turn right. We called it nice, but you probably didn't.
Lewis Hamilton: No, not really. It was a tough qualifying session for me. Obviously at the beginning I had a fantastic lap in Q1. In Q2 I struggled a little bit on the option tyre and therefore I opted for the prime tyre as I thought perhaps it would be a more consistent tyre especially through the lap. I guess I made the wrong decision.
You say you made the wrong decision but to be that near on the prime tyre it was a pretty impressive lap.
LH: It was not too bad. I struggled in my first Q3 lap, it was terrible. I think I was in the 1:29s. The second one for sure was an improvement but still it was not quick enough.
How do you see the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes race pace relative to Ferrari?
LH: I think we have got a good package this weekend and as myself and Heikki have shown we are up there with the Ferraris and I think we should be able to push them hard in the race.
Friday: "I am quite happy with the way practice went today. Obviously, it was difficult because of the changing conditions, which limited our track time. But I think we completed a good and consistent programme, which produced a lot of useful information, especially for Sunday. I feel happy with the car again, which is the most important thing, so I am looking forward to tomorrow afternoon."
Saturday: "The track was changing a lot, the earlier rain did not help, but I am happy because at the last two races I struggled a lot to find the balance and now we are slowly getting there and I feel we have made a step forward. It's nice to give our old car a good grid position for its final appearance. In Q2, it was very close with the Hondas and unfortunately we did not progress as the track conditions improved. Overall, we can be happy with today and now I'm looking forward to getting through 58 laps tomorrow."
Sunday: "I had a good start and then, all of a sudden I realised I had a punctured rear left tyre, so I had to pit immediately. My second problem came at the first pit stop, when the refueling rig had a problem, no fuel went in, so I had to come in immediately again. From then on it was a tough race and I could not have done any better. At least I saw the chequered flag!"
Friday: "We focused on tyre evaluation and set-up work today and so far things are not looking too bad. Everybody lost a bit of running time in the first session as the track was still wet in places after cleaning. This circuit is constantly evolving which is challenging but also enjoyable. In the first session I stayed on the same set of tyres throughout and experienced no problems. In my last run of the day I put on a new set of tyres but had a small moment which cost me some time. Overall I am pleased with our initial pace and consistency."
Saturday: "I am not completely satisfied with third place today, as I think I could have gone a bit faster and also didn’t make the right tyre choice as I was on the harder Bridgestone tyre for my final run. I did a great lap in Q1 and felt the car worked better there than in Q2 which was why I made the tyre decision I did. My final lap wasn’t that great either, so all in all I am a bit disappointed. However looking forward we have a very good technical package and will push hard tomorrow to fight for a good result. I think we are close to Ferrari, but it will be a tough race. As this circuit provides some overtaking opportunities it should be a good one for the spectators and the fans as well."
Sunday: "I am so thrilled with today's result, and I think this is the best race ever for me. It's not about winning, it's about feeling that you extract 100% from yourself and the car and I did that today. Before the race our prediction was that all being well I would finish fifth, so second is such a bonus. I was not happy with my performance yesterday and perhaps if I had managed to get the car on pole I could have won. However, we knew that we would have to use a three stop strategy as a precaution as we had some issues with our tyres. The team did a fantastic job, the pitstops were great, and the balance of the car was superb, and we all kept our spirit up. There were no problems with the tyres in the race. I managed to overtake Felipe at one point, and I really think we have closed the gap to Ferrari. I am so excited about the next race in Monaco and just can't wait."
