German Grand Prix press conference – Part I
The German Grand Prix would prove to be quite an eventful affair with Lewis Hamilton rebounding from an error in terms of strategy to record the race victory while Nelson Piquet used strategy to his advantage to finish second for Renault ahead of Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. Here’s what the top three had so say after 67-laps of on track action...
Zoom
Q: Lewis, on behalf of all race fans we have to thank you for making that such an exciting race by not coming in with the safety car. You gave yourself so much work to do in the latter stages of the race.
Lewis HAMILTON: Well, thank you. I didn’t plan on doing that. I would have much preferred an easy comfortable afternoon out in front. But it didn’t work that way. We had got off to a really good start. We had two very comfortable, two very decent stints and the team opted for me to stay out. I guess they thought I could pull out a gap but it was a 23 second gap I needed and I only had seven laps or something, so I don’t know how that worked out. I kind of understood and I just kept pushing. I was over the limit, pushing and pushing trying to get the gap but I came out behind Heikki. I have to say a big thank you to Heikki, he was a great team-mate. He didn’t put up a huge fight and saw that I was quicker and enabled me to get past quicker. And so a big thank you to him. I was able to pull it off. I had good tyres. I guess it was exciting for him and it was exciting for me.
Q: I take it there was not much discussion between you and the team about the decision?
LH: Not really no. I said ‘you sure about this’ and they said ‘fine’. But we all have decisions and opinions on certain things and for sure we will learn from this one and move onto the next race.
But still we had the best car. The quickest car this weekend and we came out on top. That’s due to a lot of hard work from all the guys here. The team is fantastic, here and back home and also in Germany. They have all done a phenomenal job.
Q: And talk about those two great passes on Nelson and Felipe.
LH: With Felipe I saw that I was a lot quicker than him. I was told I was a second quicker than him at the time, so I just tried to keep up the pace. Obviously I was on the early few laps with my tyres and I knew I only had a small window to get past him before they began to grain and before they would slide around. I had to push to get as close to him as possible but the great thing about this track is that you can follow other people. Or so I found. So I was able to get quite close through the last two corners, follow him all the way down to turn two and slipstream him. But again towards the end of the straight he sort of matched my speed and I found it difficult to get past, so I just had to do it on the brakes. He gave me plenty of room. I think it was quite a good battle. It was fun. I think for Nelson, I thought my work was done but they said ‘you still have to get past Nelson.’ I was thinking ‘okay, I’ve just worked my backside off but that’s fine’. Again he put on a good battle but again it was very fair.
ZoomQ: Lewis, on behalf of all race fans we have to thank you for making that such an exciting race by not coming in with the safety car. You gave yourself so much work to do in the latter stages of the race.
Lewis HAMILTON: Well, thank you. I didn’t plan on doing that. I would have much preferred an easy comfortable afternoon out in front. But it didn’t work that way. We had got off to a really good start. We had two very comfortable, two very decent stints and the team opted for me to stay out. I guess they thought I could pull out a gap but it was a 23 second gap I needed and I only had seven laps or something, so I don’t know how that worked out. I kind of understood and I just kept pushing. I was over the limit, pushing and pushing trying to get the gap but I came out behind Heikki. I have to say a big thank you to Heikki, he was a great team-mate. He didn’t put up a huge fight and saw that I was quicker and enabled me to get past quicker. And so a big thank you to him. I was able to pull it off. I had good tyres. I guess it was exciting for him and it was exciting for me.
Q: I take it there was not much discussion between you and the team about the decision?
LH: Not really no. I said ‘you sure about this’ and they said ‘fine’. But we all have decisions and opinions on certain things and for sure we will learn from this one and move onto the next race.
But still we had the best car. The quickest car this weekend and we came out on top. That’s due to a lot of hard work from all the guys here. The team is fantastic, here and back home and also in Germany. They have all done a phenomenal job.
Q: And talk about those two great passes on Nelson and Felipe.
LH: With Felipe I saw that I was a lot quicker than him. I was told I was a second quicker than him at the time, so I just tried to keep up the pace. Obviously I was on the early few laps with my tyres and I knew I only had a small window to get past him before they began to grain and before they would slide around. I had to push to get as close to him as possible but the great thing about this track is that you can follow other people. Or so I found. So I was able to get quite close through the last two corners, follow him all the way down to turn two and slipstream him. But again towards the end of the straight he sort of matched my speed and I found it difficult to get past, so I just had to do it on the brakes. He gave me plenty of room. I think it was quite a good battle. It was fun. I think for Nelson, I thought my work was done but they said ‘you still have to get past Nelson.’ I was thinking ‘okay, I’ve just worked my backside off but that’s fine’. Again he put on a good battle but again it was very fair.
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