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Glock: Interlagos cynicism hard to understand |
Timo Glock has admitted that the aftermath of last year's Brazilian Grand Prix was 'very tough and difficult to understand', as he found himself accused in some quarters of having helped Lewis Hamilton to win the Formula 1 World Championship title.
Having slipped behind the Scuderia Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel to sixth place in the very closing laps of the race around Interlagos' Autodromo Carlos Pace, Hamilton was only saved when he came across Glock's Toyota in the penultimate corner, the German scrabbling around for grip after his team had elected to leave him out on dry tyres on an increasingly wet track surface in a bid to gain some ground.
That led to angry fans cynically suggesting that the 26-year-old had deliberately slowed to enable his friend to claim the laurels – even though the telemetry proved that similarly-shod team-mate Jarno Trulli's lap time over the final tour had been even slower than that of Glock.
“It was like driving on ice, the man from Lindenfels told Spanish radio station
Onda Cero, “but still it was the right decision because it meant I finished one position higher than if I had changed tyres.
“I did my own race and had no interest in getting involved in the fight for the title. Afterwards when all the journalists were coming up to me I began to wonder if Lewis going past me meant he was world champion, but during the race I had no idea of the position I was in, let alone what Hamilton and Felipe Massa were doing.
“When I saw everyone's reaction it was very tough and difficult to understand. Even the next two weeks were really hard.”
Glock stressed that the post-race conspiracy theories to which he was subjected were 'a little strange', but added that he accepted them as a price to be paid for competing in such a popular global sport
“I believe in Formula 1,” the former GP2 Series Champion concluded, “so you have to live with these things.”
