TV unilaterals
Q:
Lewis, you led every lap from the pole – an amazing day for you with
Kimi Räikkönen right behind you giving you pressure all the way.
Lewis Hamilton:
Yeah, it’s been an eventful weekend and quite emotional for all the team, I think. We made a really good step forward, the team has been working so hard to improve the car and we came here with a great package. We still weren’t sure whether we would be ahead of the Ferraris but as you could see in the race, they obviously had great pace. Quite early on in the race – in the second stint – I had a problem with my steering, don’t really know what that it was but it made it quite difficult to keep the pace. As you could see, I dropped off a little bit and I was a bit nervous that something was going to break, but thank God it didn’t. But I was told by the radio that everything was fine, so I just had to keep on pushing. Kimi was on my tail for quite a long time and so pushing right to the last lap. He drove a fantastic race, really enjoyed it, but it’s good that we’re back at the top after an eventful race at the last race so it’s good.
Q:
Can you be a bit more specific about the steering problem, and then talk a little bit about the difference between the two tyres – obviously you had the softer tyre in the last stint. Kimi was very very near you there, a question of the graining perhaps and the tyre cycle.
LH:
To be honest, I don’t know what was wrong with the steering. It was just steering a bit to the right, so we have to investigate that. With the tyres, the first stint was very good, we had great pace, very consistent and I was able to keep pushing and pushing and improving my time, and then we went to the… after the first pit stop, again, the same tyres, but I struggled at the beginning. I had great rear end traction, but it was pushing into understeer, plus I got a lot of traffic, so Kimi was able to close the gap, and I think he was a bit lighter than me as well, five or six laps, which I knew, so I had to manage my tyres, knowing that in the five extra laps I had, I really had to pull out the gap which I did, I think, and he came out quite a bit further behind than he was. But then the option tyre, the super soft tyre – I was very very impressed (with it), because during the weekend we thought the graining would be too bad, so bad that we would slow right up. I think Kimi was slightly faster there, and with the problem it was tricky, but I just kept pushing, never give up and just kept pushing right to the last lap.
Q:
Difficult to remember that you’re still a rookie in your first season, with all that pressure, throughout the race, with Kimi behind you. Just talk us through the mental approach you had from the start right through to the end.
LH:
Well, you can imagine, all the drama that’s gone on over the weekend, it would have been easy to lose focus. It’s been a bit of a downer on the team, but the great thing is that the team remains positive and the energy in the team still remains. And it just proves that there’s nothing that can stop us. So with that in mind, I’m able to get in the car and do my job and obviously I know how to win races. I’ve experienced having Kimi up my tail a couple of times this year, especially in Malaysia, so with that experience, today was a slightly easier but still nevertheless it was a hard race.
Q:
Kimi, I guess you know every square centimetre of the back of that
McLaren now; you spent the whole race behind him. There were moments that you were right there and looked to be slightly quicker on the road.
Kimi Raikkonen:
Yeah, I think we knew that we were going to be quick at the beginning of the race. I expected them to drop out a little bit more but they didn’t really suffer as much as I was hoping, but I would close up and just stay there. The problem here is, especially when two cars are very close, is the other guy in front really has to make a big mistake to give you any chance to get past, so it was a kind of a boring race just driving behind and waiting for something to happen and try to push as hard (as possible) to make him make a mistake but nothing happened so we really finished where we started.
Q:
How difficult was it following in his wake and his turbulence in terms of tyre and aerodynamic performance?
KR:
For sure, it makes it a bit trickier, especially in one of the fast corners, maybe not as bad as some other circuits. I think the downforce and the grip here seems to help a bit but for sure, I had a very good car today. If I could have been in the free air, we could have had very good pace but we couldn’t really use it, so…
