Press conference:
Q:
Lewis, I guess this race was epitomised by the fact that you had a bigger lead at the end of the first lap than you did on the last lap. A fantastic start, too.
LH:
Yeah, that was a great race. We had great pace, which I was quite confident we would. In that first stint, we were able to pull out a gap and control the pace, look after the tyres and look after the fuel etc. I had an idea that we might be slightly longer than Kimi and in actual fact we were so considering that we were heavier, it was good pace. So I looked after the tyres. The consistency was very good. Going into the second stint, I had a problem, I started locking up and I had some sort of problem with my steering so my steering was to the right and so it made it extremely tricky to drive. The front end was just a lot different to what it was in the first stint. So that enabled Kimi to catch up. I thought it was best to stay off the kerbs, because I didn’t know… it was a similar sort of feeling to Nürburgring, so be careful. But the team came on the radio and said that it wasn’t really a problem, the car will be fine, so then I was able to continue to push, but still, it affected me and Kimi had great pace at the end.
Q:
Of course with the steering wheel on modern
Formula One cars, it’s not as though you just move your hands further round is it?
LH:
No, exactly, so you can imagine driving the whole race like that. It makes quite a big difference when you’re turning left and obviously having to put in more effort to turn right.
Q:
And also a longer stint than Kimi.
LH:
Yes, we had a good fuel strategy in the first stint which enabled us to… plus we had very good pace… enabled us to go longer, so we knew that in the second stint… and we could see Kimi was very very fast, but he was quite a bit lighter than us, so I had to manage my tyres in the best way possible, knowing that when he pitted, I needed to maximise the gap which I think I did. That was really not the turning point but solidified the race, but then he was catching me at the end, so it was tricky all the way to the last lap.
Q:
How much pressure in that last stint?
LH:
At the beginning, when I had traffic, he was getting closer and closer. What was important was to get good exits and try and maintain the gap as much as I could without damaging the tyres, because we knew that with the super soft tyre, it would be a problem, but fortunately it wasn’t. Once I got a clean gap, I was able just to manage it and not push the engine too hard and keep the gap. I think it was something like one or two seconds, so I just maintained that, instead of pushing extra and coming off. I just kept it the same.
Q:
Kimi, good start, you picked up a place there.
KR:
Yeah, we were expecting to have a good start. It’s been working pretty well in the last few races, so it was good to get behind Lewis but it wasn’t enough, unfortunately. The problem really was that we came in on the same lap on the first pit stop and it’s really guessing, guessing what the other team will do and we didn’t get it right. We had enough speed with the same fuel load if we had been behind them, to stay there, even with more so. Unfortunately we got it wrong and we couldn’t do anything after that, really.
