TV unilaterals
Q:
Felipe, you like winning from pole. The Turkish Grand Prix always results in a winner from pole and everything delivered for you today.
Felipe Massa:
It is just fantastic. Today was a very difficult race actually and Lewis was pushing me hard a lot for the whole race. Then when I did my pit-stop he was there straight away, so I thought maybe he had put less fuel in or something. I then realised and my team told me straight away he was on three stops. For sure, that was a little bit of help as he was very strong and I couldn’t hold him on the track and he passed me. But then I knew I still had a good chance to win the race as three stops were a little bit optimistic. But anyway I created a reasonable gap to be at the front after the pit stops. It was difficult, but we made it three times in Turkey which is just fantastic. I think I can get a passport here already.
Q:
Ferrari were very good on both types of
Bridgestone tyre unlike most of the other cars in the field and starting on the option, or softer type of tyre, was unusual as far as rest of the grid was concerned.
FM:
Yeah, I was just talking with Kimi. Today was a very difficult day to choose the tyres as the difference was not so big from the soft to the hard, even on the first lap and during the run. The hard was much better on Friday but my softs survived quite well on Friday, so we were really keen to use the softs today. But then I saw Lewis going very quickly with the hards and we thought maybe it was a little bit of a mistake. In the last run I think the car was so easy to run on the hard that maybe it was the right choice to choose the hard.
Q:
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.
Q:
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.
Q:
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?
