“I thank my team for a great job; they did fantastic work and we always made the right decisions with the tyres in the difficult conditions. When I came round the last time, I saw the crowd standing up and I prayed ‘just finish, just finish'.
“It was a very emotional moment to win my home grand prix, and I want to dedicate this victory to my family, who are all here. As everybody knows, I had some troubles over the past few weeks and they have been always there for me and supported me, so this is for them. To pull on another Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes rocket-red victory T-shirt feels awesome. It's the best weekend ever!”
The Stevenage-born ace's seventh career triumph in just 26 races in the top flight also drew substantial words of praise from
McLaren team principal Ron Dennis and Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug, with the Anglo-German outfit's second ‘home' grand prix next on the
F1 schedule at Hockenheim in a fortnight's time.
“To win your home grand prix is always special,” Dennis noted, “and so today is indeed a special day for Lewis. It's also a special day for all at McLaren-Mercedes. Above all it was a magnificent grand prix, full of drama, and it was won by a man who mastered the treacherous conditions faultlessly.
“Lewis' was one of those drives that will live in the memory for a long time – but it should be remembered that, fabulous though Lewis' performance was, it was also the result of brilliant teamwork by our engineers and mechanics.”
“Lewis managed a superb and most impressive win,” concurred Haug, “and over the 60 laps he was on average more than one second per lap faster then
Nick Heidfeld in second place and lapped all drivers behind third place. We are back in the title fight and that's great!
“Lewis is back in the lead with 48 points; he is tied on points with
Felipe Massa and
Kimi Raikkonen. We are now focusing on our second home grand prix in Hockenheim in two weeks' time. Let's try to do the same there!”
