Planet-F1

Sunday's FIA press conference

Monday 21st July 2008

Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet Jr and Felipe Massa attended the post-race press conference in Germany.

Q: Lewis, on behalf of all race fans we have to thank you for making that such an exciting race by not coming in with the safety car. You gave yourself so much work to do in the latter stages of the race.

Lewis HAMILTON: Well, thank you. I didn't plan on doing that. I would have much preferred an easy comfortable afternoon out in front. But it didn't work that way. We had got off to a really good start. We had two very comfortable, two very decent stints and the team opted for me to stay out. I guess they thought I could pull out a gap but it was a 23 second gap I needed and I only had seven laps or something, so I don't know how that worked out. I kind of understood and I just kept pushing. I was over the limit, pushing and pushing trying to get the gap but I came out behind Heikki. I have to say a big thank you to Heikki, he was a great team-mate. He didn't put up a huge fight and saw that I was quicker and enabled me to get past quicker. And so a big thank you to him. I was able to pull it off. I had good tyres. I guess it was exciting for him and it was exciting for me.

Q: I take it there was not much discussion between you and the team about the decision?

LH: Not really no. I said 'you sure about this' and they said 'fine'. But we all have decisions and opinions on certain things and for sure we will learn from this one and move onto the next race. But still we had the best car. The quickest car this weekend and we came out on top. That's due to a lot of hard work from all the guys here. The team is fantastic, here and back home and also in Germany. They have all done a phenomenal job.

Q: And talk about those two great passes on Nelson and Felipe.

LH: With Felipe I saw that I was a lot quicker than him. I was told I was a second quicker than him at the time, so I just tried to keep up the pace. Obviously I was on the early few laps with my tyres and I knew I only had a small window to get past him before they began to grain and before they would slide around. I had to push to get as close to him as possible but the great thing about this track is that you can follow other people. Or so I found. So I was able to get quite close through the last two corners, follow him all the way down to turn two and slipstream him. But again towards the end of the straight he sort of matched my speed and I found it difficult to get past, so I just had to do it on the brakes. He gave me plenty of room. I think it was quite a good battle. It was fun. I think for Nelson, I thought my work was done but they said 'you still have to get past Nelson.' I was thinking 'okay, I've just worked my backside off but that's fine'. Again he put on a good battle but again it was very fair.

Q: Nelson, you must be euphoric to start 17th on the grid and finish on the podium. That is the first time two Brazilians have finished on the podium since your Dad shared it with Ayrton Senna back at Spa in 1991.

Nelson PIQUET: I don't even know where to start. It started to be a good weekend on Friday and in first practice Saturday. The car was getting better and better and our set-up was working very well. Fernando even used a bit of our set-up as I think they went the wrong way a bit. Things went well until qualifying when I didn't have a very good run in the first outing. When I went out the second time I got a bit of traffic and that was it. I couldn't get a good lap and started near the back. I thought that had finished my weekend but obviously with these safety car rules you can get quite lucky. The team did a good decision by calling me in at the right time. Obviously before the race we had a bit of a gamble between one and two stops. We had an option open for when we started the race. I think that was the perfect strategy. If we had gone for an aggressive short first stint to try to overtake in the beginning I wouldn't have arrived here. Everything worked out great as well. I got lucky and just maintained my pace in the end and finished here.

Q: Your pit stop window coincided with the safety car. But you had tremendous pressure at the end form Lewis and Felipe.

NP: Yeah, I mean after the safety car I knew I just had to keep my pace. I didn't want to push the tyres at the beginning. I could have pushed a bit more the first phase but I wanted to keep them until the end as I knew I had to run until the end. When I was leading the race I knew Lewis was coming by quick and I knew Felipe wasn't that much quicker than me, so I decided not to make it such a big fuss with Lewis. And he was so much quicker than us. If I would have fought it would have been a risk for maybe Felipe to arrive and he could have overtaken me. I just decided to have a safe second place than to have a third or fourth place and not be too happy. The race was good. I just maintained the pace, no mistakes and kept the rear tyres to the end.

Q: Felipe, a difficult day for you. But talk about the start?

Felipe MASSA: For sure I expected maybe a different race because the pace of Lewis at the beginning was so quick. By then I knew they were much quicker than us here on the track. Even looking at the pace in the race I would say I did a good qualifying because they had a good pace. Also in the race in the first stint he was just half-a-second per lap quicker and when it is like that you cannot do anything. Then just after the safety car we did the normal job, the team did a good job but it was more or less the normal job. Maybe Lewis was a bit too optimistic on the safety car. We restarted the race and I saw the pace of the car and the brakes and we had the hard tyres as the soft were so difficult to drive as well and I just couldn't have the pace. It was just slow with difficult stability and also on braking I think I had a little problem as well and lost a lot of performance. I didn't have the car to fight. I tried but it was not possible. At the end of the day it was a good race because we finished third. Even with a little bit more than the middle of the season the championship is open. We need to work very hard for sure. But I trust the team and I know they are going to work very hard and we are going to have a competitive car for the next races. Also I welcome Nelson. It is very nice. I am sure he is feeling a great time. The feeling to be on the podium the first time I remember. It was two years ago at the Nürburgring and I was so happy, like a child, I am sure he is very happy and I welcome him to this nice place in F1.

Q: Lewis, your fourth win in a season and second in a row. You are leading the championship by four points, which is not much, but a nice momentum.

LH: Yeah, overall it's been a very good weekend. I think it has been our best weekend up until now. I think we have just been very strong