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DRIVERS // 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes) 2 –
Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes) 3 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Martin Brundle)
Q: Lewis, congratulations. You had to work so hard for that one.
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, today was a really, really hard job. This weekend the
Ferraris have been incredible and I just had to see Charles because he did
such a great job. I’m sure this is a devastating result for him as he had
done the job to win the race. We were definitely lucky today but you have to
take it as it comes. Ultimately, I still gave it everything in the race and
I pushed as hard as I could, and obviously the fight I had with Vettel was
great fun for me.
Q: Take us through that. You went around the outside of Turn 4 a couple of
times and Seb spun off behind you.
LH: Yeah, if you look at that big flag on top of that tower there is a
massive headwind into Turn 4, so I just gave it everything and braked later
than usual and dived down the outside. I don’t think we touched or anything
like that, but this is a great result for the team considering how hard the
race was. This guy here [Leclerc] has lots more wins coming in the future so
congratulations to him.
Q: Charles, I’ll come back to you. I’ll just have a quick word with
Valtteri. Valtteri, P2, pretty satisfying, the pace was difficult, but you
were there when it mattered.
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I think as a team we got a bit lucky today but we
kept it together, we did no mistake as a team and the car was very reliable
– and that’s the win today. The hard work at the factory is paying off like
this, so that is good. Otherwise a difficult race for me. The balance of the
car was a bit everywhere and I ended up doing a lot of mistakes and so on.
Q: A great start and you weren’t giving Lewis any extra space there in the
early laps?
VB: No, I never will. The first lap was good. I had a bit of a lock-up into
Turn 1, so I lost a place but then I had a good battle with Lewis and
congrats to him.
Q: OK, congratulations on second place. Oh, Charles, I think your car should
be parked there [in P1] today?
Charles LECLERC: It happens. It’s part of motor sport. Unfortunately today
it was not our day. But I am confident. The team has done an amazing job to
recover the lack of pace we had in Australia. And yeah, what to say? Of
course I’m extremely disappointed, like the whole team, but it happens in
the seasons. I think we made the best out of it. We have been lucky in a
very unlucky situation. Hopefully we had the safety car at the end,
otherwise we would have finished even more rearward and also I don’t think
with the fuel we would have been OK. Vey hard one to take but thanks to the
team for the amazing car all weekend long and I’m pretty sure we’ll come
back stronger.
Q: Well, you got the point for fastest lap. The first few corners seemed a
bit difficult, low grip, but then you took the lead beautifully.
CL: Yeah, I didn’t do a good start. Then we were very strong all race long.
It’s a shame to only finish third but as I said, it’s part of racing, and we
will come back stronger.
Q: It’s your first podium, let’s look on the bright side.
CL: Yeah, exactly. But, as I’ve said a lot in the past, I’m never really
looking at the result, I’m more looking at the potential there was to do
better. Today, third was not our place, but yeah, very happy anyway.
Congratulations to Lewis and Valtteri and as I’ve said many times, we’ll
come back stronger.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, an incredible race from start to finish for everybody but another
really good performance from you. As you lined up on the grid today what
were your expectations?
LH: I think the expectation was it was going to be a very, very tough race.
Clearly the Ferraris had been quick all weekend. Charles had been incredibly
rapid all weekend and was quickest in all sessions, and truly deserved the
win. I think at the start I was hopeful to leapfrog at least one of the cars
and in my opportunistic mind I was thinking to jump both of them at the
start. But I got a terrible start once again, which is a bit disappointing,
as I’ve put a lot of work in to try and improve those. You fall down and you
juts keep going, and get back up and I’ll keep trying. After that, I think
it was up and down clearly throughout the race. It looked like I could keep
up with at least one of the Ferraris. And then that second stint was
horrible, on the soft tyre. Then we fell back behind the Ferraris and it
looked like we were out of contention for a second or even the wind. I was
just battling this snappy, oversteery car in these winds, which were very
tricky out there. And then with the undercut, that was a very exciting
moment for me. I definitely didn’t see all that happening when we pulled up
to the grid, but I’m grateful for it. As I’ve said, clearly we were very
lucky today to get the 1-2 as a team. I think collectively we’d done a solid
job through the weekend and Ferrari had out-performed us from the get-go.
We’ve got to continue to work, as everyone is, it’s very, very hard. We’ll
analyse where we have gone wrong this weekend. And as I was saying
downstairs, for Charles… do they call you Charles or Charles?
CL: I don’t mind. Whatever is easier for you.
LH: I’m struggling every time I say the name. He did an incredible job this
weekend and he’s got a beautiful, bright future ahead of him, so this will
only make him stronger.
Q: Valtteri, 32nd podium of your career, we saw you make a great start.
You’re still leading the Championship after race two. How do you sum it all
up?
VB: Yeah, actually there were many points that were very interesting and
exciting in that race and good fun – but then there were points in that race
where I felt quite lonely! I didn’t see anyone. So, yeah, I had a great
start to the race, I managed to get into P2 but then on Lap One into Turn
One I think the wind caught me up a bit, I braked a bit too late into Turn
One, trying to keep my position, and I lost two places – so back to fourth
place. I think Ferrari, ultimately, was very, very strong again today, like
yesterday – but yeah, during the times with the wind I ended-up doing some
mistakes, like I think some other drivers did as well, and it was extremely
difficult to keep the rhythm – but yeah, there were some good battles and so
on. I managed to save the engine at some point when there was no threat from
behind and a big gap in front. Also, I had a plastic bag stuck on my front
wing at some point, which was costing performance, so not the perfect race
but in the end, luck was on our side and we’ll definitely take it –
especially me, after al the bad luck last year. So, obviously hard luck for
Charles, he was very strong – but y’know, it will come for him. I had to
wait for more than 80 races for my first win, so I’m sure it’s going to be
OK.
Q: Charles, coming on to you, your first podium in Formula One, but
obviously tinged with disappointment. I just wanted to ask you what
positives you can take from today?
CL: I think from the whole weekend there are a lot of positives to take.
After Australia we were quite a lot far off. I think we found some answers –
not all of them – but we found some. We came here, front row lock-out, which
was very positive for the team, and we showed that they have done an amazing
job. That doesn’t mean we’ll stay there for the rest of the season but that
just shows off how good of a job they’ve done between the two races. And
then I think we’ve shown also that we had very strong pace during the race.
Probably we were the strongest today. Unfortunately the issues stopped us
winning – but, on the other hand, issues always happen in a season and, if
any time I have an issue, I finish third, then I think we could be quite
happy. Today was not our day. It’s sad, because obviously I was so close of
realising a dream that you have since childhood, which is your first win in
Formula One – but hopefully this day will come one day in the future. I’ll
work for that, and I’m pretty sure the team will work for this but they
should be proud about what they’ve done this weekend, and we’ll come back
stronger.
Q: How comfortable did you feel out front?
CL: Well, very comfortable. The car felt amazing. There was quite a lot of
wind, which was extremely tricky, especially out of [Turn] Four. So yeah, it
was a very difficult race. i had to stay on it absolutely every lap. So
yeah, it was very enjoyable, especially in the first part of the race when I
had to catch back the position lost at the start.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for you Charles. Can
you describe how you felt the problem for the first time – and then what
happened afterwards. Did you try to reset the car? Was there an intention to
stop the car at all? Can you just talk us through it.
CL: To be honest, how I felt in the car, I really thought everything would
blow up a few laps later. Happily it has not been the case and we still
finished third, so yeah, just a loss of power, completely, very sudden. It
got a tiny bit better after but the problem stayed there. And there were no
signs before it to feel that anything was going wrong.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, how does it feel when you pass
someone who is having some problems for a win. And a question for Charles,
how difficult was it to pass Seb on Lap Five?
LH: Ultimately you want to pass someone because you’re quicker than them and
through a fight. I went past Charles down the back straight and I raised my
hand to him because there’s nothing I could do, obviously I didn’t have any
problems, so it definitely feels weird and, honestly, you can’t believe your
luck in those scenarios, but what can you do? You can’t deny yourself it.
You just have to keep doing what you’re doing and pushing ahead. As I was
saying, I’ve been in positions like that: we’ve been in the lead many a time
when the car has stopped and I know how it feels. But it’s always good to
look at the glass half full because today he still got some great points
even though he had that problem and he was an outlier all weekend – even to
his team-mate, he was so much faster than his team-mate all weekend so he
has so many positives to take from it and we have a lot of work to do to try
and keep up with him!
CL: Yes, well, it’s always a tricky situation when you get to fight your
team-mate because the risks are very high and, as in every team, I think,
they warn you before the race: OK, you can try things on different people,
but with your team-mate, please be careful – which is something normal. So
it’s always obviously that something more. But yeah, I had the opportunity
on lap five and I didn’t hesitate, I just sent for it. I was happy it was
successful the first time I tried, especially after the bad start. So yeah,
happy with how it ended-up.
Q: (Ben Anderson – F1 Racing) Charles, you mentioned just after the race
that you were lucky in an unlucky situation because of concerns over fuel.
Was that a result of the problem you had with the MGU-H or were you
struggling with fuel before the problem struck?
CL: No, no. It was just the result because of obviously being very slow on
the straight, we were spending a lot more time on the straight so you are
using a lot more fuel than normal so it was just a normal consequence of the
lack of power on the straights.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Charles, at the start you lost the lead,
obviously. How did you feel about that at the time, what was your approach
after that and then we heard you come on the radio and say to the team
‘guys, I’m quicker’? Were you worried at that point that you weren’t going
to be allowed to race and try to pass Sebastian?
CL: No, I was just letting them know. Then I think I had an answer, saying
to me ‘OK, stay like this for two laps’ but then on the next straight I had
the opportunity to go for it, so I went for it and it was a successful pass
and then I was just quicker, so then I did my race. Then obviously, to lose
the lead in this way it’s always a shame and always a disappointment but I
also had a lot of things to do and there were still points to grab so I very
quickly got back to focus on my race. Obviously the win was out of reach
because of the problem but there were still very important points to gain. I
just tried to focus as much as possible, meet the disappointment on one side
and… yeah.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, it seems to me that those extra
points for fastest laps are working because you are now leading because of
that. Do you agree?
VB: Fully agree. They are points that will count at the end of the
championship. Obviously, now, at this point, it doesn’t matter much but what
matters is at the end of the championship and we’ve seen many championships
finishing with very small margins. Today it was a bit out of reach with the
strong pace of Ferrari, they got it, but yeah, for sure while there is this
opportunity it’s going to be important but anyways, even though it felt a
super-difficult race I’m happy to be getting this amount of points because
in the end, consistency is going to be the key.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) We go to China and Baku, circuits
with completely different characteristics to this one. Do you think the
picture we have here we can transport to other rounds of the season?
LH: I think it’s really difficult to say, honestly. We’ve only had two races
and they’ve been flipside, you know, both sides. One where we were rapid and
far ahead and this weekend where they were. So as always, every season, it
takes a good few races before you kind of get a gist of where it all is but
I anticipate it’s going to be back and forth between the two of us. If they
have this straight speed in the next race then we’ll be watching them
disappear but obviously we’re going to be working hard to try and understand
where we went wrong this weekend and if we can improve the car but as you
can see, reliability is also a very very key important part, so we’ve just
got to keep working on all areas.
VB: Agree.
CL: No, as Lewis said, I think we struggled quite a lot in Australia. Here
the car felt a lot better overall. Now we just need to work and make it feel
that way every race weekend, but obviously the track characteristics are
also taken into account. It has been a good weekend for us but that doesn’t
mean it will be like this for the rest of the season, so we need to work and
try to keep the position that we’ve had this weekend but it’s obviously not
going to be easy.
Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Charles, you mentioned earlier that you were
so close to fulfilling a childhood dream. Does today feel like the cruellest
race you’ve had in your career?
CL: I will not go to that extreme because I think Formula Two in Monaco was
probably the worst I’ve ever had but yeah, because it’s still a podium and
it’s my first podium in Formula One so in a way I feel I should enjoy it,
the way I felt like there was a lot more to take this weekend but yeah,
overall, of course, it’s not the ideal race we wanted but we shall be happy
about our third place despite problems. |
