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1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard)
Q: Valtteri Bottas, pole position here at Silverstone. It’s been a while –
Barcelona your last one – but you must be particularly proud of that one?
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it feels very good. It just reminds you of why you do
this, these kinds of feelings, but yeah, it’s been pretty close all weekend,
and today, with Lewis and just really, really happy to get a good lap and be
on pole.
Q: Put us in the cockpit. You had the provisional pole you would look at the
overlay and realise that Lewis had made a mistake at Brooklands and you know
you have to dig deep and find something. You didn’t manage to improve on
that time but where was your mind on the lap in terms of know how good the
previous one was?
VB: Yeah, I knew the first lap was good but it was not perfect. Honestly I
should have improved on the second run. I didn’t quite get the lap together,
especially in the first part of the lap, but I’m glad it was enough. It’s
not easy to get a good lap together, it’s easy to do mistakes and I think
everyone was struggling a bit, so happy to be on top.
Q: I’m not sure the crowd are happy with what you’ve done but
congratulations?
VB: Thank you.
Q: Lewis Hamilton, it was close and you worked that hard, but we saw you had
that little wobble in the second-last lap in qualifying. Tell us about your
actual ultimate lap, it’s a tiny gap between you and Valtteri.
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, firstly, congratulations to Valtteri, he did a solid
job throughout qualifying. Ultimately not good enough, We had worked hard
throughout the session but it just got a little bit away from us. We
sacrificed a lap in Q2, which would have helped get a reading of where the
car was, but we didn’t end up doing that. At the end I had that mistake on
the first lap and the second one just wasn’t that great so fair play to
Valtteri he did the job. But it’s a long race tomorrow, we’ve got a great
crowd here and hopefully I can do something good for them tomorrow.
Q: The crowd are willing you on. It’s another grand prix, or is it? It’s
more than just a grand prix, the British Grand Prix for you?
LH: Yeah, completely. It’s the best grand prix of the year and it’s really
because of the energy the3 people bring. These tracks are great layouts and
designs and areas of space but without people like this to fill it up and
bring energy it’s nothing. That’s why we’ve got the best fans here in
England.
Q: Charles, well done, fastest Ferrari driver but that’s ultimately not your
goal. We looked through free practice and Ferrari looked like they could
challenge Mercedes but in the end it was a tough one for you?
Charles LECLERC: Yeah, well, I think also in Q2, up to Q2 we were quite good
but then in Q3 Mercedes turned up a little bit the engine, and they were
very, very quick also round the corners, that’s where we need to work, we
know it. Third place is the best we could have done today and I’m very happy
about it.
Q: I saw you having a close look at the Mercedes car. This is the one time
on a weekend when it’s acceptable to be a little bit nosy. Anything standing
out there that you like?
CL: No, just looking at the state of the tyres, that’s nothing special.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Valtteri, a tremendous lap by you at the start of Q3. Very tight between
you and your team-mate. Just how good was that first lap?
VB: It was good. Obviously good enough for pole. There was not much in it
between me and Lewis in the end. But still, going into the second run, there
were a couple of place where it was clear there was margin to improve so I
wouldn’t say it was a perfect lap, but I doubt anyone got a perfect lap
today. It was not easy to get everything right and super-sensitive to tiny
mistakes here and there with this new tarmac and also with a bit of wind.
But yeah, I’m happy that it was enough and it’s definitely a good feeling.
Q: Valtteri, you now have more poles this season than any other driver. Is
that significant to you and have you worked specifically on qualifying this
year, something more than previous seasons?
VB: It’s not that I have been specifically been working on it. Obviously you
always try to improve your performance both on low- and high-fuel, short and
long runs. I think the biggest thing for me to work on is the pure race pace
definitely, in some kinds of conditions. I mean, year-by-year you are always
learning and you get quicker if you work. The main thing is to turn those
poles into wins and that’s the main thing for tomorrow.
Q: Congratulations. Lewis, motorsport is full of ifs, buts and maybes. Had
you not made that error at Brooklands on your first lap in Q3 and got a
complete lap in might it have been different?
LH: It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. You can’t go back, you
can only go forwards. Valtteri did the job, so congratulations to him. And
for us, yeah, it just wasn’t the best of qualifying sessions. But there’s a
long race tomorrow so I just have to see how I can convert the position I’m
in to progress forward. I think the long run yesterday was good, so I hope
we can utilise the tyre advantage we have, in the sense of starting on the
mediums, so hopefully we can do a good job with that tomorrow.
Q: Did the track conditions fluctuate a lot during that session?
LH: Not really. It’s a little bit gusty here. That’s why it’s so great here
at Silverstone, because it’s spread over such a vast piece of land and
sometimes it’s raining on one section of the track and not another and it’s
gusty in some places and not so much in other places. It really bodes well
for a tough track to finish a lap on.
Q: Charles, like Lewis, you came on the radio and said you had made a
mistake on that first run in Q3. Do you feel there was more out there today?
CL: No, I don’t think so. Very, very happy with my lap. I think in the last
corner I maybe could have done a little bit better, but not much. Overall, I
think we are very happy with the performance, very close to Mercedes and we
did not expect it. We thought we would be struggling more this weekend. We
have been struggling since FP1 with the front end of the car, still in
qualifying, but a little bit less. So yeah, it’s a good qualifying session
for us. Of course, I would have hoped for a higher position, but third is
the best we could have done today.
Q: As with Austria you will start the race on the soft tyre, the guys next
to you are going to be on the medium tyre. How do you see the tyre war
playing out .
CL: Again, it was thought. So we wanted to do that. Again, in Austria it
wasn’t a bad choice. That’s not what made us finish second there so we are
pretty happy here too.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Charles, just following up on
the Q2 and the soft tyre. You made the first run on the medium tyre and then
set the fastest lap on the soft. Was it always the plan to qualify with the
soft, because yesterday’s long runs didn’t look that great and it was a bit
surprising to us that you improved your time?
CL: Yes, it was planned like this. The race run was not great yesterday but
it was not due to the tyre, as I said. We had some issues with the front end
and I think it got better today, so we will see tomorrow whether we have a
significant improvement on the long runs, but it was not due to the tyre.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Valtteri and Lewis: Lewis, after practice
yesterday you talked about having a little bit of difficulty with the
balance of the car, the rear was stepping out a bit. Did that carry into
today or were you happy with the car. Valtteri, you started strongly
yesterday, has that just continued and do you just feel very happy with the
balance of the car?
VB: Well, yeah, from the very beginning, since the first practice the
feeling was quite nice. There was definitely room for improvement,
especially with the rear end of the car, mainly on the entry of the corners.
I think we managed to get it a bit better. It was still the weakness in a
couple of places the rear end of the car but it’s not been a massive drama.
I managed to build up from yesterday, except for practice three, I was a bit
off the pace. I just tried to reset and remind myself of everything I was
capable of doing yesterday and it turned out to be good.
Q: And Lewis?
LH: Yeah the car was good. We made a big step forward, so no problems.
Q: (Simon Amberley – Nevis Radio) To Charles: it was mentioned yesterday
that maybe the Ferrari race pace wasn’t quite as strong as Mercedes, but
with the gaps today and the difference on the tyres do you think possibly if
you get a jump at the start, of getting Valtteri and Lewis, do you think you
can maybe dictate the pace a bit more?
CL: That’s definitely the target - to try to use our tyre advantage,
especially at the start, to gain positions and then try to keep them.
Keeping them will be very difficult because they are extremely quick in race
runs but that’s the target.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – liviooricchiof1.com) Lewis, from the outside it didn’t
appear that you had the car in your hands all the time. Is it because of the
circumstances or maybe you have a set-up thinking more of the race?
LH: No, the set-up suited race trim best and I think yesterday I really did
struggle with it on a single lap and of course I was trying to improve it
over the evening and into today. It felt great into P3 and it felt really
good at the star5 of the Q sessions and it kind of deteriorated through the
session, so it got harder and harder, back towards a similar problem we had
yesterday – as you saw in Turn 6 for example. But it was also windy. The
race trim is still good. I didn’t want to move from the set-up I had, too
far away, because it worked so well on the long run yesterday. Fingers
crossed the strength in the race should be quite good but again it depends
on what position we are in and how the wind is and a bunch of other factors.
Q: (Yassmin Abdel-Magied – The Guardian) I’ve got a slightly less technical
question. Lewis, this is your home race and there’s lot of British flags out
there and you’ve talked about loving coming back to the UK but there’s
contention because you live in Monaco, and your accent isn’t maybe as
British as others because you spend a lot of time in the US. So, why do you
think that people question your Britishness.
LH: I don’t really know. I don’t really have a good answer for that.
VB: We all live in Monaco!
LH: We all do live in Monaco. It’s crazy now because every driver… I
remember growing up, you remember watching Jenson Button and all the
youngsters come through, and every one migrated to Monaco and no-one ever
said anything about it at the time. Of course, when I did, they had
something to say about it. But no matter how often you go abroad or
elsewhere in the world, you come back to the UK and you see the beautiful
countryside, you see this great… y’know, the history of Formula One and
motorsport which is really here, and I see all my family who are also here
and this is, of course, feels like where my heart is and ultimately fully
British. Of course, I still like to honour my family heritage. My family are
from the Caribbean. But… I don’t know. People have a right to their own
opinion. If you look around, there’s a lot of Team LH caps. The support that
I’ve had has been just incredible and it’s been growing over the years, and
whilst, of course, there’s always going to be people with negative views on
things, I feel like every day is an opportunity to try to turn those that do
have a negative view on things. I guess over time I’ll do more and more
positive things for the country. Ultimately, I go to all these race and I
lift the British flag proudly. There’s no-one else in this sport that’s
raised it so high. At the moment, probably that’s not enough. I’ll keep
looking out for what else I can do. And for those who do follow me, I really
do appreciate their support.
Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Lewis, there’s been some dramas here at
Silverstone with the surface and they seem to have got everything done
pretty quickly, but there were quite a lot of incidents at Turn Six
yesterday. I wonder if you could tell us – you had one too, I think, there –
can you tell us what was wrong there and is it better today and is the
circuit settling down?
LH: Ultimately last year, we’d come out of Turn Four and it was the bumpiest
straight that probably you’ve ever been on before, rattling your teeth out
for most of us. Also, for the motorbikes, it was quite bumpy then. In other
areas it was OK. I think they’ve redone it this year; it’s much better on
that straight but there are – and I guess it’s just the way it goes – but
bumps into Turn Six are pretty hardcore but I think more so it’s the
crosswind people are struggling with there. Maybe the bumps and also the
crosswind that you have there, which everyone struggles with, and I’ve also
struggled with – but then there’s also Turn Seven, it’s very bumpy but then
the straight down to Copse is good, and then up to Maggotts and Becketts
it’s good. It’s fantastic, and then after Maggotts and Becketts, down Stowe
Straight it’s great, 15, 16, 17. So, it’s pretty much spot-on, perfect,
apart from three bumps at the entry of Six and exit of Seven.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to all three drivers. What kind of
weather do you expect tomorrow and what is the weather that will suit more
the strategy you chose for the first tyre you will start on.
CL: I haven’t watched the forecast yet, so I don’t really know – but I
guess, yeah, in Silverstone it’s often very unpredictable, and as we’ve seen
in the last two days, you can have drops any time. So, it will make the race
quite interesting if it’s like this. Then, if I can choose, the best would
probably have a good start on the Soft, do seven laps and then big rain and
keep this position. But I don’t choose. I think it will be very
unpredictable anyway.
VB: Like yesterday there was no proper chance of rain but it still had a bit
of drizzle, so I think anything can come from the sky, you never know – and
no idea what will be best for us. At least it’s cooler than Austria, so
that’s always good news but anything else, we should be OK.
LH: I’m down for some good old English weather tomorrow! Good old English
weather is sunny, hale, rain! Sun, snow, the whole mixture. No, naturally
it’s better for all the fans when it’s dry but I don’t mind if it rains
either way. It’s really great, this track, in the wet. I guess we’ll all
discuss whether we do the rain dance tonight or not.
Q: (Rob Harris – AP) Hi Lewis, it came down to six milliseconds today. Some
quotes around from Nico Rosberg saying that, if he’d been travelling and
partying in LA, then he’d be qualifying down in tenth – but you can cope
with it, he was suggesting. When you assess things, do you think the
clearing of the mind outweighs the travel by… sort of… going to LA between
races like that and having the trips?
LH: I think naturally it’s easy to say that. People to have views. I do have
five world titles. They didn’t come on their own. You know me.
VB: I think you gain time by partying. As a Finn, it’s a feeling.
LH: Valtteri parties way more than me!
VB: I have a party, I gain lap time, so…
LH: I think ultimately, when I started doing the travels and focussing on
these other things, people always had… there was always the issue and people
would have comments on it. Particularly the pressure of then having to
arrive and making sure you definitely delivered the same. It took a long
time to break that mould, and I’ve done it time and time and time again. My
preparation comes first. I’ve felt fantastic all weekend. The pressure’s
quite high here, obviously being your home grand prix, and so I don’t look
upon that lightly, and I prepare the best way I can. But also, I do what I
want – I don’t do what you think I should do, or anyone else thinks I should
do. Only I know what’s right for me – and again, that’s what’s led me to
five world titles. And don’t forget the amount of wins I have, all of that
stuff, so… yeah.
Q: (Keith Collantine – racefans.net) Question for Charles, you’ve said a few
times in recent races you feel you’ve raised your game in qualifying
recently. The clearest way we can see that is you’ve just out-qualified
Sebastian for the third race in a row – but how much more do you think there
is that you can find in the Ferrari? And particularly today, was there the
extra eight hundredths of a second that you needed to be sitting where
Valtteri is sitting?
CL: At the time, as I said earlier, I think out main issue is the front end.
Once we’ll fix this, I’m pretty sure there will be quite a bit of
performance in that – because also again, in qualifying today, especially
the third sector, I was struggling quite a lot with the front end to
grip-up. So yeah, there’s still a lot of performance into that, whether
we’ll know how to overcome this issue is another matter, so we need to be
working very hard on that, and hopefully some performance will come when we
fix this.
Q: (Tom Jackson – City Press) Charles, both Red Bulls split you and
Sebastian today. Do you think tomorrow you will be able to comfortably stay
ahead of them or do you expect a fight with them more than you do with the
Mercedes?
CL: If we look at the Friday race simulations, I think it’s going to be very
difficult to fight with - or at least Lewis’s race run was very very strong
so yeah, we need to work on that but Red Bull seems to be very quick also in
the race runs so it’s going to be tricky. If we manage to gain some
positions at the start, it’s a track where it’s quite hard to overtake so
then we have some chances to keep them but if not I guess it’s going to be
very difficult to fight with them.
Q: (Laurence Edmonson – ESPN) Valtteri, two of your pole positions earlier
this year didn’t quite go to plan, the starts didn’t work out. Can you just
explain if you’ve anything to try and rectify that and how the other starts
have been and whether you’ve found a solution to it?
VB: Yeah, I’ve definitely been working a lot on the starts this year and
especially after the couple of not ideal ones, so I’ve been focusing a lot
and feel much more comfortable with the starts than earlier in the year.
Obviously every start is going to be different, we always have different
circumstances, different set of tyres, temperatures but yeah, feel more
confident and obviously aiming for a good start tomorrow and use the good
grid position.
Q: (Sam Hall – Autoweek) Lewis, this year it seems that you’ve found
qualifying a little bit harder to get pole on the Saturdays. Is the car a
bit more difficult to get the one lap pace out of or is it something that’s
changed with you as a driver?
LH: No, I think… we’re not halfway through the year yet. We’ve definitely
had some poles but Valtteri has done some great laps throughout qualifying.
It definitely has been a car that’s a little bit… I think with the tyres
it’s a little bit harder to get it perfect every single time but it’s just
qualifying, if you’ve seen a lot of the races, it doesn’t necessarily always
determine what happens always in the race. Of course it’s great to always
start at the front. It makes your day a little bit more simple but
nonetheless it’s really great that we continue to work forwards as a team
and lock out the front row. I’m really proud to be a part of that and still
to get a one-two today is still significant, considering we have all of our
team actually coming this weekend. Of course, Valtteri and I, I think we
have a great relationship, we always want to beat each other but I’ll go
back, look at the data today, did a better job and tomorrow you’ll do a
great job as well and the duel tomorrow is who can do a better job tomorrow.
There’s plenty more pole positions up for grabs between all of us so just
got to keep working hard.
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Valtteri and Lewis; Valtteri, when we spoke you said
the time is now for you to start effectively getting your elbows out.
Indeed, is this the time that you’re starting to sense that? Lewis, are you
prepared to race against what I guess we could call Valtteri 2.1, new
version, newly enthused, ready to go again after a good start and obviously
a bit of a slump but coming back?
VB: Well, if you look at the points, for sure the championship fight is
still on. Obviously I’m the one chasing, I’m behind with I don’t know the
exact number but roughly thirty points or something but so many races to go
and it’s going to be a lot up to me and my performance, so definitely every
single opportunity there is I need to get those and if I don’t get those
then Lewis is going to be far away and not be able to reach in terms of
points so tomorrow is super important, but so is the race after and the race
after. The season is still long so I really need to try and take those
opportunities and for sure will do everything I can to keep that lead
tomorrow.
Q: Lewis, your thoughts on Valtteri 2.1?
LH: 2.1 or 2.4 or what’s the difference? I work closely with this guy, it’s
Valtteri. I just see him as the man he is. Obviously we’re still fighting
for the title. I don’t feel necessarily that he’s the only one chasing, I’m
still chasing. I try to put an imaginary individual ahead of yourself. For
me, I generally kind of put the previous year’s performances so last year’s
myself ahead of me, for example and that’s my target: to improve and beat
that, but on days like this I’m behind another so he’s now the guy that I’m
chasing. So as long as you’ve always got a goal to chase, then you can
always make improvements, you always have strides to make and so that’s my
approach always.
Q: (Simon Amberley – Nevis Radio) The past couple of races we’ve had
incidents that have been reviewed after the race which have either
potentially affected the result or have affected the result. Has this been
discussed within the drivers’ meetings and can we expect results to actually
stand at the end of the race and drivers to be able to race more
aggressively in future races including here?
LW: I was focusing on folding… I don’t know what the question was.
CL: I’m always up for hard racing so very happy if they relax a little bit
on the fights but I think consistency is key. At the end, I think they also
need time to review some incidents or sometimes it be bad to wait for the
results but at the end I think it’s the best way to take the right decision.
VB: Yeah, I’m a big fan of hard racing as well so the harder we can race,
but safe and fair, is always good and obviously for everyone it’s always
better to have the results as quickly as possible and penalties as quickly
as possible but sometimes they need to review more which is understandable.
LH: I feel exactly the same as these two guys. I still don’t know what the
question was really! But close racing is always yeah, what he just said.
Sorry. It wasn’t intentional to miss what the question was. About tough
racing, was it? I haven’t discussed it. No. I don’t think it was brought up
in the drivers’ briefing either. I think the last race was good. I don’t
know what Charles thought of the incident he had.
CL: No, I thought it was OK. The only thing is consistency as I said. I feel
like there have been some incidents in the past this year that have been not
analysed or penalised, sorry, for much less than that, so that’s the only
thing. I think consistency is very important but if it’s clear that we can
race that way then I’m more than happy to race like this and I think every
driver likes to race that way.
LH: I agree again! I think it’s really hard with the consistency thing
because we’ve got these rules that… but every scenario is different but you
have to apply the same rule to it so it’s… that’s why they’ve got some of
the guys that are at the stewards, some even have to interpret certain a way
what has happened at certain way and as Charles said, consistency is really
what we want to try and get. But I think every year you go through all the
lessons or they, together in the sport, go through the lessons and learn and
improve and people told us that it needs to get better and so I’m sure we
will. |
