Ron Delighted With Lewis

By Sam Cooper
April 9 2007

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team boss Ron Dennis has expressed his delight with Lewis Hamilton’s Malaysia performance, in which the young Britain finished a magnificent second place.

Ron’s previous brilliant driver line ups were the late great Ayrton Senna and 4 times world champion Alan Prost, not to mention the pairing of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard.

In the race Lewis Hamilton showed that he can keep his cool better than a freezer and that he can continually show his lightning reactions throughout a gruelling race.

We are delighted really - understandably," he said. "But I don't know where to start. To finish first and second you cannot really better, but both drivers drove impeccably. Neither of them left the track and Lewis fought well and clean. He played the pressure well with Kimi (Räikkönen) and he had everything under control and deserved to finish second.”

"I don't think anyone gifted anything to us today. We had good strategy, good starts and ultimately we got the result that the team and the drivers deserved. Lewis? I think the important thing is just how clean his manoeuvres were. There was nothing untidy about what he did.”

"There was no wheel banging or anything, but by driving like that it shows the other people with whom he is driving that he is going to be decisive and committed. What impressed me most was, I think, the opening laps.”

"He was just very committed and clean. He could have gone quicker, but that is the key, isn't it? The key is to finish and get the best result you can. And it is not about by how much. So to keep his driving tidy and look after the car and just do what was necessary to come second displayed a level of professionalism that you would not expect to find in a guy in his second Grand Prix."