Tag: Lewis Hamilton

DRIVERS who attended the FIA post-qualifying press conference on Saturday: 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes); 2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes) and 3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing).

TRACK INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Paul Di Resta) 

Q: Lewis, I think anyone watching that session would just think you were on another level. Very dominant, how did it feel?

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, today a very, very clean session. Every lap was just getting better and better. We did a lot of great work in the background. It’s a really important pole for me because I woke up to the saddest news of Chadwick passing away. It’s been such a heavy year for all of us and that news just really broke me. It was not easy to get back in focus coming in today with that hanging on my heart, but I was like ‘I want to go out there and drive to perfection’. What he has done for our people, what he’s done for… this superhero shows all these young kids that it’s possible. He was such a shining light. So we carry that forever.

Q: I think the greatest respect goes to your focus, Lewis. Everybody else was looking for tows, you were just out at the front very confident in the job you had to do personally and that’s what you did.

LH: Yeah, I studied that and of course there have been times where we have had to try to get a tow. You’ve got these three difficult sections where you’ve got the straight line in the first section, which is pretty straightforward, but getting the right wing level here is not so easy and some, as you can see, are really quick in the first and last sector but not so good in the middle sector. We are not the strongest I would say in the first and the last but the middle is really, really strong and I think for me this weekend it was my choice to go first or second out of Valtteri and I chose to go first. I just wanted to be out in the clean air not having to worry about people up ahead of me, getting a gap in the last corner, wondering whether it’s four or eight seconds gap – because you’re still getting a tow from someone at seven seconds behind and I didn’t want anything coming in my way so it worked out perfectly I think.

Q: And driving these cars around Spa? It must be pretty special?

LH: Oh man, it was incredible. That session, as I said it was going better and better but it’s really been learning to exploit… the track’s a bit different to when you were driving it, in the sense of the run-off areas, so you can really pick up the gas a lot earlier. Focusing on the exits around here is actually important. I didn’t make any mistakes on any of my laps but the Q3 run one lap was ace and I was thinking ‘there’s probably no way I’m going to beat that’ but Turn 1 has probably been a weakness for me the last few years, just got stronger and stronger through there and I saw I was up out of Turn 1 and then I just kept beeping away throughout the lap, so that was a very, very, very, very good lap so I’m happy with that.

Q: Valtteri, it was your birthday yesterday, you had a very good session but it looked like you were struggling through Turn 1 and from there on in the lap you just didn’t have the edge on Lewis?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, Turn 1 was a bit inconsistent. I think we got the car right there, just in Q1 (sic) in the first run, the tyres were too cool or something at the start of the lap, so I had a bit of a lock-up. The first run was there. The second run felt actually pretty good overall, so I don’t really know why the gap to Lewis [is big]. I’m not too bothered, because I know that second place is quite a good place to start here. It should be an interesting run into Turn 5.

Q: I was going to say the slipstream here is big and if you can tuck yourself in there ahead of Eau Rouge there are benefits above that. More importantly you’ve got to beat Lewis tomorrow to really think about the championship don’t you?

VB: Yeah, of course I need to attack if I still want to keep the title hopes there. It’s not over until it’s over and I’m definitely going to go for it. The first lap is a great opportunity because here the racing is always pretty good. I know already there will be opportunities to do it.

Q: Max, lining up P3, I guess you’ll be satisfied with that coming into the session but to narrowly miss out by one hundredth at the end of the lap and I heard you say you had some energy that left you right at the end of that?

VB: Yeah, for us overall it’s been a very positive weekend so far. We came here and we thought it was going to be really tricky for us and actually to be P3 and that close to Valtteri. Of course we are still half a second to Lewis but I think overall I can be very pleased with that. The lap was decent. I might have run out of energy a bit, but of course it’s distributed around the whole lap, so it was probably the fastest way of getting the lap time, so very pleased, a good day and a lot of opportunities for tomorrow.

Q: Do you think you can fight the Mercedes in the dry or are you going to be doing a rain dance tomorrow morning to try to get some mixed weather in there?

MV: I don’t know. Of course if you look at the lap time difference to Lewis I don’t think we suddenly in a race can start to fight him. Around here you never know, like you said, with the weather as well, I hope that will come into play it makes it a bit more difficult for everyone, and it’s a bit more fun as well, especially on this track. If there’s a bit of weather around it’s a lot of fun.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, what a lap, what a session. It’s a sizeable margin over the entire field. Where did you find the time?

LH: I think it was just a little bit everywhere. Ultimately, the team did such a great job over these past couple of days – just timing, as you saw, getting out on front of everyone at the end. It was nice to have a clear straightaway ahead of me and then otherwise just working away at the set-up. With the engineers we are just constantly pushing each other to improve. It’s not an easy thing to do and continue to raise the bar but I think we’ve done a really great job this weekend with the guys here and the guys back at the factory, so a big thank you to them. And then otherwise it was just focusing, studying the lap and then executing. That’s got to be one of the cleanest qualifying sessions I think I’ve ever had. Every lap was bang on the dot. No mistakes, no real issues. Q3 is always a hard one because you want to get the first lap and the first lap was great and I thought it was pretty much a perfect lap and then I managed to go out and find a little bit more in a couple of other areas. It was nice to have that gap, that six tenths in the first laps, then I could really explore on that next one and try to take even more of a risk. Yeah, a phenomenal feeling driving around this track, because it’s incredible how fast it’s become.

Q: …and 1.3s faster than last year as well.

LH: Again, that’s the evolution of our cars, of the technology and the evolution of our engineers who continue to elevate. They’re just getting smarter and more efficient every year. I was saying downstairs, it’s not been an easy day for the world. Our superhero, a superhero died last night, so that was really weighing heavy on me today, so I was so driven to deliver a good performance today so I could dedicate it to Chad who I was really, really lucky I got to meet him once and tell him how awesome he was. Because not all these… I remember when I was a kid, Superman was the hero. Didn’t look like me but I still thought Superman was the greatest. And so, when Chad became the king, when he became a superhero in Wakanda, it was such a special day for so many people because I know that young kids, like myself, will be able to now look up to him and see that is possible to be able to do what he did. So this one’s dedicated to him.

VB: Valtteri, coming to you. It looked like you were slightly chasing the car during that session. How was it for you at the end of Q3?

VB: It was not too bad. I would say Practice Three was OK, just the second runs, I think I had some traffic or something so didn’t get really clean laps, but then in qualifying itself, everything was feeling pretty OK. Just the first run in Q3, I had a lock-up into Turn One. I don’t think I got my tyres warm enough on the out-lap. So, at the end it was down to the second run. I knew everything was still possible, and it was a clean lap. Not maybe the best Turn One but it was OK and otherwise the lap was nice and clean and really felt like I was pushing the limits. Obviously quite a bit gap. Not sure yet why but Lewis did a good job today. I’m not too bothered because I know second place is quite a good place. It’s always quite an interesting run into Turn Five. So, looking forward to tomorrow.

Q: A lot is going to rest on that opening lap tomorrow. How much can you plan?

VB: Of course you can plan something but then in the end every start is always different. Of course we look at all the other starts here in previous years and try to take learnings and be prepared for any situation – but you have to go with instinct as well. We will try to find a way to make things interesting.

Q: Max, so close with Valtteri today, what was it, one-hundredth of a second? Were you surprised to be that close to a Mercedes around here?

MV: I don’t know. I think overall, it’s been a very positive weekend, I think. We expected to come here with the long straights around here, it’s never going to be the easiest for us but I think we managed to find a good a good balance on the car actually straight away when we came here, from FP1, so that helps. Yeah, it’s been a positive weekend. I didn’t really have a lot to complain. If I’m not mistaken, this is the closest we’ve been to Mercedes in qualifying, on a track where we didn’t expect it to bet like this – so yeah, very, very happy with that. Qualifying went pretty smooth. It was all about, for us, well, trying to have a little bit of a tow, to have a little bit of top speed but of course, you try not to be affected in the middle sector but of course everybody is trying to get that tow. So, getting to the last chicane to prepare the lap and sometimes I was not ideal, getting into Turn One but I think in in Q3 it was fine, and I could do my lap like I wanted it. Very pleased to be here again.

Q: How confident are you for the race? You were fastest in second practice yesterday.

MV: Yes, well, over one lap yesterday. Friday is just Friday, as you can see. It will not be easy but I’m of course going to try to follow and see what happens. And also, we have to wait and see what happens. Also, we have to wait and see what the weather is going to do because, around Spa, you never know if it’s going to be dry or rainy.

VIDEO CONFERENCE

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Max, given the lap being 7km here and given the power nature of the circuit, how surprised are you that the gap is so small – roughly half a second?

MV: I think in general we just had a very positive weekend, so we find a decent balance in the car. Of course, that helps. I think some qualifyings I wasn’t that happy with the balance of the car so that automatically of course the gap is probably a bit bigger so, yeah, so far a positive weekend.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Question to Lewis. Obviously very emotional, when you were speaking, when you got out of the car, and just then as well. I just wondered, well you can tell us when you met Chadwick, and just how much you stayed in touch with him during his career and whatnot. He’s obviously had a big impact on you.

LH: I didn’t know him-know him. I wasn’t in touch with him, unfortunately. I wish I had the privilege of that. We met in New York, during Fashion Week, possibly last year, or maybe the year before. We were out at the same dinner. I also met him at the Met Gala. I think it was the Met Gala Week, and had the opportunity to meet him then. And I saw him a couple of times throughout the rest of the night and we actually partied away together. We were on the same table basically. It was an incredible scenario and I just remember talking to him. But I do remember when Black Panther came out and huge, huge Marvel fan, so just knowing how Hollywood has been for a long, long time and to see the first black hero, superhero come out I think was just… everyone was just so proud. To really represent. And again, I think the whole thing in general, this under representation is such a common thing and so to be able to see somebody make it like him, and be such a powerful figure within the Avengers world, y’know, it was incredible. Such an honour and inspiring, as I said, young kids. I can imagine a young kid looking up and seeing that it’s possible to be a superhero now. A young black kid, as I said. I think his legacy will always live on.

Q: (Edd Straw – The Race) Max, we heard on the radio when you were told how close you were to Valtteri’s time there was a little bit of a frustrated noise and I think you said you ran out of energy a bit at the end of the lap. Do you know what the reason for that was? Was it just not quite the correct state of charge at the start of the lap, and do you think that with that, that would have just given you that tiny bit of time you needed to be second?

MV: No. Well… I mean. Automatically throughout qualifying I think you stay a bit more… like longer on open throttle and of course you try to manage the energy throughout the lap, but I think probably it was the fastest way around the lap but it’s just always when you get out of the last corner and then you feel that the engine is not as accelerating as normal because you run out of that energy where you probably use it up somewhere else, yeah, it’s always that feeling, but probably when I go back and look at the data it’s still the fastest way but it’s just… yeah, bit of an odd feeling sometimes.

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsportmagazin.com) Another question for Max: half a second looks big in Formula 1 – as a gap – but as we’ve mentioned earlier, it’s the longest circuit of the year and from next race onwards there is a technical directive which should cut down the party mode of the Mercedes-powered cars. Do you think you are in a position to fight for pole positions from then onwards?

MV: I don’t think so personally, but if it can bring us a little bit closer that would be nice but let’s wait and see if that’s actually going to happen because I also don’t know.

LH: Definitely don’t have…. half a second more power than you, that’s for sure.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Question to the two Mercedes drivers, sort of in line with that (last question): were you still using full power mode from the engine here or was there any indication of turning it down slightly in anticipation of this new technical directive coming into force?

VB: Yeah, we were using the engine normally as we’ve usually being doing in qualifying. As we’ve seen all weekend, it’s been pretty close with Red Bull and even other teams in the mix. We didn’t feel that we had that big of a margin to start saving. As long as we can still use the power we might as well use it because in the end, yes, like in the previous question, I don’t think it’s going to make a massive difference.

Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Lewis, we saw a lot of drivers trying to get a tow and debating whether to go for that. Max said he didn’t feel he needed to go for that but on both your runs in Q3 you were out ahead of the pack. How did that feel and what was the reason for doing that?

LH: From weekend to weekend, Valtteri and I have a choice… one weekend it’s his choice to go first or second and others it’s mine and this weekend it was my choice and I decided to go first and I just wanted to be out in the clear and not have to back up in the last corner behind people. I just wanted clean air in front of me. I think it worked. I think there’s potentially a small gain from being in the tow but then there’s equally a potential danger of being caught behind someone, someone making a mistake and causing a yellow flag ahead of you, all sorts, so I just made sure I was clear of that so I could pull out the best lap I could do.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Lewis, I can’t help but notice that after the podium ceremony before you come in here for the media session, you change out of your overalls. What’s the reason or that?

LH: Literally… well, when you’re in your suit, this year, even more so, the suits are a little bit thicker and so it’s heavier and so you’re sweating through qualifying. I don’t want to sit here… I know I could change my top but I have time to change fully so get a towel, wipe off, and I put clean clothes on. Just feels better if I’m sitting here ultimately.  We’re doing this press conference and then we have media outside, total of an hour. I would just rather not be sitting in my sweat.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Quickly, for all three: can you just talk about the compromise behind straight-line speed and sector two here because we’ve seen what looks like Ferrari… if you get it quite badly wrong or have so little power from their engine now that they’re having to make a massive sacrifice? They’re the only team, I think, that are slower this year compared to last year.

MV: Well, everybody, I think, went faster compared to last year but they didn’t in terms of lap time so…

LH: What sacrifice did they make?

MV: Well, it’s never easy round here to find the right wing level but yeah, you can chose low downforce. I mean I tried it and you go a bit more like I’m running now. It’s honestly what you like, what you think is better for tyres but of course it’s not going to make a… it’s like within a tenth, low downforce to medium or whatever, so yeah, even if they would stick a big old wing on it, they would have the same lap time so I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t talk for them anyway, I also don’t want to. What is there to say about it? I can’t really judge what’s going on. I just focus on what’s happening in my team. I think that’s the most important (thing) and yeah, let’s leave it there.

Q: Lewis, what was the compromise down at Mercedes? The twists of sector two or the straight lines of one and three?

LH: I mean, we come here with a package and we hope that it’s the right one. I was much the same: we tried a low wing but the loss was quite big in the middle sector and so it was just trying to find the right balance and the engineers do a fantastic job with their simulations and understand where we need to be and we stuck with it and I think it was the right choice. I think inevitably it’s different in the race when you don’t have DRS and there are those that are quicker… slightly quicker in a straight line but hopefully that doesn’t get in our way tomorrow.

Q: Valtteri, where did your car feel strongest, which sector?

VB: I think overall we’re pretty strong everywhere. I think maybe a bit more so in sector two but I think the compromise we had was best for the lap time overall so it’s always just a compromise but I think it was a clear winner for us, for our car, the wing we chose.

Ends

Barcelona, 16 August 2020: Lewis Hamilton took a dominant lights-to-flag victory in sweltering conditions at Spanish Grand Prix, eventually crossing the line 25 seconds clear of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third ahead of the Racing Points of Lance Stroll and Sergio Pérez. 

In an ambien temperatures of aeround 30˚C and on a track nudging above 50˚C, Verstappen made a good getaway at the start and he was able to outpace the slower-starting Bottas on the long run to Turn 1 and steal P2 behind Hamilton. 

Stroll also made a good getaway from fifth place on the grid to pass team-mate Pérez and Bottas. Behind them Alex Albon in the second Red Bull also made a solid start and he might have claimed fourth but in Turn 1 he was boxed in by the battle between Bottas and Stroll and was forced to hold his starting position.

Hamilton began to eke out a small gap to Verstappen, but the Red Bull driver clung to the race leader and after 10 laps he was just 1.6s behind the champion. Behind them, Bottas made his way past Stroll on lap five to close to retake third place. 

Verstappen made his first stop of the race on lap 22. The Dutchman switched to medium tyres in just 1.9s, and when Hamilton made a slow change of 4.3s the Red Bull driver found himself back in second place, four seconds behind the Briton. Bottas was still in third, two seconds adrift of Verstappen. Fourth place was occupied by Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, though the Australian had yet to make his first pit stop. 

Verstappen made his second stop for a set of mediums, on lap 41 and after a two-second stop he was released back into third place, 18.2s behind Bottas. 

Bottas pitted eight laps later but though he was on fresher soft tyres he failed to make serious inroads on the gap to the Red Bull driver.

Hamilton followed his team-mate to the pit lane on lap 51 but after insisting to his team that he did not want softs, he was given a set of mediums before rejoining 9.6s ahead of Verstappen. 

From there the result was set. Hamilton again began to build a lead and with little chance of an assault on the lead and with Bottas well behind, Verstappen managed his pace to the flag. The task was made more straightforward when Bottas made a late stop for medium tyres and a final-lap blast to the fastest lap of the race. 

Behind the top three Lance Stroll took fourth place ahead of Racing Point team-mate Sergio Pérez, who dropped behind the Canadian due to the five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags. 

Sixth place went to Carlos Sainz, while Sebastian Vettel made a one-stop strategy last to take seventh place, just one second ahead of Alex. Ninth place went to AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and the final point on offer was taken by McLaren’s Lando Norris. 

2020 FIA Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix – Race 
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 66 1:31’45.279 
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 66 1:32’09.456 24.177
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 66 1:32’30.031 44.752
4 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 65 1:32’06.724 1 Lap
5 Sergio Pérez Racing Point/Mercedes 65 1:32’09.464 1 Lap
6 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 65 1:32’11.045 1 Lap
7 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 65 1:32’23.813 1 Lap
8 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 65 1:32’25.008 1 Lap
9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 65 1:32’25.597 1 Lap
10 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 65 1:32’26.154 1 Lap
11 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 65 1:32’27.145 1 Lap
12 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 65 1:32’32.998 1 Lap
13 Esteban Ocon Renault 65 1:32’41.207 1 Lap
14 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 65 1:32’46.682 1 Lap
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 65 1:32’54.370 1 Lap
16 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 65 1:32’55.069 1 Lap
17 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 65 1:33’04.656 1 Lap
18 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 64 1:31’47.297 2 Laps
19 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 64 1:32’14.948 2 Lap
     Charles Leclerc Ferrari 38 55’31.636 Electrical

Barcelona, 15 August 2020: Lewis Hamilton beat Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by just under six-hundredths of a second to claim pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took third place ahead of the Racing Point cars of Sergio Pérez and Lance Stroll.

Hamilton led the way in Q1 thanks to an early lap of 1:17.037. That put him less than a tenth of a second ahead of Pérez, with the Mexican’s team-mate Lance Stroll third ahead of Bottas. The final runs saw Hamilton improve to a segment-best time of 1:16.872, while Verstappen rose to P3 behind Pérez thanks to a lap of 1:17.213.

At the lower end of the timesheet, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen made a late jump out of the danger zone to P15, though team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi dropped to the bottom of the order and he was eliminated along with 16^th-placed Kevin Magnussen, his Haas team-mate Romain Grosjean and the Williams cars of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi. 

Hamilton was again quickest in the opening runs of Q2, with the championship leader posting a lap of 1:16.013 in the first run of the session. That left Bottas in second place ahead of Verstappen whose opening lap left him half a second adrift of the champion. 

Ahead of the final runs, 11th-placed Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was joined in the drop zone by Renault’s Esteban Ocon, AlphaTauri drivers Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly, and by 15^th-placed Räikkönen.

And at the end of the session, Gasly was the only one to make it to safety. The Frenchman put in a good performance to jump to fifth place at the flag. His rise, along with other improvements in the top 10 meant that Daniel Ricciardo fell to 13^thplace behind Kvyat but ahead of Räikkönen and Ocon. 

Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen elected to remain in their garages during the final runs and they made up the top three ahead of Stroll, Gasly, Sainz, Perez and Leclerc. Alex Albon, meanwhile, went through in P9 ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. 

Hamilton continued to set the pace in the opening runs of Q3. The defending champion posted an opening lap of 1:15.584 to go 0.176 quicker than Bottas. Verstappen took a provisional P3 with his opening lap of 1:16.292 – almost three tenths clear of fourth-placed Pérez.

And Hamilton’s opener ended up being good to secure his 92nd career pole just five hundredths of a second ahead of Bottas. Verstappen held third place just under two tenths ahead of Pérez and Stroll. Albon jumped from P8 to seal P6 with a time of 1:17.029 to finish ahead of Sainz, Norris, Leclerc and Gasly. 

2020 FIA Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.584 6 221.713
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:15.643 0.059 6 221.540
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:16.292 0.708 6 219.656
4 Sergio Pérez Racing Point/Mercedes 1:16.482 0.898 6 219.110
5 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 1:16.589 1.005 6 218.804
6 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 1:17.029 1.445 6 217.554
7 Carlos Sainz McLaren/Renault 1:17.044 1.460 6 217.512
8 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1:17.084 1.500 6 217.399
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:17.087 1.503 6 217.390
10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:17.136 1.552 6 217.252
11 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:17.168 1.155 6 217.162
12 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 1:17.192 1.179 6 217.095
13 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:17.198 1.185 6 217.078
14 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:17.386 1.373 6 216.550
15 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:17.567 1.554 6 216.045
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:17.908 1.036 6 215.099
17 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1:18.089 1.217 6 214.601
18 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:18.099 1.227 9 214.573
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:18.532 1.660 9 213.390
20 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:18.697 1.825 6 212.943

DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
 
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard) 
 
Q: Max you could have come so close to winning this grand prix, as it turns out, with hindsight, if you hadn’t come in for that pit stop for new tyres. But you must be still very satisfied with second place? 
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it’s lucky and unlucky. I think anyway Mercedes in the race were too quick. The tyres at one point didn’t look great, with 10 laps to go, so I was already on the radio saying “guys, you know, the right front doesn’t look very pretty. Then of course Valtteri got a puncture so I came on the radio and said I was going to back it out and then they boxed me to go for the fastest lap and then unfortunately Lewis got a puncture himself. But I’m very happy with second, it’s a very good result for us again.
 
Q: Otherwise, it was a fairly lonely race. We didn’t see much of you when you’re not racing wheel-to-wheel. Any other notable points from the race?
MV: No, I told my engineer to drink. Stay hydrated, it’s very important around here. It was pretty lonely, I was just trying to manage my pace and trying to look after the tyres.
 
Q: Charles, that’s as good as you could hope for today. The racing gods shone on you. You didn’t have the tyre issues your main rivals of course Mercedes had. Both had delaminations at the end there.
Charles LECLERC: Yeah, as soon as I heard that Valtteri had a tyre problem then I slowed down quite a lot but then I think Carlos had it a lap later and the Lewis a lap later. So on that we have been lucky but apart from that looking at us I think we have the done the best we could have done today. I’m very happy the way I managed the tyres from the beginning to the end, very happy with the balance of the car. Yes, the performance of the car is not where we want it to be, but today we took every opportunity and I’m very happy with today.
 
Q: We spoke before about next week’s tyre choices, which are softer again. Do you think that will be under review given what has happened today?
CL: I don’t know what are the causes, whether there was debris on the track or whatsoever, but I think Lewis cut the corner at another place on the track than Valtteri, so yeah it’s probably to review. But I can’t say. The Pirelli guys will investigate that.
 
Q: Finally, the winning machine that is Lewis Hamilton. I’ve heard rumour that they are going to rename Silverstone to Hamitonstone. Man, you made it difficult there for yourself. Our hearts were in our mouths when we first Valtteri have that delamination and then yourself. Talk us through that last lap?
Lewis HAMILTON: Up until that last lap everything was relatively smooth sailing. They tyres felt great. Valtteri was really pushing incredibly hard. I was doing some management of that tyre; he looked like he wasn’t doing any. When I heard that his tyre went I was just looking at mine and everything seemed fine and the car was turning no problem, so I was thinking “maybe it’s OK”. Anyways, those last few laps I started to back off and then just down the straight it just deflated. I just noticed the shape just shift a little bit. And that was definitely a heart-in-the-mouth kind of feeling because I wasn’t quite sure if it had gone down until I hit the brakes and you could see that the tyre was falling off the rim. And then just driving it, trying to keep the speed up, because sometimes it will come off and brake the wing and all these different things and oh, my God, I was just praying to try to get it round and not be too slow. I nearly didn’t get it round the last two corners. But thank God we did. I owe it to the team. I think ultimately maybe we should have stopped towards the end when we saw the delaminations.
 
Q: I guess it was Red Bull keeping you honest. There wasn’t a big enough of a gap there for you to make that decision. But you prayed and the racing gods listened you. Talk us through any communication you had on that final lap you had with your engineers, trying to understand where Max was?
LH: You’d be really surprised, well you may or not be surprised, but I was really chilled for some reason at the end. Bonno was giving me the information about the gap, I think it was 30 seconds at one stage, and it was coming down quite quickly, and in my mind I was thinking “how far is it to the end of the lap”. But the car seemed to turn OK through Maggotts and Becketts thankfully. I got to 15 and that’s where it really was a bit of a struggle and I could hear the gap coming down from 19 to 10 and I remember giving it full gas from 15 to 16 and the thing wasn’t stopping, so I got to the corner with a lot of understeer and then I heard him go, nine, eight, seven and I was like “just get back on the power and try to get the thing to turn”. I’ve definitely never experience anything like that on a last lap and my heart definitely probably nearly stopped. I think that’s probably how cool it was because my heart nearly stopped.
 
PRESS CONFERENCE
 
Q: Lewis many congratulations. What a weekend! You’ve won at Silverstone many times but never before have you crossed the line on three wheels. Can you just sum it all up for us?
LH: Well, yeah, just as the minutes go by I feel worse and worse as I realise what just happened. I think in the heat of the moment you have the adrenalin going and I guess that fight for survival instinct comes out. I was able to stay calm and really measured and try to bring the car home but of course, I’m just sitting here thinking of all the things that could have happened, if the tyre gave up in a high-speed corner or something it would have been a much different picture. So I feel incredibly grateful that it didn’t and we just managed, but I heard that Max was catching at crazy speed. I think I got onto Hangar Straight and I could hear I think “you’re at 19 seconds” at that point and I was trying to pick up the speed down that straight but the wheel was obviously making a real mess and I was thinking “jeez, how am I going to get through these last few corners without losing too much time”. But fortunately I got round 15 and then once I got to the last two corners that was really when it was a disaster. I could hear “seven, six, five…” and I just managed to keep it together. As I said, I’m just really grateful. My team did a fantastic job through the weekend but I think we have to look into
 Why we had this tyre problem. I know a few people did but maybe it was debris or something like that or maybe the tyre was just worn out.
 
Q: How much warning did you get?
LH: None. I was constantly looking at the tyre. It was quite smooth and was working really well through Turn 3, the thing was turning fine. So I was trying to gauge just how worn it was but I didn’t have any feeling of wear, it being particularly worn. And then it was just down the straight the thing, you could feel the RPM as I was full speed. The RPM drops as you start getting extra friction from the tyre as it’s not roiling at the same speed and you feel the balance shift to the left. So, it was a bit of panic for a second and I nearly didn’t make it round Turn 7 but after that I managed to make it through all the corners.
Q: Max, coming to you. I don’t want to labour the point at all, but had you not pitted at the end, that win might have been yours. Can you talk us through how much discussion there was on the radio about whether or not to pit and go for fastest lap?
MV: Well, it’s away easy to say afterwards but I think we were also lucky today that Valtteri had a puncture, so we gained a position, so I’m actually not disappointed at all, or anything. Once Valtteri had that puncture, OK, it’s an easy P2. So we just pitted for new tyres to make sure because I was also not sure what was going on with my tyres because normally, when you see other cars having punctures and you have pitted on the same lap you are like, well, might happen to you as well. So, you don’t want to have that problem, so we pitted just to be sure. We go out, of course with the Soft tyres and then Lewis has his puncture but also that’s unlucky. It could have been lucky for me but unlucky for Lewis, so at the end it is what it is and I’m very happy with second.
 
Q: And your race pace was closer to Mercedes today. Are you pleased wiwth the progress you’ve made?
MV: Yeah. It was a pretty boring race for me. At one point I didn’t see a car in front or behind, so I reminded my engineer to hydrate – to drink – I had nothing else to do. So, yeah, we still need to improve but yeah. It is what it is. We try to find things to do while driving, just keep enjoying it.
 
Q: Charles, coming to you. You finished third here last year. If you were to compare the two races: 2019, 2020, do you get more satisfaction from this third place?
CL: Yeah. It’s definitely a lot more unexpected for this year. That’s for sure. We know we’ve been lucky to get on the podium but apart from that I’m pretty satisfied with the way we’ve been working throughout the weekend. For sure we don’t want to be fighting for fourth place for so long but at the moment that’s what the car is capable of. I think we extracted absolutely everything out of the strategy and the car. Very happy and a very unexpected podium but probably more satisfied than last year for the third place, yes.
 
Q: And in terms of your own performance, is this on a parallel with what you did in Austria?
CL: Yes, I’m very happy with it, especially with the tyre management. It was easy. We had a very aggressive downforce level coming here, so we had quite a lot of speed in the straights but very difficult around the corners. We were quite worried for the race pace, especially for the tyre degradation – but we managed to do quite a good job on that.
 
VIDEO CONFERENCE
 
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Question for Lewis. How in control were you and Valtteri throughout the majority of the race. It seemed to be fairly straightforward right up until the drama at the end. Was that maximum attack or were you holding back. And at the same time, was the team giving you any warnings to manage the tyres, to potentially avoid what happened at the end?
LH: Yeah, we were pretty flat-chat to be honest. Valtteri was obviously chasing and keeping the gap. It was between 1.2-2.0 seconds for a good period and then all of a sudden he started to fall away, so I managed to keep good pace and he started to drop away. I think it got to seven seconds at one stage. So, I’m not really sure what… I’m sure he just killed that left-front tyre, I’m assuming, and it started to drop off for him. For me, the car was feeling fine, so I kind of kept up the decent pace. To see the Red Bulls as close as they were in terms of pace, I think that’s real. And it wasn’t the case of us turning down or anything like that, or backing off. So, we can have a close race potentially next race maybe.
 
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Lewis, can you talk us through the process when you pitted. I think the Safety Car was the second everyone came to the pits which was a bit unscheduled. Did you think you could make it to the end with these tyres – and what did you talk about in the briefings before the race? How long the Hard tyre would last.
LH: Normally, this tyre usually has a long life expectancy. They said we could do almost a whole race distance with it but whether or not that’s at the pace we were going. Valtteri was obviously pushing at a serious pace for which I had to respond to, so it was quite difficult to manage it. I think they had spoken of a two-stopper that was generally a slower option for us. In hindsight, probably we would have stopped as soon as we saw Valtteri’s tyre go, we would have stopped – especially as Max had done so – as we should have come out just ahead and still had the position. But yeah, hindsight is always a great thing, as Max had said so.
 
Q: (Edd Straw – The Race) Question to Max. Although there was no way to foresee what happened with Lewis’ puncture, do you think in future there might be an argument for, if you’re close enough to maybe pick up the pieces if they the lead car does have a problem in the last few laps to perhaps be more conservative in terms of not taking that fastest lap point and staying out, just on the off-chance? Because this is rare – but it does happen every now and again, and the gain could be potentially massive when you’ve got a car that isn’t good enough to beat Mercedes on merit?
MV: Yeah – but I could also pick up a puncture, you know, and I could lose a lot more. That’s the thing, it’s always so easy to say afterwards that we should have just continued – but who would have said that Lewis would have got a puncture? How often does this happen? Normally, never. So, I don’t regret anything. I think we made the right decision. Easy to comment afterwards. You don’t know at the time – and we felt that was the right decision, and I still think it is the right decision. It is what it is. Normally, you don’t really get punctures. Yeah. They are also the deserved winners. It’s not like I’m sitting here upset or disappointed. I’m actually very happy to be second. Normally it would have been third, so…
 
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Question to Lewis. Just wondered if you’ve ever won or finished a race before on three tyres. Second question. Much improved anti-racism message at the start. Just wanted to get your take on that. Were you happy with the efforts this time around?
LH: I don’t think I’ve won a race on three wheels, no. There was a race when I was in Formula Renault, at Croft, where the rear suspension, there’s two rear springs and one had snapped off and so I remember driving through the corners, through the left-handers with one wheel in the air, and through the right-handers it was fine, something like that. So that was a race where I was in the lead and I managed to still win the race – just. I don’t even know how I managed to make that one work. So, that was a little bit similar to today but of course it was more extreme today and the cost was obviously a lot higher. In terms of the start, I’ve been really, really happy with what the organisers have done, Formula 1 have really put in the time. I think last week I had really great Zoom calls with Chase and Ross and then another one with Ellie [Norman] to go through the different… y’know, what we could do better together and how we could really solidify our approach and our unity together. I don’t know how it looked on TV but it felt like it was much, much better organised and it didn’t really take a lot for us to have that extra ten minutes. I think what’s really important is that we continue to keep that up because ultimately we have this incredible platform. There’s so many people watching and every single one of us needs to be reminded every now and then of how serious things can be, so that people are aware. And obviously more important is that we follow through, or they follow through particularly on the promises that they said before the first race, in terms of how they’re going to try to attack the issue within our industry. So, that will be an ongoing discussion but I feel really confident and to see, as I said, everyone’s view and movement towards it.
 
Q: (Edd Straw – The Race) A question to Charles. It appears that Ferrari have leaned-off the downforce a little bit this weekend to get the straight line speed for qualifying. How difficult did that make the car to drive in qualifying trim, in terms of it moving around a lot, and how worried were you about the tyre performance in the race, and happy that the race panned out the way it did, when you could have ended-up dropping back if you struggled on the tyres?
CL: For qualifying, I don’t think we were too worried. I think we were pretty confident that was the right choice but we were pretty worried for the race. It wasn’t easy today, especially during the Safety Car and for the restart after the Safety Car I’ve been struggling massively. I couldn’t put any temperatures in the tyres for many laps, and the guys behind were actually pretty close. Romain was on an used Medium and was putting me under a lot of pressure. So that was the tricky part of the race – but once the tyres were in temperature it wasn’t actually that tricky. I expected worse. We’ve done quite a good job, I think, with the set-up of the car and with the balance of the car. That was very nice to drive today.
 
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Question to Lewis. Next weekend obviously we’re back here at Silverstone but the tyres are going to be a step softer. So, given what happened in the last few laps, how concerned are you about that now? And to Max, if I may on the same subject, does this give you a chance to beat Mercedes next weekend?
LH: One step softer is going to be a challenge for us all and no doubt will move us all to at least a two-stop. And obviously our cars are a lot quicker this year, we’re using the same tyres as last year, they weren’t able to develop a better tyre to deal with the forces for this season, so it’s going to be a serious challenge I think, next week – but everyone’s in the same boat and naturally from today we’ll get a much better understanding of the tyre life and what we can do to be better prepared next week for the softer set that they bring.
 
MV: Yeah, I think everybody will probably end up doing a two-stop you know? I don’t think it will change a lot. Also, for me, I don’t think there will be a lot of changes to the way I will be driving. So I’ll probably be counting some sheep next to the track.
 
Do you expect to be closer to Mercedes next weekend?
MV: Normally not. It’s so big, c’mon! Maybe you find a tenth, or one-and-a-half, OK and we we are a bit closer – but it’s not close enough. I’m trying but it’s not possible at the moment. You have to be realistic. I mean you can dream, and you can hope but I think it’s way more important to be realistic because that’s how you move forward. If you keep dreaming about those chances, it’s not going to happen. We just have to keep working.
 
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Question to Max and Charles. The man in the middle there now has a 30-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship after only four races. Simple question: can anyone stop him from winning the title this year. I know it’s early days – but can anyone stop him?
MV: No.
CL: The question is ‘can anybody stop Lewis?’ No. I think the guy that has some chances is Valtteri – but that’s it.
 
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) A question for Charles. It looked like once you’d got through that tyre warm-up issue after the restart, it looked like you were in control, obviously a bit isolated behind Max but, without Grosjean being behind you at that restart, do you think you would have been able to stay ahead of the McLarens, or was that what gave you that much of a gap to stay ahead?
CL: I think we were pretty lucky having the Haas in between the McLaren and myself. Whether I would have been able to keep them behind or not, I don’t know but it would have definitely been quite a lot more difficult.
 
Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Question to Lewis. Just off the back of what Max and Charles were both asked. They say one no-one can stop you winning the title this year. How difficult from your perspective where you’ve got a comfortable lead already – you can afford a DNF and you’ll stay in the Championship lead – and this car does look so strong it is hard to see anyone other than Valtteri being a threat to you.
LH: Honestly, look, I’m a through and through racer at heart. I’ve grown up, particularly when you’re in karting, you’ve got the wheel-to-wheel racing, that’s what has always excited me, and that’s what gets me up in the morning. I definitely… this is not the championship fight I would have hoped for. I’d much, much prefer to be having a super-close battle with these two here because that’s what gets me going. Having to really put in… I think I’m still putting in the laps that are required but it’s not a close battle with Max in qualifying and the same with Charles. I really, really hope that in future it’s closer. It’s rules. Ultimately every team is given rules and at the end of the day we’ve just done an exceptional job collectively and you can’t fault my team for that. That’s not our fault. You have to look at the people that run the sport doing a better job moving forwards, I would say, ruling-wise. I think they’re showing some signs… I think Ross is showing us a car for the future that’s going to have us all closer. Hopefully it’s not as slow as a GP2 car, and then hopefully we’ll get some more-like karting races in the future.  
 
EN

Silverstone, 2 August 2020: Lewis Hamilton took his third win in a row and his seventh British Grand Prix victory despite a puncture on the final lap that threatened to rob him of another triumph on home soil at Silverstone. 

Mercedes had just seen Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas drop out of the podium positions due to a deflation of his ageing front-left hard compound tyres when Hamilton’s also let go. And after a straightforward race in which his lead was never threatened, that put Hamilton under enormous pressure. The threat was compounded by the knowledge that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was closing in fast having inherited second when Bottas dropped back. 

However, the Dutchman had pitted for fresh tyres and an attempt at fastest lap in the wake of the Bottas incident and he was therefore unable to catch Hamilton before the Briton was able to limp across the line to claim his 87^thcareer win. Verstappen took second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

At the start Hamilton got away ahead of Bottas while Verstappen had a brief battle with Leclerc before taking a grip on third. 

At the end of the opening lap Alex Albon in the second Red Bull tangled with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen at Club corner. Abon made contact with the Dane’s front wheel and Magnussen spun out, hitting the barriers hard, though he quickly emerged unscathed from the incident. Albon was able to continue but the incident hampered his race when he was later hit with a time penalty for causing the collision. 

The safety car left that track at the end of lap five and on the re-start Hamilton retained his lead ahead of Bottas and Verstappen. Behind the top three Leclerc was now fourth ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and the second McLaren of Lando Norris. 

At the end of lap 12 Daniil Kvyat slid off at high speed as he went into Becketts. The AlphaTauri driver’s impact was heavy but after coming to rest on the grass verge at side of the track he was quickly on the radio to tell his team he was OK.

The incident brought out the safety car for a second time and that provoked a rush of midfield pit stops, with all taking on hard tyres. On the following lap the leaders, Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen included, made their stops and they also opted for the white-banded tyres. 

An exception was Haas’ Romain Grosjean who stayed out on track on his starting medium tyres and the Frenchman jumped to fifth in the order behind Hamilton, Bottas, Max and Leclerc. 

The action resumed at the end of lap 18 and almost immediately after the re-start Albin was handed a five-second penalty. He pitted on lap 31 and after serving the penalty bolted on a new set of medium tyres for remainder of the race. 

Further ahead, on lap 33, Hamilton now led Bottas by 1.4 seconds, with Veratappen a lonely third, eight seconds adrift of the Finn and 15.6s ahead of fourth-placed Charles Leclerc. Sainz and Norris were now fifth and sixth respectively, while Grosjean was clinging on to seventh ahead of Ricciardo, while Stroll was ninth ahead of Ocon. Grosjean was struggling with his tyres though and after being passed by Ricciardo and Stroll, he pitted for hard tyres and dropped back. 

The race then settled and with the bulk of the field locked into a one-stop race it looked as though the order at the front would remain static until the flag.

However, in the final five lap Bottas began to slow and while those around him were lapping in the 1m29s bracket the Finn quickly drifted out 1m31s. And suddenly, two laps from the flag, his front left tyre deflated and sent him off track. He recovered but not before Verstappen had powered past to take P2. 

With a significant margin ahead to Hamilton and with a huge advantage over Leclerc, Red Bull opted to pit Verstappen for a new set of soft tyres for a fastest lap attempt. Within moments of the Dutch driver rejoining, however, pursuit of fastest lap became pursuit of victory when Hamilton too suffered a front left deflation. The Briton was halfway round the track when the failure occurred and the Red Bull driver immediately began to hunt down the Mercedes man. 

However, despite almost going off track in the final corners, Hamilton was able to hold it together and he managed to cross the line in the lead, though he only had 5.8s in hand over Verstappen.

Leclerc followed to take third place with Ricciardo fourth ahead of Norris and Ocon. Gasly earned good points for AlphaTauri with seventh place. 

The Frenchman did well to hold the position as just 1.4s behind him at the flag was Albon. The Thai driver had charged through from the back of the field in the closing stages and thanks to the tyres failures for Bottas and Carlos Sainz he claimed eighth place ahead of Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and 10^th-placed Sebastian Vettel. 

2020 FIA Formula 1 British Grand Prix – Race 

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 52 1’28:01.283 
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 52 1:28’07.139 5.856
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 52 1:28’19.757 18.474
4 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 52 1:28’20.933 19.650
5 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 52 1:28’23.560 22.277
6 Esteban Ocon Renault 52 1:28’28.220 26.937
7 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 52 1:28’32.471 31.188
8 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 52 1:28’33.953 32.670
9 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 52 1:28’38.594 37.311
10 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 52 1:28’43.140 41.857
11 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 52 1:28’43.450 42.167
12 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 52 1:28’53.287 52.004
13 Carlos Sainz McLaren/Renault 52 1:28’54.653 53.370
14 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 52 1:28’55.488 54.205
15 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 52 1:28’55.832 54.549
16 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 52 1:28’56.333 55.050
17 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 51 1:28’40.265 1 Lap
Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 11 20’32.601 Puncture
Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1 1’43.753 Collision
Nico Hülkenberg Racing Point/Mercedes 0 Not started