Lewis says race was best yet
LEWIS Hamilton believes he has
given the race of his career, despite
coming second.
For 58 laps of the Turkish
Grand Prix, Hamilton drove with
the fear a tyre would explode, as
happened last year at the Istanbul
Park. On that occasion, the
23-year-old just managed to save
his McLaren as it hurtled off the
circuit at 200mph.
In finishing fifth after running
a comfortable third, it was one of
those moments that conspired to
cost him the title.
A combination of Hamilton's
driving style and the set-up of his
McLaren, following investigations
by tyre suppliers Bridgestone,
forced the team into a
three-stop strategy for yesterday's
race. The shorter stints ensured
less tyre wear and a lesser
chance he would fly off the track.
With that in mind, Hamilton
drove brilliantly to claim the runner-
up spot behind Ferrari's Felipe
Massa. Hamilton initially
beat team-mate Heikki Kovalainen
into turn one after the
Finn had started on the front row
of the grid, for a career first time.
Then the Briton was embroiled
in a tense duel with Massa as he
tried to make the most of his
strategy, at one stage conjuring a
superb overtaking manoeuvre on
lap 24 to claim the lead. But the
tyre issue and three pit-stop plan
were always going to conspire
against him - although only just
as he came within a whisker of
victory courtesy of brilliant driving
and fine team work.
That was the best race I've
ever done,'' reflected Hamilton.
In a race, it doesn't matter if
you win or not, it's whether you
drive 100 per cent whether you
extract the most out of the car.
It's when you end the race and
you ask yourself and the team,
'could we have done a better job?'
I strongly feel we couldn't
have done a better job here. The
pit-stops were almost perfect, if
not perfect.
My in-laps, my out-laps, they
were stronger than ever, and I
just feel my race pace is getting
stronger with each race.
I had a strong showing in
Barcelona (a fortnight ago), and
it was even stronger here - and
we overtook a Ferrari!
Also, my predicted race finish
was fifth. It could have been a lot
worse if I hadn't have moved up
to second at the start.But for that
charge into turn one, I could have
come sixth or even worse. But
with the three-stop strategy noone
else had out there, I feel we
did a fantastic job to get second,
and I'm happy with that.''
The tyre situation was always
a concern for him though.
He added: It was on my mind
at some stages. There were times
when I felt vibrations and I wasn't
sure whether it was the tyre
or a flat spot I had picked up earlier
on. I was always checking my
tyre on the exit of turn eight because
last year coming out of
there, my tyre exploded.
I made sure I kept an eye on
that so I could report to the team
as soon as possible should there
be anything and possibly come
in.
"There's nothing worse than
having a tyre blow out at 200mph,
so we tried to avoid that. It was
all down to safety.
They (the team) were worried.
Obviously, we didn't want to have
another incident like the last
race here."
9:29am Monday 12th May 2008
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