Lewis Hamilton Q&A: McLaren have moved forward

Slower than the competition, yet still able to maintain the championship lead - that is either good luck or an amazing ability to pull rabbits - or positions - out of the hat. At Silverstone on Sunday McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton proved he has that ability, as he finished second to Red Bull’s Mark Webber. It’s making the best of things, even when times seem hard, that could decide this year’s title and Hamilton is more than ready to grasp any opportunity…

Q: Lewis, how was it going for you today?
Lewis Hamilton: I am very, very happy because we did not expect to be so high up this weekend considering how far behind we have been in practice. The team has worked perfectly over the weekend and have put a very competitive car on the grid. We definitely have moved forward - and that is always my aim: to move forward. It was so good to be up there on the podium - to see all the fans and their support. It is always something special to race here. I had a great start and jumped ahead of the Ferrari and I was chasing Mark the whole race, but they’ve been four-tenths faster. But as I just said, we’ve made a huge step forward.

Q: Did you have the slightest idea that you would finish on the podium? You said jokingly that you didn’t think you’d be tasting champagne, yet you did…
LH: Not the slightest idea at all! I had no idea where we would finish - but I had that huge optimism. I don’t know where it came from - must have been the fans! I also must say that we did a great job with the set-up because the car performed really well. Not as fast as the Red Bull, but I was able to fight them a little bit.

Q: The turnaround of the car was massive - from a rather poor practice performance to P4 in qualifying, to P2 in the race…
LH: Oh yes, I am proud of my car. I can say that this is the best car that I’ve ever driven for McLaren.

Q: Next race will be the German Grand Prix. Will you go to the factory and work with the team?LH: Yes, there is lots of hard work ahead, but if anyone can do it we can do it. And we will be right there to challenge Red Bull.

Q: There’s been suggestion that you touched Sebastian Vettel at the start and caused his puncture…
LH: I didn’t do anything and I didn’t feel anything. We haven’t touched.

Q: How important is this result for you? You’ve maintained your lead in the championship standings…
LH: Let’s all be realistic: it is still a long, long way to go. It’s like golf where you have 18 rounds and you cannot afford to miss any one of them. But sure those Silverstone points are very important, as we have not been the fastest and still were able to bag a lot of points and lead the championship standings one-two. We are in a defending position at the moment because all our challengers have already introduced their upgrade package and we haven’t, so we have to go to every race making the best of the package that we have - and I would say that we over-delivered this weekend.

Source: Formula1.com