By Simon Strang Wednesday, July 9th 2008, 12:40 GMT
Q. Have recent car developments put McLaren ahead of Ferrari?
Lewis HamiltonLewis Hamilton: It's too early to say, but we have made some very good steps.
Q. Do you like the track?
LH: Yeah. I've always liked Hockenheim. I wish I had got an opportunity to drive the old circuit, but I have had some success here in Formula 3. This is my first test here in a Formula One car, but it feels good, it's very quick.
Q. Is it a good track for testing? Do you learn a lot about the car here?
LH: Probably not. It's not the best track for testing, that's for sure. You don't have as big a mixture of high-speed corners and low-speed corners, but it is not bad at all. It's still been a very productive day for us.
Q. You tested the new anvil wing for the first time, how did it feel?
LH: No different.
Q. How was the celebration party on Sunday night?
LH: I was in bed by 11 o'clock. Some of my friends that came to watch the race went on to London and partied for me. Me and my brother, my father and my step-mum Linda, along with my grandparents, went for dinner. I was in bed by 11, and I slept the best night ever!
Q. It's like all the title contenders are starting from zero at the halfway point?
LH: That depends how you look at it, but yeah for sure, we're all on equal paths at the moment. We are definitely into the back nine and it is very important that we continue to score points.
Q. Do you think it is an advantage or a disadvantage that Ferrari has two drivers fighting for the championship while at McLaren, Heikki Kovalainen appears to be out of the title race?
LH: I think it's an advantage having two drivers fighting for the world championship because at the end of the day it pushes the team towards the Constructors' Championship. It can't be bad for them [Ferrari].
Q. So you are not hoping that Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa will take points away from each other?
LH: Not really. I'm more hoping that Heikki takes more points off them than anything else.
Q. At which point of the season do you think the championship will be decided?
LH: The last race. I can only guess, but I am sure it will be a lot like last year. Last year it was just as close between the top three drivers and there was one point separating us at the end. So I can only assume it will be at the last race again. I hope it's not, but...
Q. How do you explain the up-and-down nature of McLaren and Ferrari's levels of competitiveness?
LH: I think it has been magnified a lot. For us I think we have been consistently quick except for at two races which were Bahrain and Malaysia, where we weren't as fast. But I think without the problems we had in Sepang we would have been third and fourth.
To be honest I think we have been very, very consistent all year. I don't have an excuse or a reason for why it has been up and down. But this is racing, you can't just have a perfect year, you don't have perfect years. There are lots of different things and problems that crop up, and as you saw Ferrari had their problems at the last race. But then we have had our fair share, that's racing.
Q. But you have won in the most problematic circumstances this year. The safety cars in Melbourne and the rain in Monaco and Silverstone.
LH: Somehow I've been very strong on the most challenging races this year, but even if you look at Montreal - we were blindingly quick there and it is just a shame that we didn't win. We clearly had the quicker car, it was unfortunate, then having the penalty in Magny-Cours it put us in a worse position.
If I hadn't crashed in Montreal then we would have won the race, we would have gone to Magny-Cours without the ten-place penalty and we probably would have finished in the top three and the championship positions would have been different. But that is just the way racing is and that's what makes thing exciting.
Q. Having just won your home Grand Prix, to what extent do you see Hockenheim as a second home race?
LH: For me my home Grand Prix is my home Grand Prix, so for sure it has a different value. But I think more for the team, and for me I have always been a part of the McLaren-Mercedes driver support programme so it's great to be back in Germany. I hope that we can do it here and I just said to Norbert [Haug] today that it would be great to have a one-two.
