Q & A with Lewis Hamilton
By Jonathan Noble Monday, September 15th 2008, 08:45 GMT
Lewis Hamilton had a far from easy time in Monza, but was thankful as he left the track on Sunday night that he still had the lead in the world championship.
Autosport.com heard from the Briton as he met the press after the race to find out about his charge through the field, the near-miss on victory and his thoughts on F1's newest winner.
Q. You were carving your way through the field. Was that easy?
Lewis Hamilton at MonzaLH: It was! Actually it wasn't easy. It was very difficult out there. There wasn't that much grip, but I managed to find it. I was told I was much quicker than everyone, and I was catching people and overtaking them when I needed to.
I got up to second at one point, so it's a shame I had to stop again. I didn't need more fuel; it was just because of track conditions. Unfortunately having changed tyres, perhaps today I needed the gamble I took yesterday."
Q. Were the weather problems frustrating?
LH: It's not really frustrating. It's just something you have to deal with. I showed I was quickest in the wet, showed that I had great pace, and I think a win was possible. Considering the position I was in if I'd chosen intermediates at the first stop, because I only needed the one, I would have been further up.
Q. How close was the call between intermediates and extremes?
LH: I was told it was going to rain, so I just went with what the team told me.
Q. Were the conditions driveable for intermediates at the stage you stopped?
LH: I wouldn't have had a problem.
Q. And there was no possibility of staying out there on the extremes?
LH: "No. They asked me to come in, but I wanted to wait until someone else on inters went quicker. As soon as Heikki (Kovalainen) went quicker, they pulled me in. I had a great race, but considering I overtook eight people and Kimi didn't do all that much. It's a bit of a shame, but I still came away with my lead intact.
Q. Felipe Massa was nine places ahead of you on the grid, but only one at the end of the race. Was it a big opportunity missed?
LH: I think we all missed an opportunity. With me being right at the back, they both missed an opportunity to take lots of points off me.
But the other way around, if I'd been in Q3, Massa would have been out of the top 10, and we would have got a lot more points than them. So it's not that bad."
Q. So it was a question of damage limitation then?
LH: Absolutely.
Q. What happened with the Mark Webber incident?
LH: He was quick and catching me at that time. I had to put up fight to stop him getting by. There was only one dry line and I covered the inside, but I didn't want to stay there on the wet patch because I wouldn't have made the corner.
I was able to stay on my dry line, and he clipped my front wheel and went straight on. The lucky thing is the car didn't break. Imagine if the car had broken. It would have been disastrous."
Q. Are you surprised you are still ahead in the championship?
LH: I'm more relieved than anything. I'm not surprised because I drove my arse off and you know what I can do in the wet. I had no doubts in my mind I could do a good job, catch up and win. I thought it was possible.
Q. What was going through your mind on the grid?
LH: I would have liked a standing start. It would have been better for me. But with the rain and being so far behind, with not many cars behind me, I just had to make sure I kept my nose clean, stayed out of trouble and brought the car home.
So I left a gap at the beginning because I couldn't see a thing. It was quite difficult to even go flat out down the straights. But once it began to clear up I began to reel the others in.
Q. How good a drive was that? It's probably right up there. Driving through the pack, then passing and leaving someone behind like Kimi, it was a great feeling.
LH: It was a great achievement passing eight cars, when others struggled to pass two or three, so I'm really happy with that.
Q. What are your feelings about Sebastian Vettel winning his first race?
LH: I think he's been fantastic all weekend. He's been getting stronger all year. Having won today, it shows how good he is. It's great for him. Being out front when you don't have all the spray, it is a lot different than being behind.
However, with all that pressure it is easier to make mistakes, and he obviously didn't, so congratulations to him. He did a good job.
Q. Is it your world championship to lose now?
LH: When you're in the lead, perhaps. But I'm not looking at it that way. Kimi is world champion so it's his championship to lose.
Q. Out of the last four races, are any of them key?
LH: Not particularly. In each race we're going to be attacking.
Q. At the end of the race you caught up with Felipe Massa but then dropped back. What happened?
LH: I overheated my front tyres and got a bit of understeer. I think graining was a problem for everyone. I was so much quicker at the beginning and was using more dry areas, and I that took a lot out of them. That's racing.
