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1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Nico HULKENBERG (Force India)
TV UNILATERAL
Lewis, it was one of those days when I guess it was all about the timing of
the switch onto the slick tyre and then actually coming across the line it
must have been extremely exciting, the final few minutes of that session?
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it was a really fun session. It was one of those
sessions that it starts off dry, goes wet, and quite incredibly here it
dries up so quickly, it’s like driving through fog at some stages. I think
it just added to the excitement of the while thing. I’d never driven here in
the rain before and being a new surface as well it was very, very slippery.
It was drying up corner by corner and at the end it was about getting that
last lap. The previous lap was a good lap as well but if I had finished that
lap I would have been right behind Daniel Ricciardo, so I backed off, which
was a big risk really. If I didn't finish my lap or there had been a yellow
flag I wouldn't have been able to get pole, but it was the risk I took and
fortunately it paid off, so very happy with it.
Well done. Turning to you, Nico, you’re second but it’s a bittersweet
feeling I imagine, knowing that you’ve got to go back five places on the
grid after the accident this morning and the subsequent gearbox penalty. A
shame really, because your preparations for the race up to that point had
been pretty ideal. Tell us about your day and your prospects from here?
Nico ROSBERG: First of all, a really unbelievable job from everybody, even
Lewis’ mechanics came on to my car to try to get it out in time, so that was
a huge team effort. We got it out 11 minutes to go in Q1, so it was really
tight and awesome, so that was great. And then a very exciting qualifying,
going dry-wet-dry and it was unbelievable how quickly it dried in the end
then to get back on to slick tyres. I think Lewis just did a good job there
in the very end, so that’s it. Second not first, but it’s OK. The five
places will be quite costly… well, very costly of course for tomorrow,
unfortunately. I’ll make the best of it anyways and try to get a good race
from there.
OK, thank you for that. Nico Hulkenberg, welcome back. Reminiscent,
conditions-wise and the way you drove, of Brazil a few years ago, in the
Williams days. You must be absolutely ecstatic and set yourself up now,
moving up to the front row of the grid with Nico Rosberg’s penalty, for a
great day?
Nico HULKENBERG: Yeah, no, absolutely, it reminded me a lot about Brazil and
I was feeling really good in the car and it was just a flashback to back
then. I was feeling really good and to be honest, I was expecting a little
bit better, so when he said third… I wasn’t disappointed. A great effort
from the team. Not an easy session to be out there at the right time, it’s
all about timings. The car performed well, we put it together, so a very
solid job and a very good starting position for tomorrow.
Very well done. Lewis, coming back to you, on a serious note we saw a couple
more suspension failures during that qualifying session with Kvyat and Pérez.
What’s the feeling among the drivers, what’s the conversation going to be
this evening and what’s the concern there?
LH: I can’t speak on behalf of all the drivers, but for me those yellow
kerbs are quite dangerous. We’ve now seen a couple of incidents already. I
don’t know how many more of those it’s going to take before a car ends up in
the wall and perhaps someone gets hurt. I’m sure Charlie and the FIA are
looking at it but that’s definitely an area we can improve. The idea is
good, because they definitely don’t want us running wide and using the
outside of the circuit but perhaps another solution is going to be needed.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, one of the interesting talking points arising out of the second
part of qualifying was the decision by Ferrari and Red Bull to go out and
set their time on the supersoft tyre. You and Nico had both used the
ultrasoft but then right at the end you went out and had a bit of a look on
the supersoft just as some rain began to fall. So, your thoughts on why you
went the way that you did in the first instance and what happened at the end
there.
LH: I just did what I was told! I think our strategists understand that that
ultrasoft was the better tyre. We had the supersoft available I think they
perhaps saw – I’m guessing – I’m assuming they saw that the Ferraris had
gone out and they thought we might try to go out and see if we could do a
time on it, even though we think there is a time delta between the two.
Naturally a hard tyre often goes further so that doesn’t seem like such a
bad option. They have qualified on supersofts?
Yes – they’ll start on the supersofts and so will Red Bull
LH: OK, that’s not a bad thing. I think the ultrasoft is not a good tyre for
the race. It’s going to be a struggle to get a lot of laps out of it so the
strategy will be interesting tomorrow. Obviously those guys are starting
behind me so I’m hoping I have a bit of an advantage at the start just from
being on the softer tyre but… yeah, in practice my tyre lasted for four
laps, so I think for Nico it lasted maybe eight? He says five. So it’ll
definitely be tricky but we’ll do the best we can with it.
Q: OK, the same question to you Nico. Your race, the first stint is going to
be much more complicated because of where you’re starting. So your thoughts
on this situation going into the race tomorrow. And also, picking up on what
I was asking Lewis before about the kerbs, is it just a case now of, for the
rest of the weekend, staying off them – or is there more to it than that?
NR: For sure yeah, need to stay off them. I even stayed off them in
qualifying now most of the time, except for when it really counted. Tyres is
going to be tough tomorrow but the thing is we don’t really know because the
temperature is going to drop so much so who knows how the tyres are going to
be? For sure in the hot it was really tough but maybe in the cold it’s going
to be better.
Q: Nico, coming to you, obviously your team is going through a bit of a
purple patch at the moment with podiums in Monaco and Baku recently. You’re
still looking for your first Formula One podium personally. You must be
feeling that tomorrow may well just be your day. Are you very optimistic and
excited going into tomorrow’s grand prix?
NH: Yes. First of all I’m happy and excited about today. Special
circumstances obviously with the rain in Q3 and then the drying-up track but
for sure starting second is a very good starting position. Tomorrow we’ll do
what we can. I’m not thinking too hard about that now. We’ll do that in the
next couple of hours and tonight and tomorrow but our car has made huge
steps forwards since Barcelona really and ever-since we’ve scored a lot of
points and a few podiums so yeah, we’re on a good slope, we have good
momentum and just try to carry it into tomorrow and make it into another
good Sunday.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Angélique Belokopytov – AutoDigest) Lewis, yesterday you considered that
you were not at your top level. So what did change? Did you improve since
yesterday? Was it work more on your mental, or the car or maybe both?
LH: A little bit the car but mostly I just had to find time today. Nico had
been performing well all weekend and it was just chipping away at
improvements, constantly looking at my data, trying to figure out where I
was losing the time and how I could improve. Bit by bit, corner by corner…
at one point there’s five corners where I’m down, then it’s four corners I
was down, then two, then just one corner where I was down. That’s something
that… then it rained and I was thinking ‘Jeez, I’ve finally got into this
position where I can perhaps battle for pole with Nico’ and then it rained –
but fortunately those are conditions I like as well, so it made it a little
bit easier, I have to say, when it got into those conditions ‘cos it’s then
a bit more about who takes the most risk, I guess.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Hulkenberg, we received indication on
the screens that you were under investigation because of the yellow flags in
Q2. Are you aware of this?
NH: No, I wasn’t aware that I’m under investigation. I think it was the
incident where Sainz’s car’s engine blew up and he was parked on the right
on the main straight. I did lift, I did lose time there but still with new
tyres, track improvement I might have gone faster, I don’t know but we will
see. I’m not too concerned.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, when you came in here, you
stopped to watch your lap – all the lap – what was your view of it, what was
your analysis of your own lap?
LH: I could have been faster! I was looking at some places where... you
know, when you do a lap like that it’s really difficult to... you know, the
previous lap maybe I had an oversteer moment in one corner, you don’t know
if it’s dried up and what... it probably has dried up on that next lap so
you don’t know just how much you can push on each corner. In hindsight...
hindsight’s always a great thing - there were drier patch and more grip and
more potential in some corners that I did, but it doesn’t matter because I’m
where I need to be. That’s what happens when I watch it. I’m just thinking
could be a little bit more there, a little bit more there.
Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Nico, I would like to know – maybe you said
it before but I don’t know – but when this accident happened, was it because
you touched the kerb or is it because there was a mechanical problem in the
car and the suspension was broken?
NR: The suspension broke. On the kerb, on the normal exit kerb, the first
one, the thin one.
Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) To all of you: there’s a possibility that next
year maybe we will have a bigger version of the Austrian Grand Prix, a new
track layout but of course the old one, the Osterreichring. Are you
satisfied with this information? Would you like to compete with Formula One
cars on this or is it OK now?
LH: Me personally? That’s the best news I’ve probably heard in Formula One
for a long time. They’re going to take a track back to what it should be or
what it was previously. The track is nice as it is now but I’ve not seen the
old track but I can imagine going up into the mountains and into the woods
it’s going to be epic so I really hope they do that personally.
Q: Nico, your Dad raced here on the old one, any thoughts on that?
NR: I just watched the video from 1982, one of the closest finishes with my
Dad finishing second and definitely it looks very exciting so yeah, if they
do that, cool.
NH: I wasn’t even aware. Don’t know what the layout was but yeah, whatever.
Fine. |
