Rate this article:
Victory by Design: Jaquar DVD
This brand new show will give the Jaguar enthusiast a real chance to appreciate the beauty and power of the Jaguar heritage.
Our Price: $24.95
"Hot Rod Pinups II"
A Sequel to his 2005 bestseller Hot Rod Pin-ups, ace photographer David Perry offers an all-new collection of images.
Our Price: $35.00
Speed Addicts: Grand Prix Racing
Speed Addicts is the complete and definitive illustrated book of grand prix motor racing, told in the form of a human story.
Our Price: $34.99 ON SALE!
Written by:
Adam Cooper
RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
05/11/2008 - 02:36 PM
Istanbul, Turkey
Hamilton felt glad for shaving two points off Raikkonen's championship lead. (LAT Photo) ยป More Photos
Lewis Hamilton kept his title hopes alive with a strong second place in Turkey, which at least allowed him to claw two points back on Kimi Raikkonen, although he lost two to Felipe Massa. More impressive was the way he got the result, putting in a charging drive that reminded us of the Lewis we saw so often last season. Fears of tire problems forced McLaren to go for a three-stop strategy, splitting the race into four bite size chunks. Lewis wasn’t able to use it to get ahead of Massa, but at one stage he did at least pass the Brazilian and pull away, which was a major morale booster for driver and team. This is what he had to say after the race.
Q: Lewis, I guess from where you were yesterday, when you weren’t too happy, to split the two Ferraris today is a great result for you.
“Absolutely. I am thrilled to have come second from third, but with the strategy we were on as you could tell yesterday I was a little bit disappointed with it. Heikki did a fantastic job and was able to out-qualify me with more fuel. But after looking at the data I realized I was happy with the tire choice. I lost a little bit of time in my middle sector. Today we started on the harder tire and knew it was going to be very tough to challenge the Ferraris and to be honest, we were just hoping to get some points. To finish in the top five would have been good. But the balance of the car was great and on the hard tires I was able to keep up with Felipe and even overtake him. After that I was gone and I was able to keep pushing and pushing. At the end it was quite tough, the softer tire was definitely the worse tire but I am much happier.”
Q: Do you think your second place is a result of switching to that three stop strategy?
“Perhaps. The reason we went with a three stopper was due to Bridgestone being concerned as they thought the tire was going to fail like it did last year. Therefore, they made us do a three stop as it was the safest route to go. Unfortunately for us, that put us in not such a strong position to win the race. However, I am given a problem and I deal with it and so do the team and that’s why I still believe that we are the best. I really have to say a big thank you to the team who did a great job in all the pit stops.”
Q: When you were really quick with relatively light fuel it was sector three you were losing
“I don’t see it as a worry. In Barcelona, the last sector which was all the tight corners, they were a little bit quicker than us there. It was the same here with the last three corners on the straight where they seemed to take quite a lot out of us. We are going to go back and try to understand exactly why and keep pushing to improve. I have no doubts that we can do that.”
Q: From your point of move where did that overtaking maneuver start? How did it happen for you?
“Probably at the beginning of the lap. I knew that I was catching him and I knew that if I could keep close to him at the beginning of the lap I’d be able to tow him down the back straight. The good thing here is you are able to follow at some of the high speed corners, it is not too bad. I knew that also he was having a bit of traffic, so it was a perfect opportunity for me to get up behind him. So I just had to make sure I capitalized on that. I got a late braking into turn nine and managed to get on the power really early. The car was very nicely balanced but right at the end of the straight they are very quick, so even then once I pulled out of the slipstream he began to pull away again. But nevertheless I was able to outbrake him and pass and pull away. Perhaps if that had happened earlier we could have won the race or if I had done a better job in qualifying we probably would have won the race.”
Q: How close was Kimi coming to challenge you at the end?
“At the end of the race we turned the engine down and just looking after the car really. We knew that we had second place. If I needed to go a little bit quicker I could have, but there was no real need as he was never close enough to do anything. I just tried to keep him at bay. I was quite happy with the car on the hard tires, but on the soft tires it was a little bit trickier to maintain a decent gap. There was a lot of traffic at the end and I think they did quite a poor job in getting out of the way. I was behind someone for quite a while and although it looks like they were quite far away it does affect the handling of the car. They are not in my race as such, we are not racing us at the front and it made it quite difficult. But nevertheless I got on with it and came home with second.”
Page 1 of 2
View All Comments
