F1: We Don’t Know Why We Were Fast Says Hamilton

Formula 1

F1: We Don’t Know Why We Were Fast Says Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton picked up win No. 2 of 2011 on Sunday in Germany...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted July 24, 2011 Nurburg (DEU)

Lewis Hamilton celebrates his win in the German GP. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Lewis Hamilton says he has no real explanation as to why McLaren was so competitive in Germany.

On Friday, the Briton didn’t rate his chances very highly, but he qualified on the front row on Saturday and scored a superb win Sunday after jumping into the lead at the start.

“We didn’t really think we would be so fast and [we’re] not quite sure what we’ve done, because we’ve not really brought much here,” said Hamilton. “I don’t know if it’s the conditions. I think we were competitive in Montreal, and in Monaco and in Valencia, in hot temperatures, we are less competitive. We obviously went to Silverstone with the rule changes which was a big problem for us, and then we come back here to where we were, really, in cool conditions.

“I think we’re there or thereabouts, but I do still feel that the overall performance of the two guys here, particularly the Red Bulls’, is slightly better than ours. You can see this weekend, I was quickest in the first sector and the last sector, but we lose a lot in the middle sector, and that’s because we don’t have a DRS system as efficient as theirs, so I think that we will lose at least half of those four tenths in the middle sector. If we can improve in that area, then I think we could definitely eke ahead of them, so that’s what we need to work on.”

Hamilton said that the win would be a big boost to the team.

“I think days like this definitely pay off more than you could imagine, and being able to have close races – this was a great race in the sense that there was Mark (Webber), me and Fernando (Alonso) all within a tenth of each other, lap after lap after lap and it was about real perfection and it was about really not making mistakes," Hamilton said.

“I think today I was in a really very good head space and perhaps I feel even better because I felt the moves I did were some of the most precise moves I have pulled in a while. Being able to drive with your head all the time and get it right, just right, is massively satisfying. As I said, I will continue to do it the way I do it and continue to improve.”

Hamilton even paid tribute to fourth-place Sebastian Vettel, who missed podium for the first time in 2011: “You can’t expect him to be perfect all the time. He’s won a huge amount of races from the end of last year into this year. It’s easy for everyone to criticize him, just from one race, but he’s been exceptionally consistent for a long time. For whatever reasons, I’m sure he will bounce back, he will be very quick at the next race and I think it’s maybe a one-off.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 26th season as a racing journalist in 2010. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.