Question: Lewis, you lost ground at the start to Nico Rosberg but got him back in the pit stops, but how do you feel overall today about pace in the race?
Lewis Hamilton: First of all congratulations to Fernando and Felipe. It is great to see Felipe back but of course to also see Fernando up there. For us, I think we had quite a good race. Unfortunately I lost a bit of ground, broke a little bit late into turn four with a lock up and went a bit wide and then I was in a very bad position and Rosberg got past me and unfortunately I was held up behind Rosberg for the first half of the race. I was much faster but it is very difficult to follow here while trying to look after your tyres. Unfortunately, perhaps if I was ahead of him I could have carried on and followed the train these guys were creating. I am very happy getting past him and a strong result for myself and the team. It is more than we expected this weekend but a great job from them as always but we need to continue to push to keep up with these guys.
Question: Lewis, tell us what it was like this new style Formula One for you starting the car on heavy tanks and soft tyres. How does it feel from a driver’s point of view?
Lewis Hamilton: It is a different challenge. It definitely didn’t make racing more exciting in terms of being able to overtake. I wasn’t able to follow. Through the first half of the circuit I was close to Nico but as soon as we go to the fast sectors it was impossible to stay behind. With the tyes there just wasn’t enough grip to be able to hold with him, but I think it is an interesting season ahead of us. Bit by bit everybody is learning how to use the tyres. I think that is probably the most interesting part, trying to understand the tyres, trying to conserve your fuel load and know when to attack and not to attack, I think this is a real challenge, so I hope the BBC are doing a good job to show the fans exactly what we are doing and how we are doing it.
Question: Lewis, you were saying this result was more than you expected. Where do you feel you are missing out? Is it something you know?
Lewis Hamilton: We had a good day. I think our race pace was a lot stronger obviously than our qualifying pace. As I said, I got held up behind Nico for quite a long time. I was quicker than him in the first and last sector but it was too tough to keep up with him in the middle sector. I think we’re lacking in a little bit of downforce compared to the Ferraris and especially the Red Bulls, but we’re not in a bad position. I think we just need to try to make a step closer to them which will enable us to compete for the win. Today, I think if I wasn’t behind Nico for that first half of the race, I think I perhaps would have been a lot closer to the guys and perhaps I would have a chance to compete with Felipe at the end. But things happened and I’m very happy with third.
Question: When Felipe was conserving fuel you weren’t that much closer, you were pretty much matching times.
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah. I think there was a point where the gap was so big I thought I would look after the tyres and then I realised I was quite a bit faster than him. I think I was half a second faster then, so then I began pushing and I think it got to 0.8s some laps, 0.3s on some other laps, so I was generally quicker but there wasn’t enough laps to catch up, with that kind of gap. There were five laps with perhaps seven seconds to catch up and once I caught him, it would take a couple of laps to get past at least, so I thought I would just look after the car.
Question: Lewis, straight after the first stop, you were able to match the pace of the three guys in front of you. What’s going on at that point in the race? Is that a true reflection of the comparative pace of the three cars or are you all taking it a little bit easy at that point, because of the tyre wear?
Lewis Hamilton: I think that was the true pace of our car at the time. Whether or not it would have been the same on the option tyre I don’t know, but as I say, I was right up on Nico’s tail for the whole of the stint and unfortunately I wasn’t able to pull out the time that I needed. These guys were just pulling away. I would come onto the back straight and they were already around the next corner, so the gap just increased, there was nothing I could do at that time, but as soon as I got in some clean air and there were some new tyres on, the car felt great and I think the pace that I had was quite good, so it’s good to know that were able to match or do similar times to the guys at the front. It shows that we’re not as far away as we thought we may have been.
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