Question: Lewis, an interesting comment from Martin Whitmarsh. He feels there is a lot of performance in the car which is still to be unlocked. Is that your feeling as well?
Lewis Hamilton: I think for me every time I have gone to the track I have done the Friday and the Saturday and my comments are always ‘this is the best the car has ever felt over these years at this track, but it is still not quick enough compared to others.’ But we believe there is still some untapped downforce in the car which we have not been able to use at the moment or at least draw out, so we are working very hard. The team are working flat out as always to try and pull that out. I am trying to do everything I can to encourage and paying very close attention to what is going on and keeping a close eye on everything.
Question: Yet the feeling is that this circuit suits the car perhaps for exactly that reason, that you haven’t got a massive amount of downforce. It is not so important here.
Lewis Hamilton: I think it is still important here. There are a lot of high-speed corners here, so you still need quite efficient downforce I think especially with the long straights. But I think we should be a little bit better here than we were in Hungary. Hopefully. I am looking forward to getting into the car tomorrow. I hope the weather does clear up for us as it doesn’t look so great out there at the moment.
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F1 Standings Ahead of Belgian Grand Prix
Formula 1: Fernando Alonso Fastest in First Practice at Spa-Francorchamps
Formula 1: Belgian Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Formula 1: Fernando Alonso Fastest in Second Practice at Spa-Francorchamps
Formula 1: Belgian Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
Question: Which corner on the Formula One calendar is your favourite corner and why - as we’re in Spa?
Lewis Hamilton: I don’t particularly have a favourite. I think it’s very hard to pick and chose. I think if you looked at all the maps, I’m sure that you could pick out a few that you like perhaps more than others but Pouhon is definitely one that springs to mind, similarly to him.
Question: As Spa is a special track and something different always happens here, do you have a special memory from this track, good or bad?
Lewis Hamilton: For me I had some good races here in Formula Renault and especially Formula Three in 2005, I had a good race with Adrian Sutil who was my team-mate, passing through Eau Rouge which was quite good in the wet. But then in Formula One I would say 2008 was still quite a cool memory for me, regardless of the result. I think it was a great race and one that was definitely very interesting.
Question: Lewis, do you think the championship will restart here as we saw in the last few races - Hockenheim, Hungaroring - where Red Bull, Ferrari was on one level and then McLaren a good gap behind, considering the factories were closed?
Lewis Hamilton: I don’t think anything’s going to change, not immediately. Obviously we’ve had the shutdown, so I expect our car to be very much the same as it was in the last race. Obviously this is a good point in time where we have to try and do some more tests whilst we’re here on Friday and Saturday, try to get even more information back to try and understand where the extra time is and where the extra downforce is. Only once we’ve done that can we really move forwards. I don’t think it’s restarting again, it’s just continuing. These guys are going to be incredibly quick, especially the Red Bulls and we have to do everything we can to not allow them to pull too far ahead.
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