Question: Your thoughts on coming back to this circuit?
Lewis Hamilton: I am as well happy to be back. I love it here. It is one of my favourite grands prix of the year. It is a little bit sad that we haven’t had it for the last couple of years. But I am really very, very happy to be here. I hope the weather improves. Every time I have been here I had my first grand prix win here, so great memories. Even of 2008, that was still a great memory and I am really hoping we can continue in that style and have a good, productive weekend. It is great to be in the city. The city is fantastic here. It is one of the best and youngest and most fun cities to be in throughout the grand prix calendar, so I am really happy to be here and looking forward to a good weekend.
Question: Lewis, a previous winner here and twice on pole position as well. A circuit that you enjoy as well.
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah absolutely. I have generally done quite well here in the last few years. I don’t know why. Again it is a bit of a street circuit which I seem to go quite well on. I have just always been able to dial the car in here. It has suited my driving style, so hopefully we will see the same this weekend. I am hoping the car will be quite competitive and we are able to compete with the guys at the front. Really just excited to get back out there as it has been a little while since we have been here.
Question: The last race was very much McLaren versus Red Bull and as you pointed out there were specific areas where both of those cars were particularly good. Can you see the same thing happening here?
Lewis Hamilton: I would guess so, but this is a circuit where perhaps there is less opportunity for the advantage of the Red Bull maybe. There are a couple of corners, turn four, turn seven, and I think turn 10, turn nine maybe where the Red Bull will be quite strong on those exits but otherwise we should be strong on the straights. But you never know. I think other teams are constantly developing their cars and as Nico said we are also doing the same thing, trying to develop our car throughout the year, so we always try to bring small bits to each track. Hopefully our car suits the track a little bit better than it did in Monaco and we can have a good weekend.
Question: If you put yourself in Sebastian’s (Vettel) place would you have gone for that gap?
Lewis Hamilton: We don’t have any team orders and of course we always want to support the team in getting the most points but clearly both drivers always want to win, so if there is an opportunity you take it. But you have to weigh up the risks and try to make as sensible a move as possible.
Question: Lewis, in Turkey you said that you felt the win was a bit inherited. Do you think here on this track you and the team have all you need to beat the Red Bulls at their own game?
Lewis Hamilton: It is difficult to say, simply because we are always improving but we won’t really know until Saturday what our true pace is but in terms of the gap that we have between ourselves and Red Bull we haven’t made a significant step forward to have closed that gap. My guess is that they will still be very competitive. However, we have the very long straight here which suits our car more. I don’t know if they have brought their F-duct but I am hoping that we are going to be more on a par this weekend and therefore, maybe a bit like the last weekend we can be a little bit closer but maybe even more this weekend, hopefully.
Question: It’s also Le Mans this weekend; what does this race represent for you and would you like to race there one day or another in your career?
Lewis Hamilton: It’s a very prestigious race and one I like to watch but I don’t have any plans to do it. Maybe in the future, anything’s possible, but my current plan is just to focus on my job here and this is what I love doing for now.
Question: Lewis, two years ago your race was finished at the pit lane exit lights. Was that the lowest point in your championship campaign that year?
Lewis Hamilton: I don’t think so. I was having a good race that weekend, it was just a small mess-up and everyone makes mistakes. I don’t really remember too much from that year at the moment, so I’m sure I’ve had much, much lower points in my career. It was just one of those experiences that you learn from. We were very competitive here and it was looking like we could have at least competed for a podium finish that weekend. It was a little bit disappointing to end my race and also Kimi’s (Räikkönen) but that’s motor racing and these things happen and I’ve grown from that.
Question: Lewis, the team has talked about the misunderstanding between you and Jenson in Turkey and I was wondering how those situations can be avoided in the future, and also whether you’ve had a chat with (chief engineer) Phil Prew about it? Martin Whitmarsh was saying earlier in the week that it was just an opinion expressed, not necessarily the fact.
Lewis Hamilton: I think for us what we’ve done is clearly reflecting on a great result, a one-two, our second one-two in the year which has been great because we’ve not had one for a long time. What we have to work on is the communication and make sure that we are always communicating and understanding one another, but that’s how you build all relationships, it’s working on that communication and making sure we get the point across in the best way possible.
Question: People like coming here because there is a very fine margin to having a big accident and taking the car out and Robert touched on that earlier: you’ve got to drive precisely here and it seems it attracts a lot of entertainment because of that, unlike other circuits where you’ve got 100 hundred yards to drive off, turn the car around and get back on the circuit. Which do you prefer? Do the drivers prefer a circuit that challenges them or do they like one that gives them a huge margin to look good?
Lewis Hamilton: I think that at the end of the day all the circuits are challenging but then of course they are different in the way they challenge your skills. I think a lot of us like the street circuits where there’s a lot less room for error. Obviously in the olden days we had the other circuits where you just had grass on the outside whereas now we have Astroturf and a lot of tarmac which makes it a lot easier. But nonetheless, it’s still a real challenge. When we come back to a track like this, it is one of the older circuits, with real character. You can get really close to the walls and there’s the real danger factor there which also puts some of the excitement back into it. It also has the character whereby the tyres grain quite a lot. If you go off-line it’s easy to crash. It’s just a great race. You look around the calendar at the circuits and you see some of the historic, classic circuits and this is just one of those.
Question: Did you enjoy meeting the crowd from Montreal this morning, and do you feel this kind of event should happen a little more often in Formula One, especially at other grands prix?
Lewis Hamilton: What are you referring to, the signing session? Yeah, the signing session takes place at every Grand Prix. I think it happens at every Grand Prix. We do a signing session at all the grands prix since last year. It is a great way for us to get in touch with the fans and see them up close and personal. For me, I haven’t been here for a few years and now I have quite a good few friends from my previous experiences here, so it’s great for me to have seen them today. It kind of gives you a bit of a buzz because we’ve just arrived and straight away we’ve got that kind of reception, so I’m happy to see it.
Question: Which do you prefer, a circuit like Istanbul Park with big run-off areas, or the same circuit with the run-off areas of Suzuka? Maybe it’s more exciting.
Lewis Hamilton: For us, all that really matters is the tarmac between the white lines. The FIA are doing a fantastic job with the safety around those white lines, and that’s not really what we need to focus on. The most important thing to us is how cool the track is, that’s between the white lines. As I’ve said before, some tracks you like that have less run-off like Suzuka but Suzuka is quite dangerous but there has to be a real fine balance between safety and the danger aspect.
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