Lewis Hamilton (1st)
“It was an incredibly challenging afternoon, especially in the last 20 laps, when I was trying to look after my tyres while also keeping Jenson and Fernando (Alonso) behind me. It wasn’t easy, I can tell you that! This track is unique - you can never be too confident, because you really have to look after your tyres, and it’s so hard to know how long you can make them last. Fernando put a lot of pressure on me. We had a really good battle, but, although he was pressing me hard, I was able to pull out a small gap and then maintain it. It was such a sensational feeling to cross the line. In terms of pure pace, I still think the Red Bull car is still a little bit faster than ours. But, as a whole, I think our package is now stronger. So, going forward, we need to build on the progress we’ve made recently, and we’re going to do just that; we’ll now knuckle down and make a really big effort to increase that gap. We’ve got good momentum now, so I hope we can continue our winning run through to Valencia in two weeks’ time. The feeling and atmosphere within the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team is better than ever. The contribution that Jenson has brought is the best I’ve ever witnessed from a team-mate. He did another great job today to come from fourth to second - he’s doing his part and I’m doing mine. The team is happier than ever. This has been a truly fantastic day.”
Jenson Button (2nd)
“Turn One was a bit too exciting for me - I got hit by Felipe (Massa), and I feared I’d damaged the car, but fortunately it was just rear graining that I felt, not a puncture. Then, when I got onto the Prime tyre, the car started working really well. But it’s so difficult around here – you’ve really got to look after the tyres, even the Prime, which was also liable to graining. But I looked after my tyres carefully, and in traffic I was able to pull out five seconds on Sebastian (Vettel). After that, I decided to focus on driving flat-out to catch Fernando. And it worked: when we both hit further traffic, I was able to pounce and make my move. After that, I began trying my best to reel in Lewis, but I’d taken so much out of my tyres while chasing Fernando that I couldn’t get any closer to Lewis than about two seconds. Overall, then, this has been a great weekend for us. Lewis did a phenomenal job in qualifying - I couldn’t touch him - but it feels good to have finished second in the race just behind him. Hopefully, next time the order will be reversed!”
Fernando Alonso (3rd)
“It’s great to be back on the podium and especially to be able to fight for the top places once again. Today, we could have won but we did not manage it because, on a few occasions, we paid a heavy price for the traffic. These things can happen to anyone in a race and this time it was our turn. If we want to reach our objective, we must try and always finish on the podium and this result is a great motivation for a team that today did a great job, in terms of strategy and handling the pit stops. It was difficult to manage the tyres: the softs at the start suffered from degradation very quickly, but even the hard ones had a different problem with graining. Luckily, our car is reasonably kind to the tyres. From what we had seen in Turkey, we had not really expected to have this level of performance. Now we have a lot of updates coming for the next Grand Prix in Valencia: I really hope they will allow us to be competitive on all types of track. I have never finished on the podium in my second home race, after the one in Barcelona and I would love to do that in two weeks time.”
Sebastian Vettel (4th)
“I was surprised that I came in for my first pit-stop as the leader, but came out in fourth. I think everything we predicted to happen from our side was the case. The others came in early for new tyres, as we expected. Usually though, their race would then be over because they should come out in traffic, but that wasn’t what happened. When we came out from our pit stop, they were ahead of us, so we need to understand what happened there. Otherwise, I had a gearbox problem from around halfway through the race, which meant I had to slow down. Also, due to lapped cars, I lost six seconds to Jenson in two laps, so I was unable to fight for the podium. But, it’s good that we got these final positions. Coming into the weekend we were not the favourites, but actually we had very good pace and we surprised some people with that. We couldn’t really show our real pace during the race, due to the way it unfolded, but it’s promising. It’s a close battle at the top of the table and, as we have seen, things can change very quickly. There is no reason to panic from our side, we have a very good car and we’re looking ahead to Valencia.”
Mark Webber (5th)
“Tyres played a huge role in the race today and, in the end, we did the best we could. I have mixed emotions after the penalty this morning (Mark took a five place grid penalty due to a gear box change). I had a good first few laps at the start, but that took its toll on the first set of tyres, so I needed to pit a little earlier than I would have liked. In the second stint I was ahead and was monitoring the gap to Lewis. I was moving away a bit at the start, as he was pacing to get to the finish. I was trying to keep my pace constant, but in the end the tyres didn’t want that pace and they go away from you. It’s virtually impossible to keep the tyres from degrading here, no matter how slow you drive. In the end it wasn’t really a surprise to come back out from my second pit stop in fifth, as I knew people in front had been packed up tightly behind Lewis. We then turned the car down to save it for the next race. We expected this to be a tough event and in the end we were closer than we thought. I wanted to get some champagne today, it didn’t happen, but we’ll be back.”
Nico Rosberg (6th)
“Sixth place was probably the best result that we could have achieved today so I’m pretty happy. It’s been a difficult weekend with a poor qualifying performance yesterday due to the tyres not working properly and I was unlucky on the first lap today to lose so many places from the chaos in front of me. But from there, I was able to do some good overtaking and push to make up the positions and our pace was quick. We had a great strategy but it was really difficult to manage the tyres. I drove smoothly to control the graining but every time I looked in my mirrors, it was getting worse. Thankfully the primes held after my second stop so we were able to finish with sixth place and get some decent points moving me up to sixth in the drivers’ championship.”
Robert Kubica (7th)
“The six points I got this afternoon were my toughest points of the year. We chose to qualify on the prime tyre yesterday and hoped it would be an advantage in the first part of the race, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. I had a lot of rear degradation in the first stint, which meant I pitted early, then the rear tyres went off in the second stint as well. But it was an action-packed race: I had a close battle with Michael after my first stop, and then with Sutil before my second one. I was racing him on my in-lap and we were side by side before the last corner. I was on the right, so I backed off and pulled behind him to take my line for the pits, but he braked very early and hard: I had to go round him to avoid causing an accident. At the end of the race, I did a short stint on the option tyre and I was pushing to close down the gap to Rosberg, but I ran out of laps even though I was catching him quickly. It was a tough race for me but I think we must be optimistic for Valencia: the circuit should suit our car, and we will have more new developments to help us improve our basic pace.”
Sebastien Buemi (8th)
“I am super happy to have scored four points because we did not expect that much. The team did an excellent job, especially during the pit stops and also the strategy was spot on. I enjoyed some fights, including passing Schumacher which was difficult because, even though we were on the same tyres, with his being older than mine, he is a real fighter. Generally it was a tough afternoon, because there was a lot of degradation which is why we planned to make three pit stops; something we are not used to. The other worry I had was a broken exhaust from quite early on. I also enjoyed leading the race for a lap, which was a nice feeling. I hope this means my season will really kick off now, because I have not had much luck and the team has been working really hard. It feels so much better to have had a ‘normal’ race today. Eighth place, leading the race and passing Michael. What a day!”
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Formula 1: Pole Sitter Lewis Hamilton Wins Canadian Grand Prix
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