Question: Lewis, P3 today and it looked so good for pole all the way through that session but you just missed the cut on the chequered flag. How disappointed are you to have missed that cut? Do you think pole was in there for you?
Lewis Hamilton: I have to second what Jenson just said. The team have done a fantastic job to get us here and to be able to compete with the Red Bulls on this kind of circuit is pretty impressive. The car was feeling great. I felt I had a couple of tenths at least left. I had time. There were a couple of corners where I lost a bit of time on my first runs. I felt I was in a position to at least fight with these guys but it was a bit dangerous at the last corner where I had Mark (Webber) attacking me and I had Michael (Schumacher) down the outside. It was very, very strange and that’s really where we lost the lap.
Question: Lewis, how disappointing was it to miss that last lap, as the team has been looking really good the whole weekend?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, well it is what it is. We are third but we are still on the second row at least, so it is good enough.
Question: How about the long runs yesterday? How encouraged were you with that?
Lewis Hamilton: Not massively. Same as always, but the car is competitive this weekend, clearly, which is great. But it is a shame we weren’t able to get our first pole position but that was an interesting situation at the end of my run.
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Question: What about the degradation? Have you managed to lessen that?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, the degradation here… it is a very fast circuit and the first sector, particularly, is quite tough on the tyres. But I think everyone is in the same boat and making the tyres last is going to be interesting. I think there is going to be a similar kind of strategy to what we have seen in the past.
Question: Is there an explanation, something that you have been missing, which hasn’t allowed you to compete with Sebastian and Red Bull for the championship this year?
Lewis Hamilton: We’ve not had the car - for the whole season - that we have now. We would have been able to compete a bit more if we had.
Question: Lewis, you talked briefly about what happened up there with Mark and Michael; could you elaborate a bit on what happened?
Lewis Hamilton: I prefer not to really. I think you could see it on the TV. I would have to watch the replay, but Jenson was in front of me. He slowed down to get his gap and I was coming up to the last corner, trying to make sure that I had a gap between me and him. It wasn’t that big and just as I was coming into the chicane I looked in my mirror and I saw Mark diving up the inside of me, and then I saw… I didn’t even see Michael but as I gave Mark room, Michael nearly crashed me on the left, so it was… quite dangerous.
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