Hamilton: Now this result suits me

In Melbourne, Lewis Hamilton finished second, taking the podium for the first time this season – summing up a difficult weekend…

Q: Lewis, after the race you looked happy. How unexpected was this result?
Lewis HamiltonA: Very unexpected. Second and third place in qualifying gave everyone in the team strength and gave us the chance to fight Max. At one point he just flew past me, but otherwise the race turned out to be interesting. We had a great fight with Fernando.

Q: Back to the battle with Max, what happened in the third turn?
Lewis Hamilton: Everything was clean. He braked early, I braked late and was in the corner. We both made room for each other. I didn’t knock him off the track and he didn’t turn on me. Our cars didn’t touch.

Question Whose car was faster – yours or Fernando?
Lewis Hamilton: I think Fernando’s car was a little faster today. On the straights I had a small advantage, in all corners – he. We have something to work on.

It was very difficult to keep him at bay so he couldn’t use DRS. But this is interesting – to understand where his car is more efficient, and where ours. There were many positive moments in the race, but we need to add speed. In the last two races they were ahead, here we were stronger – it’s great! Now this result suits me perfectly.

Ask Lewis, you changed tires after the first red flag and were going to finish without any pit stops. How hard is it to balance saving tires and fighting Fernando?
Lewis Hamilton: At the finish, the tires were in better shape than I thought. At one point it seemed to me that the rubber was becoming less effective and Fernando attacked, but then I managed to control the gap and add it at the right time.

With 18 laps to go I thought maybe the tires were going to run out but then he got a little behind, I saved the tires and then got into a good rhythm and was able to keep the lead for the last 10 laps.

Fernando was very stable, didn’t make any mistakes. In general, he rarely makes mistakes, so I had to work.