Lewis Hamilton I am impressed with McLaren’s speed

After the finish of the British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton summed up the weekend…

Q: Lewis, well done, this is your 14th podium at the British Grand Prix…
Lewis Hamilton: First of all congratulations to Max and especially to Lando – it’s great to see McLaren back in good shape. It was so long ago. And then I really didn’t expect to be on the podium.

Before the start we went over the possible options for the strategy in the hope of getting out of the safety car. I put on Medium tires and planned to ride them as long as possible until the safety car showed up. Luckily it did. We have good pace in the long run, I’m thankful to the team that keeps working. But to compete on an equal footing with Red Bull, and now with McLaren, we need to do more.

Q: At the end of the first lap you were in eighth place. What were you thinking about at that moment?
Lewis Hamilton: I can’t say exactly what I thought, but it was one of my worst first laps in a while. I was just trying to organize my thoughts, keep my focus.

I had a good start, but in the third corner I locked up the rear wheels for some reason. I think it’s headwind. Then it happened again in the sixth and seventh inning. The first lap was terrible, but I was able to find the right rhythm.

The Ferraris were fast, it wasn’t easy to overtake and overtake them, but what impressed me the most is the speed of the McLaren. It was fun to follow Lando and see how fast his car is on the fast lanes. And we have to work to catch up with him.

Question: Tell us about this fight, at one point you were part of Copse side by side…
Lewis Hamilton: Yes, I sped forward into turn 7 hoping to get ahead, I pressed the power increase button, we were side by side, overtaking, but his car had less drag, he had an advantage and I had to retreat .

But I was relatively fast in the first half of the lap, if you look at our qualifying laps we were very, very close to Max until Turn 13, after which they already got their advantage. We need to increase the top speed.

Q: Is the McLaren faster than the Mercedes this weekend?
Lewis Hamilton: Yes, just like last week in Austria. This was the first time in a long time that they deserved this success and we need to do better.

It’s great that the new rules are starting to bring the teams together. You saw how great Alex Albon was at Williams, how fast McLaren and Aston Martin were. We have a lot of teams that are very, very close to each other: small gaps in qualifying is exactly what we need. I look forward to further developments as the season progresses.

Q: In the past, you often flattered Lando’s racing ability. Are you impressed with his performance today?
Lewis Hamilton: Yes, I repeat, he is very talented. It’s great when you put up such a tight and hard, but fair fight. There wasn’t a single moment where we could collide or anything like that. This is the essence of our sport. He wanted to keep second place, I wanted to get ahead of him, but today it was not meant to be. We will keep working. I hope we can compete more in the future.

Q: Toto Wolff said when he sent you to the track on Soft against Lando’s Hard he was confident you could overtake him. When did you realize it was impossible?
Lewis Hamilton: Yes, I can imagine what it’s like to go to Hard when someone is behind Soft. I knew Lando wouldn’t be easy. But I didn’t know what the McLaren car was capable of. I had no idea how fast they were at the start of a segment or in a race. You’ve seen everything else.