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Monaco GP: Post Race press conference

NEWS STORY
25/05/2008

Lewis, an eventful day from start to finish. Let's begin at the beginning. It was a good start into P2 and then a little bit close to the wall at Tabac corner.
Lewis Hamilton: I was able to get a good start and felt comfortable at the beginning. I knew that I had a good car underneath me and I knew that I would be able to challenge Felipe at some point. I could not really see anything, so I just stayed in second because there was so much spray, so you can't see if it is raining more or less. Through turn 12, Tabac, there was a sort of river coming through and as I was catching Felipe I hit this river and just oversteered and just slid across into the barrier. I couldn't believe it and I knew I had only just touched it and I had a rear puncture and fortunately I was able to tell the team quickly and they were able to react as quickly as possible and get out. They did a fantastic job and without them I wouldn't have been able to do it today.

And then two other events took place. The safety car came out shortly afterwards which allowed you to regain some of that time and then you were able to switch strategies and as the weather changed that played into your hands.
LH: It did. When the weather is like this, when it starts to rain and we had an idea it was going to start to dry, the important thing is to keep it on the track but I can't explain how difficult it was for all of us. You were aquaplaning all the time and you were tip-toeing almost. But fortunately the strategy, obviously we had to change it, and it worked into my hands. The pace I had was ridiculous. I had one second on people for the majority of the race and it was quite easy and so I was comfortable setting that pace and I was asking the team 'do I need to go quicker' and they said slower. There was a point when I was 40 seconds ahead and I just said 'ok, 20 more laps, keep the gap the same.' Then the safety car came out.

It was by no means over as you still had a decision to make about whether to go to dries or perhaps to stay on intermediates. Then the Nico Rosberg incident with shards on the track, potential punctures, and then the restart behind the safety car.
LH: I said it was going to be an eventful race. I hope Nico is okay. The team came over the radio and said he should be okay. For sure that looked like a big shunt. But with the safety car coming out near the end I lost that big back, but fortunately with the tyres I was on, the team came across the radio and said you still have 13 laps and I was thinking the track is getting drier and there is a long way to go. But I managed to look after them and I think that is what gave us the win. I could stay on them for as long as I wanted.

And what was it like at the restart with the pressures and temperatures down a bit?
LH: I seemed to do a good job. I am used to it. Remember last year in Canada I had to do the same thing, so it was no sweat. I think everyone probably struggled getting the tyres back up to temperature but I was fortunate enough to build a good gap and I just kept it nice and cool at the end. But I was counting down the laps and it took a long, long time.

Robert, a great drive for you and leading the race for a long time. But basically on that two stop strategy it was difficult I guess to compete with Lewis who effectively switched to the one stopper.
Robert Kubica: I mean we started the race by fighting too low pressures and I was struggling a lot with the first three or four laps. Fortunately then I was much quicker than Kimi Räikkönen but I couldn't overtake. When you are running behind some car you can't see anything. Then Felipe had a little mistake in corner one, so I was leading. In the second stint I got a lot of graining on the rear tyres and Felipe just came out after his one pit-stop in front of me and he was much heavier although he was pulling away and then the graining on the rear tyres got better and I was lapping two to three seconds quicker than him, but couldn't overtake him. Fortunately Timo Glock was in front of us with grooved tyres and when I saw he was much quicker than us I just called the team to change tyres and fortunately we did it quicker than Felipe and I managed to overtake him. I think it is quite a lot of miracles that I finished the race. It was a very hard race for me and I think second place was the maximum with our performance this weekend. I am very happy.

Felipe, you liked turn one in qualifying where it did the job for you but in the race not so lucky.
Felipe Massa: For sure, a lot of us had a little moment there. In a race like that it is so easy to have a small off through concentration or whatever. I just braked over the line and I couldn't stop the car because you have the line going out from the pits. I just braked a little bit over the line and I just couldn't stop the car. From then I had a very difficult race as I lost the radio for 20 laps and I couldn't talk to my team, I was just looking to the board and it was not so easy to know what was going on in the race. In the first stint, even with this moment, I was so quick and able to put down a very good pace compared to Lewis and Robert. I knew that the strategy was working well and the car was perfect. Then suddenly we changed to one stop and put fuel to the end of the race. That was the big mistake because the track was getting drier and drier and we expected some more rain coming which the team told me but it didn't come. Then by the time Robert stopped I wanted to stop again but it was a pretty difficult conversation with the team and me and it just took too long to come back again and change the tyres because I had fuel to the end of the race. It was a shame that we made a little mistake on the strategy but it is good to be on the podium. The championship is long and I am happy with the result even though I expected the victory because we had a great car in the dry and a great strategy as maybe I was the last car to stop. I had a great car yesterday in qualifying and the race itself but unfortunately the strategy did not work.

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