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Belgian GP: Post Race press conference

NEWS STORY
30/08/2020

Track Interviews - Conducted by Martin Brundle

Lewis, it seemed to me that you had this race under control from qualifying yesterday with those two outstanding laps but you had some nursing to do at the end?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, it wasn't the easiest of races. I had a lock-up into Turn 5 that started to give a a bit of a vibration and then one into the last corner. The tyre temperatures were slowly dropping, no matter how much you were pushing. I guess as you lose rubber you start to lose temperature in the tyres. It was a bit of a struggle but nonetheless I think it was OK. I was a little bit nervous that we might have a scenario like Silverstone with that right front towards the end, so I was nursing it. It looks like the tyre has got plenty of rubber on it, so maybe it was just fine and maybe just all worry for nothing.

You're unstoppable at the moment - you're 89th victory, just two behind the great Michael Schumacher now, your fourth victory here, matching Jim Clark. You're on a roll!
LH: I know it's not necessarily what everyone always wants, to see the Mercedes at the front but no matter how much success we have, we just keep our heads down. When I go back into the office now there's no guys celebrating, they're like, 'OK, how can we win the next race'. It's an incredible mentality to work around, and environment to work around. We're continuing to learn about ourselves, about the car, how we develop and improve weekend-in, weekend-out. And honestly, it's crazy to think, I'm 35, going towards 36 but I feel better than ever, so that's a positive. I'm really, really grateful to the team, everyone back at the factory, thank you for their continued support. It actually worked to my benefit to be honest that snap, because it meant he was right up my chuff and I'm sure he had to lift. And that meant that when we go to the top of the hill, I don't know if he had to lift or not, but he didn't have enough time to slingshot. No shake and bake today, so I'm grateful for that.

On to Valtteri Bottas. P2 today Valtteri, tell us about your race? There was a point early on when you were saying 'let me have a go, let me use my power up and have a run at Lewis'?
Valtteri Bottas: Yeah, of course at the start it would have been a good opportunity but I think Lewis played it pretty well that he wasn't too fast out of Turn 1 and I couldn't really get momentum behind him and also today there was a tailwind into Turn 5, so a bit less of a tow effect. Same thing in the restart - I just couldn't catch him on the straight. So, I think those are the main opportunities and otherwise, yeah, with the same car and Lewis driving pretty much mistake-free it was tricky, but you know, I tried.

You made me smile when you said on the radio 'I didn't hear that instruction that we're not allowed to race each other'.
VB: Yeah! Actually I had no clue about that! Maybe they said it, but I don't recall.

Good stuff and more world championship points. What can you take away from this weekend, we go straight into Monza of course?
VB: Well, I think Lewis was faultless today and yesterday he was quick. We earned more points this weekend. At least it was a clean weekend for me, with no big issue. But, definitely I want those race wins and I'm just happy that there's an opportunity next weekend again.

Max, 33, you keep finishing P3. You could see the Mercedes at the end of the race again. A bit tantalisingly frustrating or satisfied with the day?
Max Verstappen: No, it was pretty boring, to be honest. Not really interesting; not much to do. I couldn't really keep up with them when they were pushing and from my side I ran out of tyres at the end. The last eight laps I was just backing it out, saving the front tyres. It was not really enjoyable out there today. On the medium I didn't really have a lot of grip and on the hard tyre, initially I was trying to put a bit of pressure on Valtteri, but then they told him to speed up and I couldn't keep up. Yeah, a bit lonely.

Yeah, I can imagine for you. There was some really good action through the field. I wondered if you might come in before the end, put some pressure on Mercedes with some fresh tyres and try to get a world championship point, but Daniel Ricciardo was, annoying for you, in your pit stop window wasn't he?
MV: Yeah and I was not sure with their top speed if it was easy to pass, so I said we just stay out. I think I was very close to a puncture but, yeah, we finished P3. More than that was anyway not possible today. OK, maybe it was not the most satisfying P3 but it's still better than nothing, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

It was probably a wise choice. Daniel did the fastest lap of the race on the 44th lap of the race, the last lap, so he had some speed.
MV: Yeah, well, we just had no tyres left, so I was not taking any risks. It was probably a good weekend for them and just maximised what we could.

Straight on to Monza looking forward to that.
MV: Yeah, we'll try again and see where we end up.

Press Conference

Lewis, many congratulations, that was a hugely impressive weekend from you and Mercedes.
LH: Thank you. Yeah, it was definitely impressive from my point of view, just seeing this team continue to come here weekend-in, weekend-out. You know, we're constantly learning and constantly improving and I don't know how we continue to do that. What we learned from the last race, which was also a great race, we've brought updates here, we've understood our tyres a little bit better coming into this weekend, and qualifying obviously was incredible for myself and I managed to have that same pace today that I had yesterday. Even though I was on my own out there, it was still very, very tough with these tyres, in terms of looking after them. I think at the end everyone had to back off to manage the tyres to bring these cars home with these long one stops.

As you say, hugely impressive qualifying yesterday and a great race today. Of the five wins so far in 2020, was this the smoothest weekend for you?
LH: Ooh, I would say the last one probably was. Barcelona, particularly the race, was the smoothest race I think I've generally had. This one was positive but it's very stressful with the start, as is Barcelona, but the start is not easy. And the restart also. I think it was a pretty straightforward weekend but there are definitely areas we can improve.

Great stuff, Lewis, well done. Valtteri, solid second place in the race. How did the car perform, did you feel faster than Lewis at any stage today?
VB: It's difficult to say because of course when you are in the lead you can control the pace and you have the free air and when you are behind and if you try to get close, you are always using more of the tyres than the car ahead, so it's impossible to say whether I was quicker at any point. But I felt in general that the pace for me was good and I think that our car was strong today. As Lewis said, as a team it was a really solid Sunday for us. So, yeah, it was pretty straightforward. Of course, I tried to use the opportunities, the first one was at the race start. Out of Turn 1 I felt a better run than Lewis and I really actually had to lift not to run into the back of him and I tried to leave a bit of a gap to get a good momentum off the tow, but today I was surprised how small the tow effect was, maybe with the tailwind into Turn 5 it made a different. Actually, it was the same on the restart. I was hoping to catch him but I just couldn't.

You said on the radio that you had numbness in your left leg. How much did that hinder you? Are you OK now?
VB: Yeah, all good. I just got a bit of numbness with the brake pedal we have in the car there have been a couple of race where my leg gets a bit numb and it happened today again. It's difficult to say how much I was affected. It can lead to mistakes but there were no big mistakes apart from one lock-up that I can recall.

Coming to you Max...
MV: This music playing in the background is more exciting than my race. Let's keep it going.

I was going to say, it was a quiet race for you today but you did keep in touch all the way through. How much satisfaction does that give you?
MV: Well, not all the way through. On the hard tyre I was trying to follow with Valtteri but then they told him to speed up, so then I lost a bit of ground. At one point, with ten laps to go, I started to have really bad vibrations on the tyres and then I started to have a lot of understeer. Then we discussed: shall we do a pit stop? But I had Daniel in my pit stop window, so I said "well, let's just go to the end then, and I'll just manage it". It's a shame. I mean, it's such an amazing track and then you can't really push. So, it was pretty boring to be honest. It's a shame. I mean, I really enjoy driving here and honestly, we did 44 laps right? So, I probably did 38 of them managing a lot. It's not been the most exciting today.

We saw a nice little dice between you and your old team-mate Daniel Ricciardo at the start. Very respectful.
MV: Yeah, we gave each other room. Honestly, I didn't see him after Turn 7 but he was on my inside, but, yeah, I could only see one Renault in my mirror but that was not Daniel, so I had no clue where he was, so I just gave him a bit more space than I think was necessary in Turn 8. But all good, it was nice. It's always nice anyway racing him; he's a good guy. It's a lot of fun.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Spa, here.

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