What the drivers said

Eurosport - Mon, 07 Jul 15:50:00 2008

All the reaction from a rain-soaked Silverstone, where Lewis Hamilton claimed his maiden British Grand Prix triumph.

FORMULA 1 - 0

Lewis Hamilton (winner): "It's definitely by far the best victory I've ever had, it was one of the toughest races I've ever done. When I was out there I was thinking this would definitely go down as the best race I've ever won. I could see the crowd beginning to stand up and I was praying 'just keep it on the track, just finish.' I just wanted to get it round."

Nick Heidfeld (2nd): "It was a good race. I am happy with second place because today it was the best I could achieve. Qualifying went well and in the race we did everything right. Obviously it was crucial to make the right tyre decisions. At the first stop we were wondering if we should stay with the used set of inters, but luckily we then decided on new tyres. We were expecting a small shower, but when I drove down Hanger Straight and saw a black wall in front of me I thought I should expect more than that...There was so much water and I couldn"t see where it was lying. Once before Abbey I almost spun, but just managed to keep the car on the track."

Rubens Barrichello (3rd): "It's a great feeling to be back on the podium today after such an exciting race where the weather conditions really helped us to get the best out of the car. The most important decision of the race for us was switching to the extreme wet tyre when the heavy rain started to fall at half distance. I had a real moment at Club, going off at high speed and almost hitting the wall, and that made me realise that we needed to make a quick decision. After fitting the extreme wets, I was able to overtake the cars in front easily which was a great feeling. Making such a crucial decision at a key time comes from experience and from the team having the confidence in me to make the call.

Kimi Raikkonen (4th):"I am disappointed, but I am equally aware that things could have been much worse. We had the possibility to win the race but we made a mistake at the first pit stop, keeping the same set of tyres, because we expected the track conditions to improve. It was a joint decision: we are a team and we win or lose together. Things are not going too well for me at the moment, given all that happened in the last few races, but I am leading the championship, even if it is on equal terms with Felipe and Lewis. We know we have a great potential, but we have to put everything in place to get the most out of it."

Fernando Alonso (6th): "I had said that when it rains, anything can happen, which was the case today as we had a difficult race with a very wet circuit. I used up my tyres very quickly and I finished the race virtually with slicks, which meant I lost a lot of time in certain parts of the track. We could have probably had a better result today, but in the end I scored three points, which is important for the championship."

Mark Webber (10th): "Unfortunately I dropped it on the entrance to Becketts on the first lap. I was quite close to Kimi (Raikkonen) and just got on the white line. I lost the car on the exit and had to let the field go past, so it was clear to spin back round. After that it was about making the right call for the right conditions. It was a difficult day to go car racing and it just didn"t go our way today. The guys did a good job all week and it"s a shame we couldn"t convert our good qualifying performance."

Felipe Massa (13th): "This Silverstone weekend is one to be wiped out. On Friday I had an accident, yesterday there was the problem in qualifying and today a series of mistakes at all levels. We have to look ahead, because there is still a very long way to go in the championship and once again, we"ve seen that it only takes one result to turn the situation around. After nine races I am in the lead in the classification and I have every chance to fight for the title all the way to the end. Today, I could hardly keep the car in a straight line and it was always very difficult to drive. Only after the last pit stop did things improve a bit, but by then I was a long way back. We have to do a good job in the forthcoming Hockenheim test to be as well prepared as possible for the German Grand Prix that takes place on the same track.

Nelson Piquet (DNF): "I'm obviously extremely disappointed with today's retirement. The car was very good, our strategy was perfect, and we were on course for a very good result. However, when the rain came down very heavily, the track was completely flooded. It wasn't just in the turns that the car was out of control, it was even on the straights. It was impossible to control. We have to take positives in that the car was good and we showed how competitive we could be, so we have to take that to Hockenheim now."

Adrian Sutil (DNF): "At the time of my spin, the track was starting to dry and it was tricky to tell where the wet patches were. This is what happened in my case - I just went on one of these puddles and aquaplaned off completely. It was a shame as considering how the race turned out, we could have had a chance of moving up the order, but this is racing and you never know how it will turn out. I'm now looking forward to the test next week where we can try out some more new parts and then we go onto my home race in Germany."

Giancarlo Fisichella (DNF): "'I just lost control going through the complex because there was a lot of graining on the tyres as a result of the heavy fuel load we were carrying to be as flexible as possible with the weather. Even two laps earlier, the track was starting to dry out and there was some more graining. The grip level was absolutely zero and I spun."

Robert Kubica (DNF): "I was already aquaplaning for many laps and unfortunately in a straight line I just lost the car completelyand went off. Here in Silverstone it was a crazy race in difficult conditions. Everything was runningpretty well as I was having quite a good race and gaining positions. But when it rained and there was alot of water on the track I was just struggling. I couldn"t keep the car in a straight line, was losing power, the rear wheels were losing contact with the tarmac and that was it."

Jenson Button (DNF): "It was a crazy race today with the conditions changing all the time. We had some good pace on the wet tyres for the first part of the race before the heavy shower which brought both Rubens and I into the pits for extreme wets on lap 35. Shortly after that stop, I hit standing water at Bridge which caused the car to aquaplane off the circuit. I tried to spin the car round but there was another car coming so I had to get out of the way, couldn't get the car round far enough and ended up trapped in the gravel. There's always a bit of luck involved in this type of race and unfortunately it wasn't my day for luck today. Congratulations to Rubens on his third place and first podium for the team."

David Coulthard (DNF): "The visibility was incredibly bad as you can imagine. I was very close to Sebastian after Abbey, as he had a wobble coming out of there. There was a clear gap down the inside, but unfortunately it was closing as I made the move. I"m sorry for him that we made contact and went into the gravel, I"m sorry for Red Bull too, as it was two cars out in one hit. I"m extremely disappointed for this to happen at my last British Grand Prix."

Eurosport

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  1. No doubt, LH is a damn good wet driver..
    he showed it this year in silverstone n monaco....and he also showed it last year in fuji race..
    remember how difficult d mount fuji condition? those who said no is actually bluffing themselves....

    From shin.1022, on Tue 8 Jul 2:38PM

  2. blasos1983,
    " Raikkonen fastest lap, 6 races on the trot, how about that fact "

    Excuse my ignorance but I always thought it was the first car to take the chequered flag that won the race.

    From Felipe Massa, on Tue 8 Jul 11:09AM

  3. No amount of moaning will change the results guys! FACT Lewis won the race, with or without team orders!! Yes he is immature but he is only 22, and guys don't usualy mature till much later!!!!! Not everyone has to like him, i don't care one way or another, but shouldn't we focus on a BRIT winning BRITISH race!!!! Yeah Barricello had a good race and yes he was on full wets, but again he came third which is a fab result for a downcast team!

    From leigha_stockbridge, on Tue 8 Jul 10:56AM

  4. Isn't it funny that the only cases where by a team/driver has been penalised for illegal barge boards were Michael Schumacher in 1994 and again the example before in 2001...doesn't this suggest, not that the team was cheating, but that the FIA like to penalise those that are clearly leading the championship and instead have to resort to ridiculous penalties in order to give others a chance. As for Hams performance in the wet, it wasn't a spectacular drive; he only over took Heiki thanks to a call from Ron Dennis. And I'm sick of people presuming that those of us who detest Ham is because we're racists; WE ARE NOT, we just cant stand the guy!

    From vampintraining, on Tue 8 Jul 10:21AM

  5. Much closer to 2008 I remember a McLaren were found with illegal documents belonging to Ferrari. Their drivers finished second and third in the c'ship. That is far more severe than having a few millimetres of extra barge boards

    From arshad_iceman2, on Tue 8 Jul 9:40AM

  6. @jamesmoore
    the team did not make the call to fit Rubens with full wets. If you heard his interview then you'll know that it was Rubens himself who called for the full wets

    From arshad_iceman2, on Tue 8 Jul 9:37AM

  7. Don't put too much into good results in the rain. Anything can (and usually does) happen. As good as LH is (and he can be REALLY good), he tends to make silly mistakes. Unless he gets some maturity real quick, Massa, Kubica, Kimi and maybe even Nick H., are going to roll right past him this season. A good indicator for the rest of the season will be next......Germany.

    From sdcharger717, on Tue 8 Jul 5:39AM

  8. donkeyluckylarry, watch the race first then try to use whatever knowledge u have to understand why this or that event happened. we can't take anything away from LH. but we try to understand why our favourite team did not deliver. we tend to pick on LH the way u do with ferrari's drivers. it's a fact that LH has been having a big mouth lately, and winning the british gp doesn't mean winning the championship. I'll certainly be looking for your(all of u LH fans) comments in the coming races.

    From kingrihab, on Tue 8 Jul 2:10AM

  9. arshad_iceman2, my comment was in response to what tomhogner said about Barrichello coming third. He did drive very well, but he brought the car home in third because he was on full wet tyres and therefore able to lap much quicker than the rest of the pack. Had he been on standard intermediates, like the rest of the cars, there is no way he would have managed a podium finish. In that respect, it was down to Ross Brawn's decision to put him on those tyres, in the same way that Lewis has his team to thank for putting him on fresh tyres at the first pit stop.

    From Filthy Monkey, on Tue 8 Jul 12:23AM

  10. arshad_iceman2

    er yes i remember the barge boards!!!!!!!! "In Malaysia at the 1999 Grand Prix at Sepang, the Ferrari team recorded a 1-2 result - the best result that a team can ever get in Formula One. After the race, it came to the attention of the race stewards that both Ferrari cars had irregular and "illegal" barge-boards fitted (plates on both sides of the car that are related to the radiator inlets). The problem was that there was an extended part at the bottom of each barge-board that was not in concurrence with the rules for the barge-boards." NOTICE THIS IS IN QUOTES

    By the way You should check yr factsb4 you open your mouth cos i have got both of my FACTS from the press!!!!!!!

    From christopher gibb, on Mon 7 Jul 10:45PM

  11. Chris there you go again. You Mclaren fans are biased. If Lewis is penalized you people go 'FIA is unfair, they are out to get us, Ferrari are cheaters waa waa waa... And now you say 'Ferrari were the main suspects' Has it ever been proven that Ferrari have ever cheated? So stop opening that big mouth of yours

    From arshad_iceman2, on Mon 7 Jul 10:32PM

  12. Traction control was reintroduced in 2001 because some teams were running clever engine management systems to get around the ban prior. Notably Ferrari were the main suspects. It was felt that with it was virtually impossible to guarantee that teams were not running such systems, so the teams agreed the only way forward was to free up the regulations. However, the move to a standard ECU in 2008 means that it will be easier for the FIA to police engine management systems – and it is believed that this has been the catalyst for engineering such a major rule change.

    From christopher gibb, on Mon 7 Jul 10:13PM

  13. just remember ferrari were gifted the title last yr.

    From tamscott@..., on Mon 7 Jul 10:04PM

  14. correct me if im wrong Chris but Schumi was recently testing the Ferrari being the only guy in the team who had driven F1 cars without traction control, I think he drove more years in F1 without it than with.

    From donkeydoyle@..., on Mon 7 Jul 10:00PM

  15. One thing no-one has mentioned is that this this year there is no traction control, so this win is even better. Shows who has the real skill. Even schui the rainmeister had traction contol. So stop bashing LH cos most of you could not even keep your ford focus pointing the right way in those conditions

    From christopher gibb, on Mon 7 Jul 9:53PM

  16. Congrats to Lewis.Shame Ferrari did not change the tyres so we could see a proper race.Massa is no good in the wet.

    From DAVID M, on Mon 7 Jul 8:53PM

  17. jamesmoore you think Rubens' 3rd was bcoz of Ross Brawn? Ross Brawn did not go and drive in the rainstorms and put that Honda on the podium. Rubens held on while others did not. Strategy can only get you to a position of advantage. Then it is up to the driver to deliver. I don't get the LH fans. If LH drives well in the wet it is bcoz he is talented, he is the greatest, no can beat him and a load of utter tosh. But if anyone else does it, it is due to strategy

    From arshad_iceman2, on Mon 7 Jul 7:43PM

  18. tomhogner, Barrichello was the only driver on the track using full wet tyres. That's why he was going so much faster than everyone else. Hi did drive a good race and it was great to see him on the podium, but I'd say that Ross Brawn is the one who should take credit for bringing the car home in 3rd. It was more down to his strategic tyre choice than Barrichello's skill.

    From Filthy Monkey, on Mon 7 Jul 6:05PM

  19. Come on guys, Lewis did an awsome job, prob one that i'll remeber for a long time. Only time will tell if he is a true champion, but its looking good for him, look at poor old Kova in the same car, now if that doesn't tell you something i dont know what will!

    From Steve A, on Mon 7 Jul 5:55PM

  20. Is Hamilton that good or all the other drivers just that bad in the wet.... Frankly I don't think his winning says as much about his abilities as it does about the other drivers lack of it... Look at Barrichello in a Honda that is quite possibly one of the worst cars on the grid and he makes it up to 3rd place? If people want to yammer about Senna like driving it is probably more appropriate for someone like Barrichello in a junk car than for Hamilton in quite possibly the best car on its home track.

    From First, on Mon 7 Jul 5:02PM
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