1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Mark Webber)
Ladies and gentlemen, what a weekend here in Belgium! A sell-out crowd.
Maybe a driver up here that you might not have wanted but what a weekend!
Nico, well done. Crazy start to the race, red flag, big shunt with Kevin
Magnussen, run us through it?
Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, thank you very much. No, it’s been a great weekend,
very, very happy with that result of course. I understand that some of you
are disappointed. I understand that you wanted Verstappen to up here.
Another year, he’s very young. He has many years to go. You’ve been amazing
this weekend. So many of you have come, it’s been very impressive to see,
great atmosphere. Thank you to my team of course, great car they have given
me. A very special day. And of course congrats to Lewis, from last place to
third must have been pretty impressive.
Thanks Nico. Daniel, up here again, Spa, great podium, you couldn’t have
expected much more? How was it, saving tyres, going long and splitting the
two Mercedes?
Daniel RICCIARDO: Firstly, thank you for doing that [Webber drank sparkling
wine from Ricciardo’s race boot]. I think we just made our country even more
proud. It was cool, you know. Obviously it was pretty messed up at the
start, a lot of virtual safety cars and then the red flag. We knew we had a
bit of damage actually from the first corner but we fixed the front wing and
got back out. I mean, it was a bit of a race by myself but obviously I
enjoyed the pace and to keep Lewis behind was a good achievement today.
Well done, buddy. Lewis, wow! So, Lewis that was a record comeback to a
podium here in Spa. Twenty-first on the grid to third place, I imagine you
couldn’t really believe you could hit the steps today?
Lewis HAMILTON: Firstly I’ve got to say a big thank you… this crowd is
incredible. I know a lot of these people came out for Max, which is amazing
and that’s great for the sport, but I just want to say a big thank you to
everyone for supporting me today. The team did an amazing job this weekend.
I changed three engines. I’m actually ahead of these guys on engines, which
is a good thing. Thanks to the team. Just a remarkable day: beautiful
weather, great crowd and a great race.
It was that, sensational, well done, Lewis. Nico, your 20th victory, first
time winning here in Spa, you have the momentum now for Monza. How do you
feel the car will perform there and you know, nibbling away, a couple point
off Lewis this weekend: back end of the season, mate, how are you looking
forward to that?
NR: It’s been great of course to get the win today on this special track,
you know, it’s a legendary track, but Lewis starting from the back made it a
lot easier this weekend and I’m sure he’s going to be back in Monza and it’s
going to be a big battle as always.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Nico, many congratulations on that 20th victory. You haven’t put a foot
wrong all weekend: pole position, the win, did you ever feel under any
pressure in that race.
NR: In the race, the start, of course, is always pressure, and then after
that Daniel was quite quick in the beginning of the second stint. But in
general, yes, I had everything under control because I just had an awesome
car out there, and Lewis wasn’t there to battle it out, which made it a
less-difficult weekend. But really pleased to get the win, of course.
Q: Any nervous moments this afternoon?
NR: Nervous at the start. Yeah, why not? After that, after that, it was OK.
Safety Car restarts are always a bit more challenging but it all worked out
fine.
Q: Daniel, it’s your third consecutive podium. Do you think you can catch
the guys on your left any time soon?
DR: Hopefully! As you said, three podiums in a row where… we’re definitely
making inroads, it’s the second race that we’ve at least finished in front
of one of them – obviously Lewis started towards the back today but I think
our pace wasn’t too bad. I think the real start of the race eventually was
after the red flag. I was second and Lewis was fifth. I think we held our
own quite well. Nico had a little bit more pace but I think generally we’re
making inroads, which is really positive. Monza I think will be our most
challenging circuit in the second half of the season – but then we’ve got
Singapore to look forward to – and Suzuka. So, really pleased, again thanks
to the team. Obviously three good weekends, it’s been fun. Yesterday,
obviously I was qualified fifth but I knew we would have a good race car
today and it proved right – so I’m really pleased.
Q: Lewis, what a race by you. Last row of the grid to the podium. It’s a new
record here at Spa. Talk us through it.
LH: What an incredible weekend it’s been. It’s obviously been a much
different weekend to anything we have ever really experienced. First of all
I’m incredibly proud of my guys in the garage and back at the factory for
building these engines and changing these engines this week. I think before,
even on Thursday there was an engine swap, warming one up, then warming
another one up. A change after practice one, a change after practice two, so
I had three new engines this weekend. So to come away with the points that
we have today, I’m extremely proud of everyone. I honestly didn’t know what
was going to happen in the race. I was trying to keep my head down all
weekend and focus on the long-run paces. It seemed to work and pay off.
Congratulations to the guys next to me, this is great for Mercedes and still
great for the championship. I’d have had an even better summer if I went
into the summer knowing I’d come out nine points ahead still after three new
engines. So I’m very grateful.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – AutoDigest) Lewis, it seems that press
conference has missed you. How do you feel to finish in P3 after coming from
the back – and more showing to the ones who have doubts about the fact that
you’re back and fighting with Nico for the Championship?
LH: Yeah. I really can’t believe that we came up so far to be honest. I
really had no… I woke up this morning knowing how difficult it would be on
these tyres, y’know, lots of blistering. But you can never predict what’s
going to happen in the race. The great thing about motor racing is that,
since I was eight years old, every Sunday has been different. Your car’s
positioned in a different way, your starts a bit different, something
happens up front, previous races there were no incidents, today there was.
Today was really about trying to approach it with… make sure you had the
right approach: not too aggressive; not too easy. I think today,
collectively as a team we had just the right balance. This is the best
result I could have hoped for.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Daniel, you were following the pace
of Nico but at certain moments and especially in the last stint, the gap
started becoming bigger. What happened exactly? Was there any difficulty in
the car?
DR: No, to be honest the car was pretty good. You know the only time I
wasn’t happy with the car was the first few laps before the red flag. The
incident at turn one... some debris hit the front wing and I had some damage
so up until the red flag I wasn’t too happy but we changed the wing during
the red flag and then the car was good. I think obviously Nico just had a
bit more pace than us but in terms of balance I think we were doing all we
could. So I think Nico was just controlling it but everything was fine from
that point of view. I don’t think we could have done too much more.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Speed Sport/Auto Action) Lewis, yesterday you told us you
might not even crack the top ten. How much did the safety car and the red
flag help you get up to third?
LH: Well, that was obviously a part of it but I think I was already up to
fifth before the red flag or maybe not, maybe I was sixth or something like
that before the incident. Of course, those things I needed in the race to
help progress through. As I said, I didn’t know how long these tyres would
last. I think our performance today was stronger than I expected and so I
think still, at the pace we were going, I think a top ten finish was still
possible. But third is something that was definitely helped by the safety
cars, VSC.
Q: Lewis you were fifth at the red flag. At that point, did you think you
could even challenge for the victory?
LH: I didn’t, simply because... naturally I was pushing to try and get there
but I was obviously... I’ve been racing a long long time and with these
tyres, knowing how difficult it is just to get past one car, so I spent a
bit of time behind Hulkenberg, I think, and then there was already such a
decent cushion between myself and Daniel. If the tyres were better, for
example, I could have pushed and closed the gap and actually had a fight
with Daniel but that’s not the case and so I just had to manage them for as
long as I could, but I had to stop more than these two guys in order to make
that passing manoeuvre.
Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1Zone.net) Nico, how difficult was it to win this race?
NR: Well, it wasn’t the toughest race ever, of course, because Lewis wasn’t
there. That’s for sure. And the car was great in the race so of course
everything still needs to come together and the start is critical and then
with the red flag and everything it becomes a bit more complicated and
messy. But I got ahead, I got a little bit of pressure from Daniel at the
beginning of the second stint because he was on soft tyres but after that I
really had good control of everything.
Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) Lewis, this business of changing engines,
three engines in a weekend, is confusing for the press and even more so for
the public. It happened to work out for you today and congratulations but
what do you really think as opposed to what your team thinks about the
principle of punishing a driver for the shortcomings in your own equipment?
LH: Well, firstly, I don’t say anything my team wants me to say so
everything you hear from me is from me. These are the rules, the
shortcomings we’ve experienced, there was just an opportunity for us to grow
and we have. This is a team sport and we win and lose together so
collectively; if I make a mistake the team’s punished and if the team make a
mistake we are all punished together. Bu I think today and this weekend has
shown that a great group of good people in the garage worked incredibly hard
to change these engines. It’s not an easy process and of course, if the
regulations weren’t so technical, we wouldn’t have to make so many changes
but that’s how they obviously like it. I’m pretty sure it’s not cheap but
I’m only looking at the positives this weekend and to get third, only lose
ten points to Nico but a freebie for him today but he also did a great job
and as he said, it wasn’t such a difficult race for him but for me it was a
good race and I’m just grateful, as I said, to be up here.
Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Nico, considering your starting
positions, how disappointing is it that you could only make up ten points in
the championship fight against Lewis?
NR: It’s not disappointing, I’m happy with today. I’m happy to have won the
race, it’s been a great weekend for me and that’s it. Fair play to Lewis, he
did a good job. |