© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Here is the transcript of the Post 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Qualifying track interviews and press conference featuring Lewis Hamilton.
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Davide Valsecchi)
Q: Lewis, what a day. Your numbers, your quali was just amazing from outside. 99 pole positions, 30 different circuits; the record of all time. Congratulations, how was your day?
Lewis HAMILTON: Thank you. Today’s been great, obviously. I definitely didn’t expect us to be ahead of two Red Bulls. I think they have been so quick this weekend. There were times when they were six tenths ahead and we didn’t really know where we would be. But the car was already feeling a lot better from the beginning this weekend. So mad respect to the team for the hard work to really narrow down the window.
Q: Please, tell me about tomorrow, because it will be opposite to Bahrain. You are alone against the two Red Bulls behind, it will be not easy at all. What do you expect from tomorrow?
LH: Oh, I love it! I love the challenge. I think it’s great that we’ve finally got the two Red Bulls behind there. I think it’s going to definitely make strategy harder and it’s going to be a real challenge tomorrow because they’ve got great race pace. I think their pace was looking strongest for the race in the long runs yesterday. But I’m just so happy. The first lap was really, really nice, really clean. There were some improvements on the second lap but it wasn’t quite as good as the first one. I’m really grateful. I came round the last corner and heard that I got the pole and I was super grateful.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, tremendous performance, well done. It’s so close between Mercedes and Red Bull this year, just how satisfying is this pole?
LH: Thank you. I’m just amazed at how close it is and how exciting that is. It really adds to the fire and the adrenalin rush. I didn’t know whether or not these guys had improved on that last lap for quite some time and so I was definitely nervous and that’s the excitement of closer racing. But really grateful to the team. We came here and the car was feeling better already from the first lap out and I think that’s probably track dependant but really good steps forward. Just one step forward all weekend and fantastic work from everyone.
Q: You say the car feels better, can you tell us a bit more about that? Where are the improvements over Bahrain a few weeks ago?
LH: Well, Bahrain the temperatures are a lot different and the track surface is a lot different. In Bahrain we always struggle with overheating and a lot of cross winds and we don’t seem to have that here and it’s a lot cooler and we are very rarely over with the temperature of the tyres. So that’s kind of brought us more in line with the Red Bulls and I think it’s really just focusing on balance. Refining the balance is a very narrow window of tyres operating at their best and also our car is probably more on a knife edge I would say than previous years.
Q: Can you just describe the thrill of a qualifying lap around Imola? So narrow, so fast…
LH: It’s incredibly fast here and the speeds that we are doing and the accuracy we need. I mean, you saw with Lando, a couple of inches to the right and you’re off track and over the track limits and you really need to use every inch of the road. And the speed that we’re travelling through those first couple of corners – it’s all medium and high-speed corners here, there are no real slow corners – it’s phenomenal. It’s a beautiful lap. And it’s obviously got the history. I remember watching Mika and Ayrton and Michael here, so it’s pretty phenomenal to come to a circuit like this and have a good day like today.
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VIDEO CONFERENCE
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Question for Lewis. First all of, congrats on pole position. I was just wondering, could you please just talk us through your two runs in Q3. I think you were fractionally slower on your second run. So just what was different compared to the first one that got you pole?
LH: Yep, thanks Alex. I think honestly, once we finished P3, for example, we had that gap to the Red Bulls, I couldn’t go sixth-tenths faster – but we just kept our heads down and worked on just tweaking the car a little bit into qualifying. Generally very, very smooth. Great strategy in terms of getting us out in nice clean air on all of our runs. And, of course, I managed to do my time on the Medium, and then I got to have a practice run on the Soft, and then I knew, going into qualifying and particularly that last lap, was going to take something special. It really had to be the most perfect lap that I could do – and a little bit more, in order to beat the Red Bulls. They really have been fast all weekend. So, I didn’t honestly know whether or not we could do it. Like that last lap, it started up… the first lap, for example, of Q3, started I think a tenth up out of Turns 1 and 2 and I knew that I was onto a good lap but the second sector lost a little bit in Turn 12. The second time around, unfortunately came out of Turn 2 and 3 a tenth and a half down, I think it was, or a tenth down, and by the time I got to Turn 9, I was a tenth and a half down but managed to regain that through the middle and the last sector. So, having those two together I think would have been the perfect, perfect lap – but I’m honestly so happy with that lap. The first lap really is obviously where it counted. So, grateful for it.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, there was an exchange between you and Bono on the radio where you were both sounding incredulous about the fact that you’d managed to get pole. I notice that Valtteri’s a long way behind you today. Was this one of those laps from you like Singapore 2018 and whichever one it was last year, I forgot I’m afraid, apologies for that, where you’ve really pulled it out? Or was there a different explanation?
LH: OK. Thanks for noticing, Andrew. I guess we’ve not really hyped it up too much but the fact is that as you saw obviously in the last race there was a good gap to the Red Bulls. I think we did feel that we could close it up a little bit coming into this weekend but that was a really clean qualifying session. I guess time and time again we’d just be tweaking and adjusting. In terms of my own performance I’m really grateful that I’m still making steps in the right direction and yeah, it was a real surprise. The team definitely did not… anyone in the team, expected to be on pole today but of course that’s what I was gunning for but it really was the tidiest lap that I could put together and a little bit more. Whether or not it was a Singapore lap or not, it was a different vibe, but it definitely feels good.
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, I suppose it’s just a follow-up on that really. Do laps like these show the others that you’re still at the top of your game, not perhaps that you need to prove that to yourself, but to others that you’re still the main man out there?
LH: Hey, Phil. I think you already saw from the get-go we knew in Bahrain that it was going to be close and it is going to be close throughout this season and it’s going to take laps like that, it’s going to take us as a team performing as close to perfection as possible, not leaving any stone unturned and I know that’s kind of the idea going into most weekends but we can’t afford any slip-ups and I think so far we’ve really been firing on all cylinders and we still are hunting, believe it or not. I think today was really fortunate. I think as Sergio was saying, it wasn’t a perfect, perfect lap for him but I think for all of us we’re operating at such a high level, the differences are milliseconds between us all and we could all go back and look at our data and say we can go faster, but at the end of the day it’s what you do on that one moment that counts and so that’s what we really try and focus on.
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsportmagazin.com) Lewis, the other way around, there was a question to Max earlier – usually it was always two against one with Mercedes because you were always up there with Valtteri but this time it’s the other way around so what does this change for you and how difficult does it make it that Valtteri is not there?
LH: Yeah, it’s much different, Christian, from obviously past experiences. Very rarely have I seen… I can’t remember the last time I saw the Red Bulls so close, so I think tomorrow, of course, they have these… if we’re able to get off in order then they obviously have a bit of a better set of cards in terms of strategy but that doesn’t mean we can’t pull out something unique and do something different. I’m not really sure what happened with Valtteri. It’s very hard to overtake here so obviously we probably won’t have the support of him early on but nevertheless maybe he will make it through but otherwise we’ve just got to focus on our job and try and do absolutely everything and more to keep these lads behind.
Source: FIA.com
