© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Here is the transcript of the post 2024 Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying parc fermé interviews and press conference with Lewis Hamilton.
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by James Hinchcliffe)
Q: Alright, guys, your championship leaders starting P2 tomorrow. Lewis Hamilton, P3 on the grid for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Huge cheer from the crowd. So much success here at this racetrack. You must be so happy with this result after some of the struggles you guys have had in practice.
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, firstly, the crowd’s been incredible today. When we did the Fan Forum [inaudible]… so, huge thank you to everyone for the support. So many of my followers have travelled here from all over so I’m really grateful. Oh man, qualifying has been a disaster for me all year long and I’ve just been working and working and working trying to get myself back up there, and all of a sudden the car came alive in qualifying for the first time in a long time in qualifying. It was a little bit of a shame because we were getting into rhythm, and it was the same for all of us, but getting that lap at the end was a little bit tricky. But I think there was maybe a tiny bit more left in the car, but I’m really grateful for it. And the mechanics, we’ve been moving up and down on balance, we’ve changed everything this weekend on each day, and the mechanics have just been faultless. So I want to say a big thank you to them, and I hope that we’re in a good position to fight for the front tomorrow.
Q: Yeah, I mean, huge improvement, obviously, over single lap pace. Do you think the changes you’ve made to the car are going to translate to good race pace tomorrow?
LH: That I have no idea. You know, one day at a time. I mean, it was a lot better today. It was the first time we had any front end. And, you know, we’ve seen that McLarens have been so quick each weekend. So I don’t know. I think with management, I’m hoping we can try and keep up with these guys. Maybe not the McLarens, but we’ll be given everything.
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, let’s come to you. You weren’t that positive about your car yesterday after practice. Is P3 a bit of a surprise in qualifying?
LH: I’m not saying it’s a surprise, but I mean, through the weekend so far, we were looking, well, I was looking particularly very poor. I mean, this morning and all of yesterday, we were 1.2 seconds off this, guys. So we arrived with a car that was massively understeery, and we just couldn’t dial any in, no matter what we did. Nothing changed. And… made changes overnight, came here today, pretty much the same thing, and I was definitely shocked to see that we were still 1.2 seconds behind Lando again. And then we just kept our heads down, kept not giving up, and we made some more changes and got into this session, and it was like night and day. Such a big difference. Car was all of a sudden alive, and I was able to go where I wanted to go. It was looking really strong throughout qualifying and I think obviously with the crash in Q3 it made it difficult for all of us to put that final lap together. I think my lap was also nothing special. Very difficult to get the tyres perfect and not overslide them. I had a lot of snaps. So I think with a better job, maybe we could have been front row with this guy, but I don’t know whether or not we could have beaten him today. But still really, really happy.
Q: How rewarding is it? Because you’ve had some struggles with qualifying and you’ve been very open about that this year. So does that make this that much more satisfying?
LH: Oh yeah, I mean, just to be up here with these guys, great drivers. I’ve not been up here for a while and yeah, qualifying has been a nightmare for quite a long time. So it feels great to be up here. I feel very, very grateful and very, very happy. And I think hopefully from here, George and I are in the second row, so hopefully from here we can apply pressure to these two and to even to be ahead of another McLaren and another Red Bull and also the Ferraris is mega, considering how fast the Ferraris particularly are here. So yeah, I hope that we can hold on to these guys tomorrow.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ben Hunt – Autosport) Sorry, this is a bit nerdy, but Carlos Sainz had the crash and he’s run across the track on foot. Lewis, a similar thing to what you did at Qatar last year and you got that massive penalty and everything else. The FIA said they were going to review it. I don’t know if they ever told you guys about the rules once they’d reviewed it last year, what you can and can’t do with regards to live track.
Lando NORRIS: I also did it. Yeah, Miami.
LH: Where that rule is, there’s a picture of me and him.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lando and Lewis, what do you think about Max being given community service effectively for what he said on Thursday?
LN: He deserved it. Foul language, so… I think it’s pretty unfair. I don’t agree with any of it.
LH: Yeah, I think it’s a bit of a joke, to be honest. This is the pinnacle of the sport. Mistakes are made. I certainly won’t be doing it, and I hope Max doesn’t do it.
Q: (Zuhrah Beevi – Vavel.com) Lewis, your car looked much stronger today than it did on Friday. How confident are you that you can get a podium like last year for tomorrow’s race?
LH: It’s very hard to say because it was such a nightmare the past day and a half. I think our long run pace was so-so. Nowhere near these guys, or at least the McLarens. But we have now put the car in a much different window. So we have to also anticipate a different balance tomorrow compared to the past every other session. Yeah, I think here is really about managing tyres temps. So that’s going to have to be key tomorrow. So doing absolutely everything we can to keep the temperatures out of the rears, basically. I hope in our attempt to do that, we’re somehow able to hold on to at least one of these guys. But yeah, we’ll find out tomorrow. I feel confident, though, that we might be able to do that.
Source: FIA.com
