Lewis Hamilton won his 55th Formula 1 victory in the 2017 Spanish Grand prix. The English Mercedes driver was really happy with that achievement.
“It’s been a really good weekend and a great way to bounce back from Russia”, Lewis commented. “It was the rawest fight that I can remember having in a long-time. I loved it, this is why I race. This is what made me get into racing in the first place. This is what the sport needs to be like every single weekend. To have a close battle like that with a four-time champion is awesome.”
“I lost out on the start and had to watch Sebastian [Vettel] fly by. He was so fast out in front and it was such a push to keep in touch with him and not let him pull away. I was able to manage my tyres in the first stint and keep relatively close, then it was tricky to keep up on the Medium tyre and then after the second stop. We came out so close together which was super tight into Turn 1. He didn’t give me much space, it was close!”
“I thought Seb would get me at the end of the final stint but I was able to do it. I have to congratulate my team today, with the strategy and the pit stops, as well as everyone back at the factory that has worked so hard to deliver these upgrades, enabling us to be so close in this fight with Ferrari.”
What a day! Thank you all so much. My amazing team @MercedesAMGF1, for your hard work as always. Looking forward to Monaco! ?x @JamesPBearne pic.twitter.com/dafUxW7UPg
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) 14 May 2017
Lewis Hamilton: “I loved it, this is why I race. This is what made me get into racing in the first place”
His teammate Valtteri Bottas did not finish the race. He retired with a power unit failure.
“It’s been a tough weekend”, Valtteri said. “We had problems straight from practice, when we had to swap to the old engine on Saturday morning. Then we had an engine failure in the race. We don’t know any more than that at this stage. We knew it was a risk switching back to the old Power Unit in terms of the mileage but we didn’t if we wanted to qualify yesterday. At least we got more points than Ferrari today in spite of the retirement.”
“The first corner was very tight. I had a good start but there was no were to go. I tried to avoid the collision but I touched Kimi [Raikkonen]. Lewis was on a different strategy while I was running long. We tried to execute a one-stop which is why I was lapping slower at that point. It could have been a rewarding strategy but with the Virtual Safety Car the guys in front had a free pit stop. We should have both been on the podium. It’s always disappointing when you don’t finish but we’ll pick ourselves up and move on.”
