Hamilton salutes Mercedes after ‘perfect weekend’
SI LVERSTONE, Uni te d Kingdom: Lewis Hami lton saluted his champion Mercedes team on Sunday for producing a “perfect weekend” as he reeled off his fourth consecutive victory in the British Grand Prix.
The three-time world champion dominated from pole to equal fel low- Briton Jim Clark and Frenchman Alain Prost as a fivetime winner of the British race.
It was the 57th win of his career and it came as Mercedes delivered a perfect one-two finish, his teammate Valtter Bottas following him home after starting ninth on the grid.
“I was very, very fortunate firstly that the team did an exceptional job this weekend,” he told reporters after a delay for him to ‘crowd surf’ with his fans in a packed sold out crowd at Silverstone. “The car felt really great.” “I’m so proud of everyone at the factory. Valtteri did an exceptional job coming back from all that way down... It has been a perfect weekend for us as a team.”
Hamilton’s excellence after starting from his 67th career pole enabled him to take full advantage of the misfortunes that hit championship leader Sebastian Vettel.
Both the German and his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen had punctures in the closing laps, Vettel’s costing him a probable podium and leaving him to finish seventh.
The outcome was that Vettel’s lead in the championship was cut to one point. He leads with with 177 ahead of Hamilton on 176 with Bottas third on 154 after ten of this year’s 20 races.
“I got a good start and then, after that, I was really able to manage the gap to Kimi,” explained Hamilton.
“We were planning on stopping on Lap 19 or something like that so I was able to extend it by quite a bit.
“And then at the end I had a decent gap so it was just about managing it all, a 12-14 second gap to Kimi. I could see on those TV screens at a few places around the track, I got to see a bit of the race.”
Both Hamilton and Bottas managed their tyres efficiently on the demanding high-speed circuit, but Ferrari, having opted for an aggressive and risky strategy, were caught out.
“I heard at the end that there were some tyre blowouts,” said the Englishman. — AFP