Sunday: Second consecutive victory for McLaren, despite Hamilton’s retirement
The gap in the differing fortunes from Saturday's qualifying session widened further this Sunday: Jenson Button emerged as the big winner of the Belgian Grand Prix, marking the second consecutive victory for the English team, while Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire after the first corner following his contact with Romain Grosjean.
Jenson Button – Winner:
« I’m sorry for the fans if it wasn’t very exciting at the front!
However, winning a Grand Prix is never easy: you always have to watch your tires and keep an eye on the gap behind you. Today’s race was particularly complicated to read, in fact, because many cars were on different strategies, so you never really knew exactly where you stood.
The first corner seemed quite crazy – in my mirrors, I could see cars going in all directions. For me, however, it went quite smoothly. That being said, without being able to gather data on long stints on Friday, it initially seemed like it was going to be a difficult race to predict. In fact, as it happened, it was the opposite.
It was unusual to have been able to make only one stop. Upon reaching the 12th lap, the team asked me how the car felt; I told them the balance was getting better and better, so we were able to go until the 20th lap before stopping.
We need to score big points in both championships – and today is exactly what we asked for. I am a team player, and I fight for the team; I want us to win both world championships, and until it’s mathematically impossible for me to fight for the drivers’ title, I won’t give up. I think I showed that today.
Lewis Hamilton – Retirement:
« First of all, I want to congratulate Jenson. I watched the whole race on television, and he did an absolutely brilliant job. It’s great for him and fantastic for the team. It also gives me a lot of confidence going into the next race, knowing that our car has fantastic pace.
If we can do things right on our side of the garage, then we owe it to ourselves to record a strong result at Monza. In fact, I’m already focusing my energy on this task.
It was a tough day for me – my race was so short that I didn’t have time to sweat. I don’t really want to talk about the start – everyone saw what happened – it’s just a shame.
It wasn’t a good day for my title hopes either, but I certainly won’t give up.
