Hamilton happy to answer his critics
Monday 25th July 2011
Lewis Hamilton said he enjoyed answering his critics on Sunday when he won the German Grand Prix in commanding style.
The McLaren driver scored the 16th victory of his F1 career at the Nurburging after producing a typically bold performance to finish ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Red Bull's Mark Webber.
The trio had engaged in a tight battle for the first half of the race, with Hamilton jumping past Webber to take the lead at the lights before the Australian got ahead at the first set of pit stops.
However, Hamilton retook the lead after making his second stop, keeping Webber firmly behind him in the process before muscling his way past Alonso after the Spaniard's stop had briefly put him ahead.
The Englishman had been criticised after collisions in the Monaco Grand Prix and then hit his own team-mate Jenson Button in Canada last month.
"Driving lap after lap within tenths of each other was about real perfection. There was no room for error at all," Hamilton said of his battle with Alonso and Webber.
"And with my aggressive style, I felt the moves I made were some of the most precise I have pulled in a while. Being able to drive with your head all the time and getting it just right is massively satisfying.
"I was in a good space and days like this pay off more than you could imagine."
Hamilton, who climbed to third place in the drivers' standings was a result of his win, said it was made all the more special by the pressure McLaren had faced following Button's win in Canada.
They subsequently struggled for form, particularly so at Silverstone two weeks ago, when Hamilton salvaged fourth place as his team lost ground to Red Bull and Ferrari.
He added: "Every win is special, but with the emotion, effort and all the energy the team put into the car and the effort they put in, it just couldn't feel better.
"Coming into this weekend I said I would take it one race at a time. To win is massively positive for us, but there is a long way to go and it is about getting consistency.
"If I say something now it could be a disaster, as the next race is going to be very, very hard. We are back in the fight though, and I hope we can carry this forward and keep the momentum going."
McLaren's success was nevertheless tempered after Button retired for the second time in as many races.
Starting seventh on the grid and running a two-stop strategy contrary to the frontrunners' three, he fell to 10th place on the lap one.
Button then climbed to sixth, passing Renault's Vitaly Petrov, Force India's Adrian Sutil and Mercedes GP's Nico Rosberg but retired with a hydraulics failure at the end of lap 35.
He said: "I had a terrible first lap, I don't know where I ended up, and then I couldn't get past Petrov. Eventually I did, and then I got back past the next two guys.
"My pace was good so it was all looking quite exciting. I had a lot of fun out there and then we had a hydraulic issue and I had to retire the car on safety grounds.
"I think in the end, we wouldn't have been in the top three, but fourth was definitely possible. I was enjoying myself out there as well..."
Credit: ESPN STAR (www.espnstar.com)
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