Lewis Hamilton beamed with pleasure after his first expertise of racing for Ferrari and the tifosi on house soil on the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday.
‘So completely happy’
“Wow!” stated the seven-time champion who left Mercedes to hitch Ferrari on the finish of final 12 months.
“What a day. I’m so completely happy. So completely happy.
“The expertise with the tifosi – wow!
“So, thanks to everybody who got here out,” stated Hamilton, after ending a rousing fourth from twelfth on the grid.
“It was actually particular for me to see the ocean of crimson, but it surely appears like one of many largest crowds we’ve had right here. It felt classic!
“It felt like again within the day once I was watching Michael Schumacher race right here. A very nice expertise to see and to expertise.
“I positively didn’t anticipate us to complete fourth. I didn’t know the place we’d be capable of come, given we had been to this point again.
“The automotive actually felt nice and the group did a implausible job with technique.
“They had been faultless. Slowly, we’re getting there and me and Riccardo (race engineer, Adami) did a implausible job with the communication collectively.
“I used to be calm and I believe he was calm and the group had been calm in executing the technique and the pit stops had been superior.
“Total, it was mega! I hoped for some additional laps and perhaps we may have fought for a podium.”
Completely different story
After a tough run in adapting to automotive, group and language within the opening six ‘flyaway’ races, Hamilton, 40, confirmed his coronary heart and spirit as he fought for positions and raced to inside attain of a doable first podium for Ferrari.
But it surely was a distinct story for team-mate Charles Leclerc, in his seventh 12 months with the group, as he lamented his automotive’s lack of qualifying tempo and different setbacks on his solution to sixth.
“You’ve acquired to race with coronary heart and put your elbows out,” he stated.
“You go to the restrict and generally a bit over.
“While you begin P11, as a driver, I can not settle for the state of affairs we’re in.”
He was dumbfounded by a stewards’ choice to research him when he emerged in entrance after a tense and thrilling battle with Alex Albon of Williams.
“With Alex, it was on the restrict for certain,” he stated.
“As the foundations are written, I used to be on the restrict. I don’t remorse what I’ve executed. I knew once I didn’t take a pit cease within the second security automotive, it was going to be a tough race.”
The group requested him to provide a spot again to Albon within the closing laps.
Workforce boss Fred Vasseur stated: “The optimistic is that the tempo was robust from starting to finish. The technique was good and effectively executed. I’m a bit pissed off as a result of if we began the race in a greater place, we may’ve executed higher.”
Will Lewis Hamilton ever win one other grand prix?
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By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse