PODIUM
F
ull transcript from the top three pres conference
after the Chinese Grand Prix, Round 2 of
the 2017 Cinese Grand Prix at Shanghai
International Circuit, featuring: race winner Lewis
Hamilton (Mercedes), second placed Sebastian Vettel
(Ferrari) and third placed Max Verstappen (Red Bull).
Podium interviews conducted by Martin Brundle
Congratulations, Lewis, you led from start to finish,
but it was pretty tricky at the beginning, the conditions
looked part slick, part intermediate…
Lewis Hamilton: It was incredible. Firstly, a big thank
you to all the people here in Shanghai for coming out.
Thank you. We’ve got such a great crowd here. It was
very, very tough for us all. It was difficult to know. I
went out in inters initially, on the laps to the grid, and
then I tried the slick and it was impossible, and then
we all started on inters and it was very, very hard,
because there was a lot of dry patches everywhere,
mostly dry except for a couple of corners that were
wet. So trying to keep the car on the track and look
after the tyres at the same time was very tough. A
great job done by Sebastian and this young dude
here [Max Verstappen], who’s always like…
[Max] has actually been voted driver of the day, so
he’s beat you on that vote...
LH: Oh, great, great! It’s OK, I don’t mind being on
the top step! Lastly, I just want to say a big thank
you to this team. I’m just so tremendously proud of
everyone on my own personal team, in terms of my
own like staff and that, but also my team who work so
hard back at the factory to make this possible. And
this race is so real; it’s so exciting for me personally.
I don’t know how it is for everyone else but I hope
they’re enjoying it.