The Gentleman Magazine Issue 14 | April 2019 | Page 19

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport start the
2019 Formula One season with a 1-2 victory
Valtteri Bottas
This feels so good – I don’t think I’ve ever had a race like this!
We could not have asked for a better start to the season – getting
maximum points for the team is a perfect result and we couldn’t
be happier. It’s also an important result for me personally, I’m
really pleased with how the race went. These things don’t just
happen – both the team and I have worked hard for this and it
seems like the hard work paid off today. The key was the start;
I think Lewis may have had a bit of wheel spin, so I was able to
take the lead. My race pace was really strong, I could pull away
and build a gap. In the end, I managed to get the fastest lap as
well, which of course means an extra point this season, so I
went for it. It can be a little risky with worn tyres, but I had it
all under control. I’m very, very pleased with today, but it’s only
the first race and we have another 20 races to go.
Lewis Hamilton
It was an incredible weekend for the team, we’re leaving
Melbourne with maximum points. Valtteri did an exceptional
job today – congratulations to him. I had a pretty straightforward
race today; I lost position at the start and my race was pretty
much done and dusted after the first corner. Afterwards it was
really about bringing the car home and bagging the points. I
had to pit early to cover the pit stop from Ferrari, so I had a
long second stint and drove super carefully to make sure I had
tyres left at the end of the race.
I’ll bag the eighteen points I got today, keep working and come
back recharged for the next one. It was a really great weekend
for the team and I’m really happy for everyone. We showed a
great performance today and we need to continue to build on
this – we have a long season ahead of us.
Toto Wolff
That was a great day and an awesome drive for Valtteri – a
perfect rebound after how last season finished. Over the winter,
he recharged the batteries, reset, found his joy of driving again
with the rally in Finland – then today it all came together for
him. I can see again the young boy I first met over ten years ago
and who dominated the junior series in 2008; it was a strong
comeback and a really well earned win today. For Lewis, it was
a harder afternoon – the start was not as good as Valtteri, then
we had to pit him earlier than ideal to cover the risk of being
undercut by Vettel. That gave him a long stint on the tyres and
none of us knew if they would make it to the end, so it was
hard to judge the right pace and he wasn’t happy with the car
balance; my feeling is that it can be tricky to find the sweet spot
with these new cars and tyres, and probably we didn’t manage
that today with Lewis. Overall, though, a fantastic day for the
team and a perfect result in the opening race – including the
point for fastest lap.