Q: (Tony Dodgins – Autosport) Obviously the seeds of the win were sewn yesterday. I wonder if you can clear a couple of things up. First of all, the team said that this was one of the tracks where it wasn’t possible to do the same number of burn-off laps but then when you do the maths it seems as if it is. And secondly, the reason why you didn’t respect the agreement for Fernando to get out (of the pits) first. I think you said Kimi was close and I think you said you didn’t agree with it. Could you just elaborate a little bit please?
LH: Firstly, I finished my Q2 time first, so I came into the pits. They cooled down my car quickest, so I was at the end of the pit lane first, which is always the aim for me. It’s what I like to do, I like to be out first. When I was at the end of the pit lane, they reminded me ‘Lewis, let Fernando past’ and I saw that Fernando was sort of staggered to the right of me and Kimi was very very close behind that. So I immediately thought, OK, we can let Fernando past as long as we don’t let Kimi past because that puts me out of sync and could ruin my qualifying run. So I had to take a split (second) decision. I got round the first corner, I thought ‘OK, if Fernando keeps with me, we will both make it, we’ll both have the pace.’ So I pushed, I don’t know why he didn’t, but he dropped off quite a bit. I was told to let Fernando past later on but he was miles behind so I just kept going.
Q: (Tony Dodgins – Autosport) And the fuel burn?
LH: I think it’s only at certain tracks you are able to do it, so they say, and here is one where you definitely can do it and I think if he had stayed right with me, we both would have got an extra lap. I think that would have been right.