Lewis Hamilton has hailed his win at the Nurburgring in Germany as one of his best ever, after he went from second on the grid to secure the win, despite having to battle with Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso.
On Friday the he claimed he had no chance of battling for pole, yet he qualified second and within 0.055s of pole sitter Webber.
Hamilton put it down to the teams constant improvements and his better tyre management skills.
“It was one of the best races I think I’ve ever done,” he declared after the race. “I think bit by bit, just learning more about how the car is behaving and with the driving I was able to learn to look after the tyres a little bit more.
“These are certain areas where I was losing out to these guys. I was quickest in the first sector, quickest in the last sector but struggling in the middle sector, so I was really improving my line in a lot of different areas.
“Particularly turn three, the apex of turn three I was sliding the tyres quite a lot, so later on I was able to recover from that and avoid the sliding. At turn eight, which is the fast chicane, I wasn’t able to take it flat out at the beginning of the race while these guys, well, Mark was, and he was catching me massively.
“I was really surprised again that my tyres lasted so long,” he added.
The 2008 champion isn’t getting complacent and knows improvements need to be made, but he says he hopes this win will provide the motivation needed to do so.
“There’s still areas we need to improve on, particularly on heavier fuel for the beginning of the race. But this is a massive step forward and I really hope that we as a team can use this, propel us forward and keep the momentum going.”
