Planet-F1

Hamilton: I didn't expect to finish in the top five

Sunday 11th May 2008

Lewis Hamilton claims that he didn't expect to finish in the top five of the Turkish GP after Bridgestone engineers deemed it prudent for the McLaren driver to use a three-stop strategy during the race.

The decision is understood to have been made after Friday practice in Istanbul due to fears over tyre degradation caused. With the strategy causing Hamilton to run at what was effectively qualifying pace throughout the race, it made for a compelling spectacle. Yet, according to conventional wisdom and computer simulations, three-stopping ultimately remains a slower alternative to two-stopping and so Hamilton was pleasantly surprised at finishing the race ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in second place.

"I'm thrilled," he exclaimed in the post-race press conference. "Before the race I thought top five would be good. I was just hoping to finish in the points...[With three stops] there was definitely not as big a chance as winning."

However, the bonus of the enforced strategy was that it meant Hamilton only had to use the softer tyre, which had to be used for at least one stint during the race, for just a handful of laps. Tellingly, it was only during that final stage of the race when the McLaren was on soft rubber that Hamilton suffered in comparison to the two Ferraris.

"The soft was definitely the worse tyre, " he concluded. "At the end I was really struggling."