Lewis Hamilton says he went against the advice of his team to attack Nico Rosberg after his first pit stop at Monza because he did not think he would have a shot at the end of the race. Hamilton recovered from a terrible start to move within two seconds of Rosberg when he pitted after his team-mate on lap 27, when he was advised by race engineer Peter Bonnington to hang back and save his fuel and tyres for a late attack on his Mercedes team-mate. But Hamilton responded to that order with two fastest laps and his renewed pressure forced Rosberg wide at the Rettifilo, giving the Brit a lead he never relinquished. Hamilton says he decided immediately to go against Bonningtons advice after dwelling on his opening stint. I was pushing to overtake him, so that opens up doors for everything, Hamilton said. The engineers said we should stay back but knowing from experiences and also particularly this year I knew that wasnt the way forwards, so I chose another route. The car felt good and it was the closest I had been to that point. From the previous stint I knew when I was behind others, like behind Nico on the older tyres it was very difficult to stay with him. I knew the only chance would be at the start [of the stint] so I took it. Hamilton says he respects Bonningtons opinion but sometimes options are clearer to the driver than the pit wall. Firstly, I didnt ignore the teams orders, Hamilton clarified when questioned about his decision. I have a great relationship with my engineer and he really guided me throughout. If Im losing a bit of time here or there hes telling me so I know how to correct it. They want to win just as much as me so they are trying to guide me to what they think, but at the end of the day I was the one out there and the calculation worked out better the other way. I knew if I applied the pressure an opportunity would eventually come. Hamilton says he was in uncharted territory when his car struggled to harvest energy off the grid but is pleased with how he reacted to a slow start. It was a difficult race. For whatever reason, the start, there was a bug in the sequence. On the formation lap, it didnt work and then I thought Ill just put it on for the race. On the grid I put it on and it just didnt work - very, very strange, weve never had that happen before. I tried to pull away as fast as possible but the RPM was all over the place. Fortunately I managed to not lose too many places. We never practised a start like that where we dont have the launch sequence in, so I had no idea what I had to do and so just floored it and hoped for the best. After that I had a good battle with Felipe and he was very fair through the corner.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 08:33:40 +0000
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