Martin Whitmarsh hails Lewis Hamilton’s performance at Yeongam as inspirational – Formula 1 news
McLaren principal Martin Whitmarsh said that Lewis Hamilton’s 2nd position on Sunday, October 16 at the Korean Grand Prix was inspirational.
Lewis Hamilton was second to the dominant Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel at Yeongam, but was in a constant battle with the other Red Bull car driven by Mark Webber.
Although the Red Bull’s second car was clearly the quicker one, but Hamilton very skillfully kept Webber in check and did not allow him to overtake his RB7 car.
Hamilton was not only in a slower car than the Red Bull, he also had some trouble with the understeer of the car, which made his 2nd position all the more remarkable. The problem resulted in the Brit losing a significant amount of downforce from
his car’s front wing.
The left-hand slot-gap had become filled with congealed rubber of the tyre most probably from the marbles on the track. This situation led to a massive understeer for Hamilton’s car and did not have enough downforce to maintain high pace in corners and sharp
turns, while the Australian was easily able to use his car’s DRS to catch up to Hamilton.
Considering all these hurdles, he drove one of the best races of all time in Korea. Even though the record books will only show his 2nd position standing, but the context of the race shows the phenomenal performance Hamilton produced.
Whitmarsh was also in praise of his team driver Hamilton and said, “I think Lewis' drive was utterly inspirational. He may be downplaying it, because he's a perfectionist and he wanted to win, but to withstand such enormous pressure, for lap after lap, from
a faster car, was a drive absolutely worthy of the great champions.”
He went on to mention, “His finishing position may only go down in the history books as another second place, but, make no mistake; this was a fantastic drive; beautifully assured and perfectly judged.”
The build up towards the race was also very critical as Hamilton was already up against a lot of demons of his own and his on-track behaviour was criticised. He had a number of run-ins with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and was able to perform to his potential
throughout the 2011 Formula 1 season. Therefore, the Korean Grand Prix was a breath of fresh air for Hamilton who had been desperate to perform well.
It will be interesting to see how he performs at the upcoming Indian Grand Prix at the newly developed Buddh International Circuit in New Delhi, India on October 30, 2011.
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