Hamilton – Victory takes weight off engineers
Lewis Hamilton gave praise to his engineers after securing a sensational win on the streets of Monaco – his first of the season.
The Brit reduced Nico Rosberg’s lead in the Championship from 43 to 24 points as the German finished nearly a lap down in seventh after allowing his teammate through on lap 16 of 78.
“I’ve had a lot of races, but personally, this feels like the best ever – this feels like the one, in my heart, that I earned,” said the triple World Champion.
“Honestly, yesterday didn’t go well and, of course, I could only come here today hoping for the best and just making sure I was focused. But as soon as it rained it just opened up all the doors of opportunity.”
Hamilton made the decision to stay out when others around him pitted to switch from extreme wets to intermediate tyres.
“My tyres weren’t really degrading, so I was like “I got to stay out”. The team were saying we should move but I knew I would drop behind Daniel, so I eked it out as far as I could and luckily right at the end I switched just at the right time.”
Lewis made sure to thank his engineers. Mercedes switched some personnel between the drivers for 2016 to prevent rivalry within the team which has been subject to criticism from fans.
“A big, big thank you to the team, especially the new guys on my side of the garage that have taken such a…. it’s been a hard five races to be here, six with yesterday and I think today can take a huge amount of weight off them, knowing that they’ve been doing a great job.”