Oliver White
Following on from Fernando Alonso’s dominant win in Monte Carlo, below are a selection of quotes from the post race press conference. Both Mclaren drivers are elated to have given the Woking team a one-two finish at a circuit that means so much to their team boss. Felipe Massa also conceded that third place was the best position he could have hoped for, having followed the McLaren’s around all afternoon.
It has been a fantastic weekend, no doubt, and yes to score this hat-trick – pole, fastest lap and race win – is something very special and even more here in Monaco.
I enjoyed this race so much, I had a perfect car all the way through the race and it is so good to drive such a nice car for 78 laps and win at the end. It has been a very nice surprise to see how the team has performed this weekend. I have 17 wins in my career and I have never won with more than one minute to the third guy, so for sure this is probably the easiest and nicest victory so far. Fernando Alonso.
All weekend we’ve both had great pace and it was tough. I knew that we were both extremely quick and when you’re behind someone you can’t follow them that closely, so I knew there would be no way to get so close to him and overtake him. So the only way was to apply pressure, and he’s a two time world champion, he doesn’t really make mistakes so it’s extremely difficult. He did a great job.
I hit the barrier plenty of times in the race and I was fortunate that we’ve got a solid car. The team did a good job as usual and it’s strong enough to take the hit.
It’s always poor in Monaco just because it’s so tight, but Fernando would get past someone then I’d have to wait quite a while or have to shout on the radio to get them to put the blue flags out, so it was always tricky. I’d gain, then I’d lose. That made it extremely difficult and I just had to try and be as aggressive as possible, but safe at the same time – I needed to come out of this race with as many points as possible. Lewis Hamilton.
McLaren today showed really incredible pace. I think even if I’d pushed 150 percent on the limit it would have stayed the same in the end. They were really quick today, we had nothing to do with them. I was just thinking about finishing third and trying to score as many points.
When you see that you have nothing more to put into the car to fight, we just needed to put on another set of tyres and try to see if we can have a better car and be quicker, but in the end it was similar, so it was just a lack of pace that we had today. Felipe Massa.
BBC are reporting (as of yet just on their ticker with no story) that maclaren may have failed scrutineering. – which would be a shame, its pretty clear they had yesterday covered even if some minor advantage was gained.
–and this from a ferrari fan
–now they’ve put a brief story up it appears the FIA are disgruntled at the possibility of team orders stopping alonso and hamilton from racing.
if you had 2 cars that were a second a lap faster than even 3rd place, then wouldn’t you say “Take it easy, make sure we bring it home?”
Thanks Kris. Posted.