Third podium of the season for Romain in this afternoon’s Hungarian Grand Prix, and the Frenchman is already itching for more in the second part of the season…
Romain, another podium this afternoon; what are your thoughts on today’s race?
It’s a good result for the team, but to be honest I’m a bit disappointed. We had a good battle for the lead with Lewis [Hamilton] all through the first two stints, but then I got stuck behind Michael [Schumacher] who didn’t respect the blue flags at all which cost me a lot of time. Because of this I lost a place to Kimi, and at the same time a possible chance to fight for the win. Still, that’s racing and we’ve take home a lot of points for the Constructors’ Championship which is a real positive
How close were you to taking the lead? The gap between you and Lewis [Hamilton] seemed to grow and shrink with every lap…
It’s really difficult to follow another car here, to follow them close and not make any mistakes. When I was behind Lewis [Hamilton] I was sometimes losing a little bit the grip from my front tyres, so I would fall back and then have to recover a little bit. The second pit stop was ok, but the first was a disaster and we lost the chance to make the jump on strategy. I think that was the only key today because overtaking is really too difficult here.
You and Kimi came very close in the first corner after his second stop; talk us through it from your perspective
It was quite close with Kimi but that’s all part of racing no matter who you’re up against. He did what he had to do to not let me past, I went a little bit on the outside line, got the marbles on my tyres and struggled to recover. It is what it is. It was the same story with myself and Sebastian [Vettel] on the first lap only reversed from my view. It was all fair and square.
You’re currently eighth in the Drivers’ Championship; where can you go from there?
I’m just taking it race by race. It’s very tight with myself Jenson [Button] and Nico [Rosberg] all covered by only two points, and there’s no reason why we can’t keep climbing higher. It’s good to be back on the podium before the break and I think we’ve got a better chance than ever to win races, so let’s aim for more in the second part of the season.
Source: www.lotusf1team.com