Podium Interviews - Conducted by Sir Elton John

Lewis, amazing. For me to be English and to be here today is an amazing feeling. Congratulations on everything.
Lewis Hamilton: I can't believe you're here. It's Elton John!

No, there you go, I am! What a wonderful crowd, what a great support, you guys - thank you. What a race! How are you feeling?
LH: Amazing! Firstly, thank you so much for coming up here today and being here. I want to say a huge thank you to the whole crowd, for coming out and staying through the rain and staying with us. I hope we put on a good show for you today. But I can't really find the right words right this second to tell you how amazing this feels. I couldn't have done it without this team who have empowered me for the last three years and really taken me on board and really helped nurture me with the car and just faultless. I love you guys, thank you so much for everything you do for me. And all the guys back at home. And then, my family who are watching. I love you all. And team LH - still I rise.

Nico, congratulations, but you must be disappointed though right?
Nico Rosberg: Yeah, for sure, very disappointed with that, unbelievable. I don't know what happened. But anyway, you've been great. Thank you so much, you've been awesome this weekend, with all this bad weather... to come out here so numerously, thanks a lot for that. Yeah, just very disappointed.

Sebastian, you started off 14th [13th] on the grid - congratulations - and finished third. You drove an amazing race. And at one point you were going faster than anyone else. Does that give you encouragement for the rest of the grands prix and for next season?
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it does. We have a great car; we have exceeded all expectations. But yeah, it doesn't feel great when you cross the line and you know that you can't fight for the championship anymore, so congratulations to Lewis, he did a superb job all year round. Congratulations to his team as well, but we are getting closer and hopefully next year we can give them a very, very hard time.

I think you are getting closer and it's going to be very exciting, congratulations. And Lewis, celebrations tonight?
LH: Are you throwing a party?

I'm going to party; I'm playing tonight later.
LH: I'm going to be here, I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Press Conference

Lewis, many congratulations, a classic grand prix, one of those days when you're up, you're down, you're never quite sure which way it's all going to end. I'm sure for you personally a day of great emotion, given the journey you've made and I guess the best way to sum it up is: is this a boyhood dream fulfilled?
LH: It really is. I'm just overwhelmed at the moment. It's difficult really to find the words. I'm just sitting here thinking about... I remember my first British championship where my dad and I drove home singing 'We are the Champions' - at the time of Great Britain - and you know it's just crazy to think that now I'm a three-time Formula One world champion. I owe it all to my dad, to my family who supported me all these years and sacrificed so much for me to be here. And then the really positive energy I get from my fans who travel around the world to see, that is, I get messages... I really do realise that whilst I get to enjoy driving a Formula One car this is really a platform for me to inspire young people and I hope that if there is any inspiring from today it's just that: never give up on your dreams, on your hopes and on your desires. Just keep working at it. Today, there were so many times I thought I'd lost the race. I'd fallen back and then Nico pitted under the safety car and he was really quick at one stage but I never for one second believed that I couldn't second and then we pushed and pushed... You know, Nico drove a fantastic race, he really has done.... since I've been with this team he's been driving fantastic well. So mad respect for him as my team-mate and otherwise, as I said, a very humbling experience, especially to equal Ayrton Senna who meant so much to me and still does today. So, yeah, I feel very, very blessed today.

Very well done. Nico, as we said, a crazy race. You seemed to have the advantage when you went onto slick tyres initially and then at restarts and after stops you seemed to have great performance in that condition, you seemed to have the race under control. But it looks like one slip got it away from you. Tell us about that but also about the start.
NR: Yeah, I just got wheels pin. It's never happened to me, ever. Not even in testing or racing, never, ever something like that. I can't explain it; it's unbelievable. I don't know. Just need to look into it afterwards but obviously that was really, really tough at the time, to lose the lead like that and to lose the win, because I was feeling really good at that point and it just went wrong. Turn One for sure was very aggressive... What am I going to say? I haven't seen it again, so how the hell... I can't comment yet. I need to see it, as always. For sure it was extremely aggressive, we hit each other, or I would say Lewis came into me, so obviously that's not good. I can't say more than that.

Thanks for that. Sebastian, this is one of those races... I've seen you sitting here and I can tell you're thinking about all the things you've been through in the last few hours. There's so much to go through and analyse and understand from a race like that, but basically you took a gamble at the safety car to go onto the medium tyres, intending to go to the finish, and it looked like it might work, except that then there was another Virtual Safety Car and then another Safety Car. Did you believe it was one and that without those two events you might have won this grand prix? Were you feeling good about your gamble?
SV: Yeah, I think it was the right thing to do, given where we were, given that we wanted to make our chance last as long as possible and I think there was a chance definitely to do it. Obviously when the safety car came that was gone, because we've seen that with the option tyre everyone one of us was in the same boat with a lot of graining. First laps amazing and then the laps after that falling off quite dramatically. With a green track that's what happens. So I think I had a good chance. Already after four or five laps on the medium tyre, six laps, I don't know how much it was, I was doing more or less the same pace as the guys in front. A shame to lose out, but on the other hand in a race like this I think all three of us in a way at some point in the race we got lucky with timings, because it can also work against you. But yeah, a bit mixed. Thinking a lot about the season, what we could have done better here and there to squeeze even more out. I think we did a fantastic job, much better than everyone expected, but still it's not great when you lose the fight for the world championship. But, as I said, this is Lewis' day, congrats to him, he deserves to win the championship. The race we had, there's not much to add. It was every exciting - I started 14th, had an average start and then we had a very, very good opening lap and after that we did the right things. Amazing pace when we switched to dry tyres, closing to the field. And then I think it was very close with Nico in the end but not close enough, so that was it.