26/07/2011
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton claims that a major part of his success in Germany is down to the team's decision to give him a break from promotional duties.
In the wake of a disappointing outing at Silverstone - though most drivers would kill to finish fourth - the English driver put much of the blame down to being left drained after a busy fortnight of promotional appearances ahead of his home race.
With continued speculation as to its driver's future plans, not to mention the little matter of the world championship titles, McLaren gave Hamilton a welcome rest, even cancelling a planned day trip to India.
Reflecting on his magnificent win at the Nurburgring, Hamilton believes that his performance throughout the Nurburgring weekend vindicates his stance and the team's decision.
"I have so much energy this weekend to be elated," he told the Guardian. "People will laugh because I say I had a rest but it is the truth. You have to have energy and be clear in the mind and have time to do your training.
"I trained twice last week, had good food and was massively positive all week," he continued, "wasn't in the media anywhere, wasn't 'papped' anywhere. I was just focused and came here with a fresh head and felt good. And then the car was with me."
However, the Englishman wasn't getting carried away, despite Sebastian Vettel's relatively poor performance he believes the German will be back on form this weekend.
"Sebastian has been massively consistent since last year but you can't win them all," he said. "You can't get out of the right side of the bed every day. This was a small glitch over a long period. I have no doubts he will have some interesting comments made about him but he still finished fourth and the rest had a slightly better weekend. He will be back, no doubt."
As for his own hopes in Hungary, when weather conditions are expected to be much, much warmer than those experienced in Britain and Germany, he said: "We might get to the next race and be massively off because we might overheat our tyres. If the car behaves like it did this weekend, we will be there again. I have won in Hungary before, so I can do it again. It all depends on how things play out."
Finally, still on a high following that magnificent win that put him third in the standings, he have a little insight regarding what he does with all those McLaren victory Ts. "I have all my winners' tops for all my grand prix wins and the names of the grands prix written in the back of them," he revealed. "Years from now, I will be able to say I won this grand prix and that grand prix. I will remember this one (Germany) like Silverstone 2008."