Hamilton: There’s gonna be some racing this weekend! 30 Oct 2009
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was certainly impressed with the new Yas Marina Circuit on Thursday. “It’s just mind-blowing,” the outgoing world champion said of the Abu Dhabi venue. “I can’t even comprehend how much money has gone into it. And I think there will be some overtaking here. There are the long straights, one of the 1.2 kilometres long… I think there is gonna be some racing this weekend!”
Hamilton wasn’t the only one being verbose. Thursday’s preparation day was enlivened by a lively debate on the rights and wrongs of the incident in Brazil which wiped out Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Force India’s Adrian Sutil on the opening lap, which all of the drivers will discuss later in Friday’s drivers’ briefing.
“I think I had every reason to be extremely furious,” Trulli said in the FIA press conference. “I’ve got all the evidence to show that I was there, I was next to him, so I think tomorrow we are going to discuss it.”
“I think there’s nothing to discuss,” Sutil countered. “It was a quite obvious incident. In the end it was very disappointing for myself, even more, I think, because I was the one who was just driving and he lost control of his car and crashed in my back, so it was not my problem, it was his problem. I don’t know why he’s freaking out like that, to be honest.”
Trulli laughed. “If you want, I can show you some pictures. I don’t know if you’re blind but they clearly show you that my front wing is next to your front wing, so…”
“Yeah,” Sutil snapped, “but you’re trying to overtake me on the outside on the kerbing. There was not a problem…”
“So you mean… you didn’t move there…”
“No, you were just not going off the power. The same happened in Barcelona where you lost control again and crashed again into a Force India car. You just have to sometimes also respect the limits of the car. If there’s no way to go, you have to back off, that’s how racing is, and I don’t know how long you want to learn it.”
“In Barcelona I spun and he hit me because he tapped the kerb,” Trulli pointed out, “he completely cut the circuit and he didn’t slow down, so basically… Anyway, I think it’s better…”
At this point and smirking Fernando Alonso looked at Kimi Raikkonen and laughed: “Shall we go?”
“No, no. Watch the race in Barcelona,” Sutil said angrily. “I didn’t hit you, you hit me. I don’t know what’s the problem, but maybe your eyes are a problem.”
“I was furious because I said ‘Didn’t you see me?’” Trulli ask, smiling. “I mean, I was next to him and he kept pushing me going outside until I was obviously on the kerbs. I couldn’t believe…”
“…the kerbs, not a problem to be on the kerb, I think,” said Sutil, poker-faced. “Where’s the problem?”
“Okay, no problem, it’s okay. As long as we know the rules.”
“I know the rules.”
“Fantastic.”
Like Hamilton said, we could have some really fun racing this weekend…
David Tremayne
