Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Dennis hails 'phenomenal' Hamilton - NEWS

Monday 12th May 2008

McLaren boss Ron Dennis hailed Lewis Hamilton's Turkish Grand Prix performance as "a phenomenal drive."

Despite the team opting for a three-stop strategy due to safety fears regarding his tyres, Hamilton claimed a superb second place at the Istanbul Park circuit.

The 23-year-old finished within four seconds of Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who took the chequered flag for the third consecutive time at the track.

Hamilton and Massa are now both within seven points of reigning World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, who was forced to settle for third in his Ferrari.

"We saw a truly phenomenal drive from Lewis in which he optimised a three-stop strategy we were forced to adopt as a consequence of concerns we had with his tyres," remarked Dennis.

"It was a structural concern with the tyres, so we took a decision with Bridgestone to run three stops.

"We didn't want to have any tyre failure, and although we could have run two stops, we put the safety of the driver first.

"Lewis did a great job and we can now look forward to Monaco and Montreal."

There were fears Hamilton's slightly more aggressive driving style could have resulted in another 200mph blow out as witnessed at the track a year ago.

A Bridgestone spokesperson said: "Lewis had a specific problem last year, but several other drivers we noticed had internal tyre problems.

"Based on that, we changed the construction and strengthened it over the winter period and then brought those tyres to all the races this year.

"In actual fact, nobody else has had a repetition of any of those problems this year, with the exception of Lewis.

"He is the one driver who, perhaps with his style of driving, has put higher forces onto his front-right tyre."

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