Lewis Hamilton: “I want to win this Grand Prix!”

Lewis Hamilton was buzzing after practice in Monaco today, enjoying the challenge of the track and encouraged by his second place.

The McLaren driver was 0.1 shy of pacesetter Fernando Alonso, and admitted he lost a little bit in a couple of slower corners with a balance issue.

“It is fantastic,” said Hamilton. “I love it here, I love the track, just been so excited all day. I think that the circuit is fantastic, look at this weather! This is just a beautiful place to be, I had a great evening yesterday, and now I’m very, very happy.

“Obviously just driving the track today I kept it out of trouble. I’m quite happy with the balance of the car, and comfortable with our high fuel run as well. It’s going to be close though, the Red Bull looks fast, the Ferrari looks fast. I’m pushing, I’m pushing, I’m pushing. I want to win this Grand Prix!”

He said he had no problems with the DRS and KERS.

“With KERS and DRS you just get really used to it, so out of Turn One, you’re on it. Going across the startline, you’re on it. Every little chance you get, you’re on it. But you’re only really on it for say for the main straight and up the hill, then the in between parts you don’t touch it at all, then you don’t touch it again until you come back, so you only really use it twice. Maybe for qualifying I’ll try a fw more places. But I’ll keep that in my pocket.”

Lewis says he’s happy with the supersoft tyre. “It really doesn’t look bad, to be honest. You look at the long run of Vettel, for example, 20 laps, no problem. We might see a different race here. Maybe it won’t be as spectacular as we had hoped, but I’m sure some people will have more degradation than others.

“The tyres seem to last quite long, both tyres, the degradation is quite low. I think you’ll see people doing 20 plus laps on each stint, which is different from other circuits.”