Zoom A race win that wasn't for Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld take questions from the media shortly after finishing first to third in the Belgian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton was later demoted to third position handing the race win to second place finisher Massa.

Q: (Ed Gorman - The Times) Lewis, can you just talk us through the very last lap when you were absolutely tip-toeing around, what was going through your mind then? You could have gone off at any moment, couldn't you?
LH: I could have. It was very, very slippery. I had no temperature in my tyres, just because we had been driving around in the wet for a lap and a half. It's incredible you know. You brake very, very early thinking 'I've braked 400 meters earlier than I should' and you still arrive at the corner and you're not really sure what's going to happen, the car will step out… There's just nothing you can do about it, you are just guessing where the grip is and making sure your senses become a lot more… you turn them on full power basically and just wait, making sure that you can react to every oversteer moment you have. I was looking in my mirrors, I was looking at the gap between me and Felipe and I realised that it went from five to ten (seconds), so I realised that he was going even slower, so I went even slower. I just went as slow as I could. There was no need to push, just make sure you bring it home, there's one lap to go. The thought of Kimi coming off on the second to last lap… it's a long, long way to go and to then just throw it away and so I just brought it home.

Q: (Ed Gorman - The Times) Lewis, are you aware that the stewards have announced they are investigating an incident between yourself and Kimi? We're not sure exactly which one it was. Are you aware of that and what could your thoughts be? Is there any part where you felt that you'd contravened the rules?
LH: Absolutely not. I will explain what happened. It began to rain. I caught Kimi and I got a good tow from him down the back straight and I was in a good position to dive down the inside at turn 18. He covered his spot, which was fair, but he braked very, very early, so I was able to outbrake him and go round the outside which I did. I left him enough room, I didn't close the gap so much that he had to go on a kerb, I left him enough room, yet he accelerated or picked up more pace going into the corner, and drove me as wide as he possibly could. I had no road left. There was a question I had to ask: if I stay where I am, I'm going to go over the Astroturf… there's some green bit behind the big kerb, the last kerb… and go over it and hit him. Or I go left. That was the option I had to do, I did it. I knew that I had to let him past and also the team came over the radio and said 'you have to let him past' which I did. I was accelerating so that I didn't lose too much ground because I thought that would be unfair. Fortunately I got back in his slipstream and again, he moved to the inside and back to the outside and again, I dodged him and went up the inside and at the apex to the corner he hit me at the back, and that nearly caused me to spin, but fortunately I kept hold of it and went on from there. That was a great fight and I don't think there was anything wrong there. The rules say you should let him back past which I did.