• Turkish Grand Prix

Hamilton not getting his hopes up

ESPNF1 Staff
May 5, 2011 « Barrichello slams Williams' internal politics | »
Lewis Hamilton: "I prefer to arrive here cautious" © Getty Images
Enlarge
Related Links

Lewis Hamilton has played down his chances of taking back-to-back wins with victory at the Turkish Grand Prix this weekend.

Hamilton won his first race of the year at the Chinese Grand Prix three weeks ago, putting an end to Sebastian Vettel's early-season winning streak. His McLaren team has brought updates to its cars this weekend to give him the best chance of repeating the feat at Istanbul Park, but Hamilton is refusing to get his hopes up

"You can come from the last race and be excited and confident going to the next race, but I don't have particularly high hopes," he said. "I generally don't like to expect too much because if it doesn't work out it is a big come down from that - I prefer to arrive here cautious. We may not be the quickest this weekend, which is definitely possible, but if we are that will be fantastic and we will do best to win.

"We didn't win the last race because we had the fastest car, but because we outdrove and had the best strategy. Hopefully we will close the gap, hopefully our upgrade is good enough but we will see tomorrow."

Hamilton is also concerned that McLaren could get caught by the chasing pack.

"Especially with this break the other guys seem to be closing the gap gradually," he said. "Mercedes is closer, Ferrari is there or thereabouts. It doesn't seem like it will take much for them to make a quick switch and be up there with us. The Renaults are doing fantastic and [Vitaly] Petrov is driving fantastically well. I think it will be close at some point, so I hope we can continue to move forward."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
ESPN Staff Close