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RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
06/10/2007 - 07:00 PM
Montreal, Canada
Dennis wants Hamilton to stay focused through the flood of media attention. (LAT Photo) ยป More Photos
Ron Dennis has praised Lewis Hamilton for his faultless performance in Canada on a day when there was chaos all around and several drivers made mistakes.
Hamilton led throughout and did not indulge in the sort of off-track excursions that marked his teammate's day.
"A perfect race," said Dennis. "He followed very carefully the advice from the pit wall, because this was about tire conservation and knowing when to push and when to conserve the tires. It never got into high levels of graining which meant we were able to control the pace at the front. His avoidance of debris and his restarts were all impeccable.
"It was a text book race for him, he didn't put a foot wrong, he drove the car faultlessly, and did not have one single thing gifted to him. It was a race that he won from start to finish, and that makes it a special win, because many drivers their first and sometimes only win comes from circumstances that are unusual to the event. This was a straight out, full on tremendous achievement at one of the most difficult circuits in the world. So he deserves all the plaudits that he will undoubtedly get.
"He was getting a lot of data from the pit wall. He's listened for 10 years, so why would he stop listening now?'
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Dennis confirmed that Hamlton's last stop was made early.
"We were covering Heidfeld. We had a lot more fuel, we could have gone another six laps I think. But if the safety car had come out in a situation where we were penalised as we were with Fernando, he would have lost the race. The only thing that could lose us the race was the safety car in respect of Heidfeld, so we just covered Heidfeld, which was the logical thing to do."
He said he hoped that getting the first win out of the way would take a little external pressure off Hamilton.
"The understandable concern is really more the out of car attention, and how we're going to manage that. Maybe this is now a sort of 'ticked all the boxes,' and we'll have a little breathing space as we move through the rest of the year. I suppose that's wishful thinking!
"We definitely will not change his programme. He's got one event at Mercedes Benz HQ in New York and another at Exxon Mobil in Washington, and that's the only two things he will be doing between now and Thursday. The most important thing is to keep him focused."
