JUNE 18, 2012

Hamilton targets consistency

Despite scoring his first win of the 2012 season in Canada, Lewis Hamilton says that finishing is more important than winning at this weekend's European GP in Valencia.

Despite scoring his first win of the 2012 season in Canada, Lewis Hamilton says that finishing is more important than winning at this weekend's European GP in Valencia.

"The Montreal win was extremely satisfying," he said, "but actually does very little to alter things in the championship. I'm only two points ahead of Alonso, which is nothing.

"There's an enormous amount of pressure to keep racking up good results at every grand prix. I think that consistency rather than individual strong results will be the key to winning the championship, so we need to backit up in Valencia with another strong result."

Team mate Jenson Button, after two consecutive 16th place finishes at Monaco and Montreal, spent a day at McLaren's Technology Centre in Woking after the return from north America, trying to understand data generated by the team in Canada.

"A day like that is enormously productive and I think we covered a lot of ground," Button said. "The last few races haven't delivered the results I'd like but there are 13 races still to go, we've had seven different winners and no clear championship leader has emerged, so I'll be looking to get a decent result under my belt in Valencia and get my title bid back on track."

Whether the supersoft Pirelli tyre used in the last grands prix have been a factor in Button's problems is a matter for conjecture, but for Valencia, the soft and medium compound Pirellis are the one on offer.