Lewis revels in Monaco experience

Lewis Hamilton
12 April 2012

Lewis Hamilton was like a kid in a candy store after savouring the sweetness again of his favourite grand prix venue.

Hamilton was forced to settle for being second quickest at the end of Thursday's two practice sessions around the principality. The McLaren star finished just 0.113secs shy of Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari as the double world champion topped the timesheet with a lap of one minute 15.123secs.

Afterwards, and clearly appreciating he has a car here that could potentially give him his second win after the 26-year-old took the chequered flag in 2008, Hamilton said: "I love it here. I love the track. It is fantastic. I was so excited all day. It's such a beautiful place to be."

He added: "I just love driving the car here, it's the coolest thing. It's the most dangerous track in the world - not dangerous, it's just that you can't make any mistakes.

"The car feels amazing when you are jumping from kerb to kerb and you know you've no room for error, travelling through these streets at such serious rocket pace.

"I stood on the pitwall to watch a car coming past, and even I got a buzz at seeing the car go past so quick.

"I wish people watching could understand, but I'm telling you it's the best thing I've ever done, and now I can't wait to get back out on Saturday."

Hamilton, though, has tempered hopes of the race potentially being a thriller, as had initially been hoped.

Fears the super-soft tyre would badly degrade and lead to multiple pit stops have been tempered as the rubber was more durable than had been led to believe.

"It doesn't look bad because if you look at the long run of (Sebastian) Vettel, for example, he did 20 laps, no problems," added Hamilton. "So you might see a different race. Maybe it won't be as spectacular as we had hoped because the tyres are lasting. The degradation is quite low."

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