"It's a much longer circuit; I think it's very smooth, a lot more flat", he told reporters.
Lewis Hamilton believes he can race until he is 40 after rejecting his own suggestion that he could stun Formula One by retiring at the end of the season. But I've made it no secret I'm a huge fan of the team, a big fan of Ferrari and what they've achieved in the history of motorsport and the normal world in terms of the cars that they make. I guess only God knows when the time is right for certain things.
In last year's European Grand Prix in Baku, Hamilton struggled, found some pace, crashed in qualifying and, from 10th on the grid, battled with engine-setting problems to finish fifth. "Let's not forget that Mercedes blew everyone away the last few years", he said.
"We have a good auto everywhere".
Keen to project itself as a modern, wealthy and sophisticated country, the grand prix is one of a number of high-profile sporting and cultural events to take place in Azerbaijan in recent years.
SV: This track is very different, with a very specific track layout. No such tender was held in awarding Arif Rahimov's company the right to organize the Baku races. Likewise in Monaco, after Spain, he again struggled, qualifying in the midfield and finishing a distant seventh. But a point to note is that the Brit did not have the best of times here previous year.
Intends to opt out of contract
The nine-time All-Star has averaged 18.7 points, 9.9 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.3 steals over his 12-year career. Los Angeles is able to offer him more years and money than any other National Basketball Association team.
"There is a small window that the tyres work in and at this track it seemed the most hard".
The circuit is "a succession of humdrum right-angled corners, a fiddly bit around a medieval castle and a long, long, long straight".
"It's nearly like we have the hard and the extra-hard tyre here". "Public companies issue reports four times per year". How do you cope with that part - not copying what happened to Perez and Palmer?
"People ask me what's motivating you?" You push it to the limit, of course, but this is the completely wrong spot to overdo it. I would definitely say this year as a team, when he's at the factory, he brings great energy, which everyone loves and appreciates. "I feel that we are better prepared this year than we were 12 months ago".
Q: So what is your analysis of the day? "I was pretty happy". "I haven't decided whether I want to stop before my time, at the moment I don't plan to". It was like "if I work an extra 15 minutes, or half an hour it's not going to make a difference as we're still going to be ahead". "We tried a couple of things and now we see the short run was not ideal, we didn't put everything together but tomorrow is another day".
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