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1. Felipe MASSA (Ferrari),
1h26m42.161s
2. Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari), 1h26m44.436s
3. Fernando ALONSO (McLaren Mercedes), 1h27m08.342s
Q: Felipe, from the pole you have won your second Turkish Grand Prix.
Felipe MASSA: It’s amazing. The third time here in Istanbul but the second
race in a row winning from pole. I love the track, I love the place and here
is where my career made a switch and I started to win races and fight with
the front runners. It is a very special place for me and to have a second
consecutive win here, it’s difficult to find the right words…
Q: It looked like a dominating win from the outside. Talk about it from your
perspective. We saw a little drama with your helmet at one point and of
course a big surprise for everybody in the pit lane to see both Ferraris on
the softer of the two Bridgestone tyres for the first two stints.
FM: The helmet had a crack on the cooling system and I had big turbulence.
My head started to go up and I was losing a lot of concentration, so I just
took it away and it made a bit of strange behaviour on the straight but then
it was better. With the tyres, on Friday we made a long run on both tyres
and it was pretty similar, with maybe just one or two tenths between them.
We knew that Friday to Sunday the track changes a lot and the soft tyre
should improve even more, so we took a bit of a gamble although it was a
pretty safe risk. Especially for the start, we knew that the soft would be
better and we had fantastic starts; Kimi overtook Lewis and we had a very
good race on the soft.
Q: A great day for you to have your family at the race, your Dad had a lot
of TV time!
FM: Yes! He is very emotional, like me, and on the podium for sure the TV
likes to take this kind of experience from people. But I am really proud to
win in front of him, and my mother as well.
Q: Kimi, it looked like a frustrating day for you. As Felipe said, you got
into second place from the start but that’s where you stayed. You pushed
Felipe pretty hard going into the second pit stop.
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, we had a pretty good car but unfortunately these days
in Formula One it’s pretty difficult to get past, so the race was really
decided yesterday already. If nothing else I pushed hard and got as close as
I could and tried to do something at the pit stops, but when two team-mates
are fighting it is usually that whoever is first is going to stay there. The
car was really good but there was nothing I could have done.
Q: Again you chose the softer of the two Bridgestone tyres. Was that a big
decision going into the race, how it was going to perform?
KR: I think as Felipe said we were pretty confident that both tyres would
work pretty well. It was not a big difference and we decided to take the
soft one for the start for many reasons and it worked well. It was still
difficult to say which one would have been better. They were very equal.
Q: Fernando, you were beaten off the line and into the first corner by the
two BMWs so, I guess, to be here in P3 is a nice reward for you?
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, for sure. The start did not go to plan and to be
overtaken by two cars and find yourself sixth at the first corner was not
great. My race was a little bit over from that time. I was following Nick
for 17 laps and as Kimi said, these days in Formula One it is very, very
difficult to overtake. You need to wait for a mistake from the car in front
of you and Nick was very consistent and driving very well, so I waited for
the pit stop and I was lucky to overtake him. Then my race started but I was
half a minute behind everybody at that point and I just took my pace and
concentrated on being consistent, not making a mistake and waiting for the
miracle, which only happened with Hamilton. But third, for sure, is not the
best result from the weekend.
Q: Ferrari was pulling away from you and Lewis pretty comprehensively in the
closing stages of the race. How much of that was tyre choice perhaps, taking
the race as a whole, and how much of it was the difference between the two
cars on this circuit?
FA: I think that it was the car to be honest. I think with the tyres we
found the prime very similar compared with the option but slightly better,
more consistent and I still think the prime was the right choice for the
race, to be sure. The last stint I did with the option I found the car to be
a little bit worse, so that confirms that the prime tyre was better for our
car. It was very windy today and we know when it is windy we have more
difficulty and found that again today.
Q: Well Felipe, we now go to the Italian Grand Prix with Ferrari having
another 1-2 behind them, so what’s that race going to be like for you and
the team?
FM: It is a very special race for us so hopefully we can repeat the result
here. It would be fantastic for the team, for the people, for the tifosi, so
I’m looking forward to the race.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: As I said yesterday, Felipe, you’re a bit of a Turkish specialist now.
FM: Maybe after three races and two wins here it can be a special track for
me. It is fantastic to win for the second time in a row here in Turkey,
starting from the pole, having a good car. A difficult race but I managed to
keep my concentration.
Q: What was happening when Kimi was catching you at the end of the second
stint?
FM: The gap was pretty similar throughout the stint but then Kimi started to
run two tenths quicker and I started to push again. Then I just made a small
mistake going into Turn 7 and Kimi was just able to close the gap
completely. But the gap was okay to control, the balance was okay and the
car was easy to drive, so it was not so difficult but the small mistake made
my life a little bit more difficult.
Q: Just explain again what the problem was with your helmet, the visor?
FM: We have a cooling system just on the top and the plastic part cracked
and started to go up and so I had huge turbulence and my head started to
move a lot – going up and under braking going completely down. That was
disturbing me a lot and so I just broke the cooling flap completely and
managed to take it away.
Q: How many laps did you suffer that for?
FM: Five or six laps before I broke it. It was still a bit difficult in
terms of turbulence but a lot better.
Q: Kimi, tell us about the start.
KR: I got a good start as we were hoping for but that’s about it – I was
following Felipe all race long and there was nothing I could have done.
Q: How did you see the end of that first stint?
KR: It was good. I had a little bit too much understeer at the start and I
couldn’t push as hard as I wanted. The car got better and better and in the
end was very good and very easy to drive. But I had big difficulties with
the handling at the start of the second stint. At the end I could go very
fast but when you have two guys behind each other in the same team, usually
the second guy has to pit first and there is nothing more I could have done.
Q: But a little bit of a statement two laps from the end?
KR: Yeah, but it’s so boring behind other cars. Unfortunately in Formula One
these days the races are pretty much decided after qualifying, so it’s a
shame.
Q: Fastest lap, two laps from the end, similar to Hungary…
KR: Yeah, it’s something to do.
Q: Fernando, close behind Heidfeld but you weren’t catching Lewis. That gap
remained pretty much the same between the two of you, about 14 seconds in
the second stint.
FA: Yes. The start was quite bad and after I found myself sixth on the first
lap, I thought the race was over because if you overtake them quite quickly
in the first five laps, you still have a possibility but if not, it becomes
very difficult. It was exactly like that. Lap 18, when I pitted, I managed
to get in front of Nick and start my race but I was 14 seconds behind the
third guy and I pushed, as hard as I could, but the gap always remained the
same. I was just cruising a little bit to the end, from lap 30.
Q: But as Peter said, to be on the rostrum having been sixth must be
something of a relief.
FA: Yeah, for sure. If someone told me on lap two that I would be on the
podium it would not have been easy to believe and I would be very happy and
I would sign anywhere if someone told me that. At the end, the final result
is the best thing of the weekend for sure, but there are some other moments
that were not so good: like yesterday in qualifying, today the start, the
pace of the Ferraris compared to us in the race, many things that we need to
improve for the next Grand Prix.
Q: Is the pace of the Ferraris quite worrying?
FA: Well, we more or less knew that, because we are coming from some races
where we saw their potential: in Magny-Cours they were very very quick, in
Silverstone they were very quick again. The only race where we were back on
the pace was maybe Hungary and that was not a surprise because it’s a very
slow circuit and something like Monaco. We know that that type of circuit is
quite good for us, but coming to a normal circuit like Turkey, they are on
top again. We know that we need to improve but next race will be better.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Kimi, you already said that this
is your second race in a row where you are following the leading car and you
said it’s a little bit boring being there, but having said that, you did the
fastest lap in both races. Is that just to keep you awake or is it more to
try and see how much you can get out of the car?
KR: I think we can get more out of the car if we really push but there’s no
point in really wasting your second position to push like crazy and maybe go
off so… It was just that I wanted to try and see how good the car was and
maybe we can learn something. As I said, it’s a bit boring because you quite
often know, especially after the pit stop, where the other cars will stop
and that’s it. You know that you cannot really do anything if you don’t get
past the guys and it’s very difficult to get past.
Q: (Sal Zanca – Associated Press) Fernando, do miracles happen and what did
you say to yourself when Hamilton’s tyre shredded?
FA: Nothing, to be honest, because the race was still going on, and I had 20
or 18 laps to go or whatever. The team told me on the radio ‘be careful
because it seems that you may have the same problem that happened on Lewis’s
car because at the pit stop we are seeing that your tyres are not in perfect
shape either, so take care of the car in these last 15 or 18 laps, in order
not to have the same problem.’ So I wasn’t thinking anything special, I was
just taking care of my car.
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) For all three of you: how much has
Lewis’s puncture helped your title chances?
FA: Nothing changes, to be honest. The gap for me is only two points
difference, so at the end of the day it’s just a second and third place, or
a first and second. I’m still losing points from the last two races. If you
take Hungary and here, I recovered two points here, I lost five in Hungary,
so I’m three worse than what I was in Nürburgring so it’s still the same. As
long as all four top cars finish all the races, the gaps don’t increase or
decrease too much, so it’s still very open for the last final three races
that will probably be the last chance for everybody.
FM: It helped me six points.
KR: Yeah, it was definitely better for us. We know that anything can happen
in a race, we gained more than if we had finished third, so it’s helping but
there are still many races to go, so we just need to keep pushing and try to
win and see what happens.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) A question for the two
Ferrari drivers: did the positions on the grid decide who will stop earlier
than the other in the two different stints?
FM: It was decided yesterday in qualifying. I had one lap more fuel than him
(Kimi).
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, your Grand Prix
was not very good from the beginning; is it because you don’t like this
circuit or was there something else that disturbed you during this weekend?
FA: No, no, nothing special. It’s true that from Friday it was not an easy
weekend, but we found the pace yesterday in qualifying - especially in Q1
and Q2 the car felt good again. Q3 was looking good until the last new tyre
run, so we found the pace there. Today, starting fourth, if I was fourth in
turn one I would probably follow everybody, overtaking would maybe be
impossible but maybe I was fourth following everybody with no problems. It’s
true that it hasn’t been an easy weekend but nothing was disturbing me.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, is starting from pole the only way
to win at Monza also?
KR: Not really. It depends how much fuel you have against the others but
racing with teammates, you know exactly much fuel the other guy has, so when
you are in that situation, you pretty much know what will happen in the
race. If it’s someone else it’s a different story but for sure, pole
position makes your life easier, you have better chances but it doesn’t
really decide the race completely.
Q: (Adrian Rodriguez Huber – Agencia Efe) Fernando, how are your feelings
after this one hundredth GP? Are you happy, could you be happier? And of the
last five races, which ones do you think will be best for you and how
confident do you feel in winning your third title?
FA: I can’t remember the first question any more! The hundredth Grand Prix.
I felt good and I’m feeling good now. I feel happy, as I said before,
especially because of the result; that was the best news of the weekend. To
be on the podium is always a nice feeling and given the start of the race,
it was a nice finish to the weekend, to be on the podium. I won’t remember
this Grand Prix for the rest of my life but it has been quite good at the
end. And the chances for the title? They are still there for everybody,
still all four drivers – two McLaren and two Ferrari drivers – with
possibilities to win the title. You see ups and downs for everybody. It
depends on how the weekend goes, how lucky you are in that particular
weekend, so five races to go and the better one and the lucky one will win
in the end.
Q: (Peter Hesseler – Auto Bild) Fernando and the Ferrari drivers as well. Is
it the wrong impression that you have generally started worse this year or
has it changed since the beginning of the year when Ferrari lost some
places?
FA: It’s true that our start is probably not the best. We know that the BMWs
start really really well, every weekend. For us, it’s true that at the
beginning of the championship we were having good starts, sometimes
overtaking the Ferraris. I remember Malaysia, I remember Australia or I
don’t know where. Obviously we haven’t made our starts worse, we keep
improving but for sure the Ferraris did a bigger step forward than us. |
