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1. Sebastian VETTEL (Red
Bull), 1h28m20.443s
2. Jarno TRULLI (Toyota), 1h28m25.320s
3. Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren Mercedes), 1h28m26.915s
Q: Sebastian, an utterly dominant weekend for you. Fastest in qualifying.
You totally controlled the race. You must feel great.
Sebastian VETTEL: I do. What a race. Obviously yesterday with pole position
and I think strategy-wise we were the favourites but first of all you have
to do the start. We were pretty confident and had good starts in the past.
Not that that was always the case at the beginning of the season, but we
were confident of defending the position. But it was closer than I thought
it was going to be. Going into turn one all of a sudden I saw a silver arrow
on the left hand side and obviously I had the inside and it was my advantage
but it was closer than I thought it would be. After that it was head down
and try to push every single lap. The car was fantastic. I was able to pull
a gap quite quickly, a big one, enough. Obviously with the strategy we were
two laps longer than Lewis and a lap longer than Jarno in the first stint,
so it all worked out. Until the end I was pretty much in control. I fitted
soft tyres for the last stint and second and wanted to have a little bit of
fun. I did one very quick lap, I think 32.5, then my engineer came on the
radio and said ‘ok, be aware of your tyres. There might be a safety car or
something’. Two laps later there was the safety car. Obviously, it is not
what you are hoping for when you are in the lead by roughly 10 seconds. But,
nevertheless, I was still taking care of my tyres and at the restart I was
able to use it. I had a bit of a cushion with Romain (Grosjean) behind me. A
very good restart and then three to four phenomenal laps again to build a
gap that was safe enough to win the race in the end, so fantastic. As you
said, finally we made it. I was screaming on the radio. I think in the last
couple of races it was a little bit up and down. Sometimes we had the pace,
sometimes we didn’t and yeah, finally we made it, so it is good to be back
in first position also on Sunday.
Q: What a day for you. You lost a place at the start and then you fought the
whole race to get it back again. You and Lewis were really at each other
weren’t you?
Jarno TRULLI: Well. I knew that the start would be the hot spot and the most
difficult as I had this guy very strong at the start. Generally, we don’t
get very good starts and Lewis had KERS as well, so it was pretty easy to
imagine what would happen at that first corner. This time the car pulled
away pretty well, so I was able to nearly keep the position, but Lewis came
by and I was obliged to follow him. From then on it was a fantastic race for
me as I really enjoyed qualifying laps, lap by lap, with Lewis, closing the
gap and then coming closer. I was pushing again and it was not easy at all.
After the first pit stop I was chasing him again. It was really hard but I
really enjoyed it as the car was really strong and everything was fine. It
was just a matter of pushing as hard as possible and putting pressure on
Lewis. Then eventually thanks to the team and the strategy we got him at the
last pit stop. From then on I think it was easy for me. But with the safety
car I thought again that it was going to be a difficult restart as I thought
that Lewis was coming close to me with the KERS car, but I was pulling away
again, so I am really happy and I have to thank everybody in the team and
Japan. It is a fantastic result. I must admit I really wanted to win but it
was impossible today as he was untouchable.
Q: Lewis, what is your response to that? Did you enjoy it as much as Jarno
did?
Lewis HAMILTON: I did. We had a great race. I tried to get both of them at
the start but they both got a really good start which is not always the
case. We had quite a good battle, especially for me and Jarno. Sebastian
drove fantastic, so he pulled away into the distance. Jarno and I were
battling. I knew I could not match these two in the first sector and that it
is purely down to downforce but in the middle sector I was quite quick and
in the last sector with KERS we were very quick. But I think it was just
before or just after the last stop I lost KERS, so that automatically losing
us a good few tenths per lap. When that happens the brake balance changes,
all these different things, so it was very hard. I had to have a three
second gap before the last stop. I think I had a 3.1 and then the last
couple of laps I think I lost half a second or something like that. We came
out very close but once he was in front of me it was impossible to keep up
with him. Well done to these two, they did a fantastic job today. We will
battle them into the next race.
Q: You took a very assertive line down in the middle at the start. Tell us
about your tactic there to keep Lewis out.
SV: First of all the tactic was to get a good start, so I focussed on
myself. The pull-away was good and after that basically looking left and
right. On the right hand side Jarno, to see if he has a better start than I
have and on the left hand side Lewis. Then quickly I noticed I have a decent
start, it seems to be good, so I stayed in the middle, where I am. I was
ready to go to the inside in case Lewis had a really good start and then try
to get to the inside of turn one and two. It wasn’t the case, so I stayed in
the middle and all of a sudden he came on the left hand side alongside me
nearly. But then I had the advantage going into turn one. Fortunately, apart
from that, I didn’t have wheel-to-wheel racing this race. I was hoping for a
clean race. Obviously when the safety car came out it is not what you are
hoping for but nevertheless the speed of the car was fantastic. The circuit
is unbelievable. When I was crossing the line for the last lap I really
enjoyed the first sector again. It was similar to those two, like
qualifying, every single lap pushing to the limit of the car. In the esses,
going uphill, it is fantastic, especially when the car works that well
around here. It is great, so I really enjoyed myself today.
Q: Jarno, what does this result mean for Toyota?
JT: First of all, it is a double result as we are coming from a fantastic
podium for Timo (Glock) with a fantastic drive in Singapore. From there we
came here and again the car looked straight away competitive, so I think the
team has just showed that it is in Formula One and is proving to everyone
that they can do the job. Obviously, there are still some areas where we
have to improve. But being on the podium in front of your home fans is
fantastic. This is down to the entire team, from the engineers to the
mechanics, and as well I have to say to my team-mate who is a great person.
It is a shame that he could not race today. I wish him all the best. But I
must admit we are having quite a lot of fun and we are having a very
productive work inside this team. The atmosphere is very nice and it is
great to be, for me now, on the podium here.
Q: Lewis, you lost a place to Jarno at the second stop. You had another
chance to get it back at the restart. Tell us about that from your point of
view.
LH: I was on the radio for the last couple of safety car laps to ask the
team if they could get the KERS working again. I really needed that to have
any chance to shoot past Jarno at the start. But that wasn’t the case. They
weren’t able to do that. I was generally just looking out to see if you
could get as close as possible. I didn’t particularly exit the last corner
close enough to him either way. He did a great job again there and that is
always the case. You have to be very close to them but I wasn’t able to do
so but, nevertheless, it was good points for our team.
Q: Sebastian, you’ve taken the championship on to the last two races.
Sixteen points behind the leader but as Lewis knows to his cost from two
years ago when Kimi Räikkönen closed that margin down, it can still be done.
What are your thoughts on the last two races?
SV: You said it all. It can still be done. It is looking much better now. It
would be nice to have a couple more races left, but two races to go. We are
here to fight and the best thing we can do is win like we did today. I think
we have a great car, still improving, the boys back in the factory are
pushing very hard. We will see what we can do. We will focus on us, on
ourselves, and simply try to win. Whatever Rubens and Jenson are doing it is
in their hands, so I will keep on pushing.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Sebastian. A fantastic win for you. The car seemed to be tremendous. The
best car you have driven yet.
SV: It is the same I had all season. Obviously, as we expected, the corners
here, especially the first sector, suit our car. It will produce a lot of
downforce but it is still more than just quick corners. You have also got
some medium and low speed, so overall our car seemed to work very well.
Looking back to Singapore we had the pace. It is a totally different
circuit. A street circuit, very, very low sped, so overall it is a very good
car.
Q: All the drivers have said this weekend ‘what a great circuit.’ What does
it mean for you to win on a circuit that all drivers respect so much?
SV: To be honest I came into the last lap and I was regretting a bit that it
was over. I was enjoying the first sector for the last time. Fantastic.
Obviously I had clean air the whole race, so I was able to push at my own
pace just be aware of the tyres all the time. I didn’t want to run into
something funny, so I was listening to the tyres, to the car, but simply
fantastic. This circuit is amazing. If you get 53 laps in a row you
appreciate it even more. It is made by God’s hands, I would say. It is
fantastic, especially when you have a car that works so well especially in
all the high speed corners, so fantastic. I am very, very happy. Good points
today for the championship. I think it looks a bit better now, so a shame
only two races to go. But that’s life. We are here to fight, so let’s see.
Anything is still possible as you can see. It can change quickly.
Q: You were on pole position, but after qualifying when you saw the weights
did you think ‘I can do this.’
SV: Yes. Obviously, the biggest threat was lap one, the start. We knew that
we had good starts in the last couple of races, except Singapore where we
were on the dirty side. At the beginning of the season it was a little bit
of our weakness but again we made huge progress. We had a very, very good
start today. I kind of stayed in the middle observing Jarno on the right and
Lewis on the left and I was ready to react. Then when I saw that they are
about the same I simply stayed in the middle on the run down to turn one.
Lewis came surprisingly in the last bit into turn one. I saw a silver arrow
on my left. I had the inside of the corner, so that was very import and
after that clean air. The car was fantastic, so I was able to push lap by
lap and increase the gap bit by bit. A bit special also was, I think,
towards the end of the race. On the soft tyres I had a very good feeling. I
was pushing for one lap really hard to make sure I have got the fastest lap
and my engineer came on radio and said ‘don’t do anything stupid with the
tyres. Don’t destroy your tyres yet in case of a safety car or whatever.’
Two laps later the safety car was out. But it was still fine and I got a
very good restart and was able to pull away again. From start to finish a
very good race for us.
Q: Jarno, your best ever placing here in twelve races, especially as it
follows up on Timo’s second place last weekend as well.
JT: I think that, first of all, it’s a good result for the team, because in
two races we’ve got two podiums, two second positions and this just shows
how well the team is doing. It’s still pushing hard and still trying to
improve the car before the end of the season, so I’m really pleased for
them: for the engineers, the mechanics, everyone. The car was purely quick
from the beginning here, but obviously I couldn’t feel that we were as quick
as Vettel. He was untouchable during qualifying and also during the race.
Actually I thought I did an extremely good job in qualifying to put the car
on the front row and it was also good not to lose too many positions at the
start, because this has always been our weakest point so far this season. I
knew that I could keep up a good pace and actually I really enjoyed the
fight with Lewis. It was basically a qualifying race, lap after lap, trying
to close the gap, trying to stay close, trying to get him at the pit stop. I
nearly made it at the first one, and then at the second stop the guys in the
pits did a very good job and then I got him. Once I got him, I knew that I
was quicker, so I could pull away. I’m happy, even though, to be honest,
second is fantastic but I still wanted to win for Toyota.
Q: Was it a surprise to come out ahead of Lewis after the pit stop? Did the
engineers predict that?
JT: They kept me aware of the situation and I was closing the gap, trying to
close the gap, trying to push harder and harder, and I think Lewis was doing
the same, so the lap times were within a tenth of a second. We were both
really trying hard but it wasn’t easy. But nevertheless, that was my only
chance to try to gain a position and eventually I did it. This was all I had
to do. And at the last moment, after the safety car, I was very concerned,
because I thought that Lewis could get me at the restart but I managed to
get a bit of a gap at the restart, so it was enough to pull one lap and then
I was fine.
Q: Was there much difference in the tyres?
JT: Fortunately, we made the right choice, starting with the hard, then
continuing with the hard and then putting on soft tyres at the end because
the soft tyres changed the balance completely and they were not as quick as
the hard ones. I think this time we got it right, so we’re happy, but in
general the car has been competitive on both compounds.
Q: Lewis, it didn’t look as if Sebastian left you much room at the start…
LH: I had enough room there. I think it was fair. It wasn’t our best start,
but to be honest this year we haven’t really had great starts except for
when we get on the KERS button. We probably had our best start of the year
at the last race. We tried to repeat it again this weekend but these two
guys also got quite a good start. There’s not actually such a long straight
to turn one, to actually drag past one of them was not easy. But I tried,
but unfortunately the outside was not the place to be, he did a perfect job
to get in the middle.
Q: A surprise to be jumped at the second pit stop?
LH: No, not really. Inevitably, we needed every tenth that we could get. I
pulled the gap up to three seconds, I think, which was roughly what I
needed, and then on the last couple of laps just before my pit stop we had a
KERS problem and we were also just generally struggling with the car a
little bit, I wasn’t able to pull decent times out of the car with a lighter
car on a lighter fuel load. As Jarno was saying, we pretty much had a
qualifying battle, a tenth here, a tenth there, we kept shaving tenths off
each other. At the exit of my second pit stop also, I had a problem with my
gearbox and the thing went into neutral, so instead of switching off the pit
speed limiter and pulling away, I was in neutral for a hundred metres or
something like that, so I maybe lost a second or so there. Unfortunately the
time just slipped away from us, but they both did a great job here. We had a
great race. Congratulations to Sebastian and I look forward to the next
race; I think we should have a good one.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Jarno, as your future seems uncertain, does
it give you extra motivation, especially for these three races?
JT: No, my future is not uncertain.
Q: (Takaharu Kusuda – Book People Atlas) Sebastian, perfect victory, you had
a safe gap but then the safety car came out. What were you thinking, what
were you feeling when you were following the safety car, and when you passed
the finish line, what was your feeling as you gained the victory?
SV: Obviously, before the safety car phase, when you’re in the lead by
roughly ten seconds, it’s the last thing you hope for, because with ten laps
to go, anything can still happen but you kind of take it easy and bring the
car home. Obviously, when the safety car came out the gap was gone, and
during the safety car phase, it was all about – especially when you pass the
accident – not to pick up any debris and destroy your car or damage your
car, damage the tyres, make sure you don’t get a puncture. Other than that,
just try to cool the car, cool the engine, cool the brakes and make sure you
warm it up before you start going again, so before the restart, and make
sure your tyres are hot enough to start again, to be able to push right
away. Obviously, that’s crucial here. When you’ve got cold tyres, less tyre
pressure, then the car is bottoming more which can make it quite tricky but
I think we did a very good job, speaking to my engineer on the radio all the
time. Then a couple of laps more and I crossed the line, obviously looked to
the right to see the team and celebrate with them and looked to the left and
saw the grandstand, all the people going crazy, and to be honest, maybe I
was a little bit too slow for TV coverage on the way back to the pits, but I
didn’t care. There were people all around the circuit, it’s fantastic, you
know. You come here in the morning and people are already queuing on the way
to the paddock, just to say hi and to wave and wish you all the best. It’s
great. So I was enjoying the lap back to the pits and obviously screaming
over the radio and all that stuff, so very, very happy. When you cross the
line you start to realise what has happened and it’s fantastic, so very
pleased.
Q: (Marco Degli’Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, at this
stage of the championship, looking back at past races, which are the points
that you are most missing now?
SV: Looking back I think we have had a great season. Obviously, we should
have been more consistent in order to fight for the championship right now,
it was a little bit too much up and down. Sometimes things didn’t go our
way. That’s part of racing, I guess, it happens. We made some mistakes,
we’ve had some trouble during the season, it can happen, but obviously when
you want to fight properly for the championship, then they shouldn’t happen.
But nevertheless, I think it was a very good season so far. The car is
fantastic. We had three one-twos, there’s not much more to say. Looking at
the championship positions, we could have collected more points, as I said,
been more consistent, less up and down. In more than three or four places we
had the pace to win and we didn’t, so… Sometimes it goes in your favour,
other times it doesn’t.
Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) Sebastian, how do you believe the
next two race tracks may suit your car compared to the Brawns?
SV: Well, to be honest I was a little surprised to see the Brawns struggling
here. Generally, a good car is a good car, and as they have proven,
especially at the beginning of the season, their car is very competitive. I
think we were all a little bit surprised. Looking at us, looking at our car,
I think we should be in good shape for the next two races. Brazil is a track
we know, Abu Dhabi is unknown for everyone, so we don’t know, but I think
independent from the circuit type, we have always been competitive. Just
looking at the last two races, we’ve been on totally different circuits:
Singapore was rough, bumpy, a street circuit and very low speed and here,
high speed. I think especially the parts we got for Singapore and a little
bit here again, we made another step forward with our car, so it should be
good. I can tell you afterwards.
Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Sebastian, ten points for you
today, one for Jenson (Button); it was like a tailor-made result for you.
You haven’t given up the fight even though it was really, really tough after
the last race, so what kind of feeling does it give you? How much more
confidence do you have regarding the championship now?
SV: First of all, I’m very happy to be in Formula One. The cars are
fantastic, but more so, I’m here to challenge and in the end we want to find
out who is the best, the best in one race and the best over the whole
season. That’s why I am here, and ultimately that’s my target. As I’ve said
many times already, I will fight until the end, until the last breath. It
was obviously a good day for us, two more races like this and it’s looking
better, but we will see. I think our task from now on is pretty
straightforward: we have to push ourselves to the maximum and try to win,
get as many points as we can and everything else is not in our hands. You
can ask the man sitting next to me (Lewis Hamilton) thinking two years back.
I think Kimi had quite a big gap (to Lewis) with two races to go. Everyone
said to Lewis it will not be a problem, sitting in one of the most
competitive cars, just get a couple of points, but you can see sometimes, as
I said before, things just don’t work your way. Anything is possible. The
bottom line is that we’re here to fight.
Q: (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Sebastian, what else can you do to win the
championship? What is the next step you can take to win it?
SV: As I said before, it’s straightforward: win the next two races and then
see what the others are doing. We just have to look at ourselves, trying to
increase our own performance, get our maximum together, and if that’s good
enough to win, that’s very good, if it’s good enough for second we have to
finish second and not third, fourth, fifth or not at all. So we will see.
The next circuit we know, we were good there last year, this year we go
there with a stronger car, so it should be better and the last race in Abu
Dhabi is a bit unknown. I’ve driven it on the simulator a bit but it’s
difficult to know what to expect.
Q: (Nobuo Nakajima – Sankei Sports) Jarno, just after the race you were
enjoying it but seemed a little bit reluctant. If so, what is the reason:
the illness at the beginning of the week or because you couldn’t win in
front of the Japanese fans or you couldn’t before Mr Toyoda?
JT: I think my aim, when it comes to the season, was to win a race and so
far I didn’t manage it. I’m obviously happy to be on the podium, but I’ve
had many podiums but what I’m really missing at the moment is a win, a win
for my team and for Toyota. It’s obviously great to give them a fantastic
result in front of their home crowd, but I’m the kind of person who wants
more. I fixed my target and I’m extremely determined to get my target and
obviously I’m a little bit – I wouldn’t say disappointed – but I wish I
could fight for a win, but honestly, talking today, Sebastian was
untouchable. I realised that in qualifying but even though I didn’t give up
and I really tried to push for pole position at least but today there was
nothing I could do. Anyway, I should be happy, I’m not saying that (I’m
unhappy) but I’m missing a win. |
