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1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Felipe MASSA (Williams)
TV UNILATERAL
Nico, fastest in all practice sessions, fastest in all qualifying sessions,
I guess you would call that a perfect job? How are you feeling?
Nico ROSBERG: Perfect job only if it works out tomorrow, you know,
unfortunately. Up to now, of course, it’s been going well and it’s the best
place to be in tomorrow but of course I need to make it happen in the race,
unlike Austin for example.
Well, very well done. Lewis, a very small margin in the end, a matter of a
few hundredths of a second. It looks like you’ve been chasing Nico a little
bit all weekend but it seemed to come together; a little mistake possibly in
Turn 10 on that final run, but how important for you is it to win tomorrow’s
race, how important to just collect points?
Lewis HAMILTON: Just to comment on qualifying: it was great fun, Nico did a
great lap and I lost a little bit of time in Turn 10 and perhaps a tiny bit
in Turn One. But it was great – just having to keep on going out and
fighting. That’s what qualifying is all about and it should always be that
kind of gap, that close. So, really exciting and I hope people enjoyed that.
And then, of course pole position is the best place to start here but it’s a
long race tomorrow. It should be quite exciting with all the pit stops and
the weather we don’t really know, so I’m here, I want to win, just as much
as anyone else here, so I’m going to work as hard as I can tomorrow and hope
we get have a race at least.
Very well done and coming to you Felipe: third place for you and
tremendously well received by the Brazilian crowd here. Emotional for you?
Felipe MASSA: Yeah, very emotional. Very emotional to be here in Brazil and
to have a competitive car, to start in the top three. I didn’t use
everything I could from the car because I just got a lot of traffic, a lot
of problems on my last set, that my car wasn’t… we couldn't leave the engine
on, so it was a lot of problems to leave the garage, so I left in the last
moment with a lot of traffic around, with Magnussen. So I couldn’t improve
my lap time and everybody was improving a little bit on the second set and I
was not going to improve maybe enough to beat them but maybe to get very
close. So it was very tight between the team-mates. It was very tight
between them and very tight between me and Valtteri. But I think that’s a
good thing. I’m so happy and I hope that it’s just the beginning and the
start for tomorrow, a good result for us as well.
Very well done. Back to you Nico: the points situation obviously means you
need to win both the last two races…
NR: Not true.
Well, possibly, shall we say! You’ve been very calm all weekend. I wonder if
the pressure is different now you’re in the position you’re in, compared
with earlier in the season?
NR: Pressure: it’s pretty much similar. The adrenaline is there, the
tension, the excitement, it’s not been changing that much. I’m just here;
I’m going for it. I’m pushing myself to stay optimistic all the time.
Naturally I am optimistic also. Learn from Austin; I know what I need to do
better. So, from that point of view, good to go for tomorrow.
Q: Nico, as we said before, perfect run up to now. Tomorrow is what counts
and, of course, this is a particularly tricky first corner, isn’t it? I
guess it’s not ideal to have your team-mate alongside you because an awful
lot can go wrong in that first Senna S, can’t it? Talk us through your
thoughts.
NR: I’m sure the start is going to be great to watch but being on the clean
side of the grid, and it’s not such a long run down to Turn One, so that
should definitely be helpful.
Q: Lewis, your perspective on Turn One as an opportunity for you to get back
on terms, and also whether what happened here six years ago, winning your
title here, whether you’re going to be able to channel that into your
performance tomorrow.
LH: I’ve not really thought too much about the past here but, as I said, I’m
here to win. Going to try to get off the line as quick as possible tomorrow
and if I have a shot into Turn One tomorrow, I’ll take it. Otherwise, it’s a
long race, 71 laps here so there’s lots of… should be several, two or three
stops, so lots can go on during the race. So I’m generally excited and it’s
not the only opportunity off the start. Yeah, we just, as I’ve said at all
races, I just hope that we can race at least.
Q: Felipe, obviously that’s your best qualifying since Germany – but
particularly exciting for you, I guess, is the margin. How close you were to
these Mercedes around this track. Your thought on that and also on what you
can do in the race. Can you challenge them?
FM: Yeah. Definitely good qualifying today, very tight between us in our
team, me and Valtteri. Nico and Lewis as well. They were very, very close to
each other so it was not an easy qualifying. I managed to do a good lap
straight away but I just had a problem on the second set. Traffic, problem
with the engine that it was not firing up. The car is good. I would say the
car is competitive and we need to understand how the tyres will behave
tomorrow in the race. The weather as well – but I think… I will try
everything I can for my best race. I really hope that it can be possible to
have some opportunity, even with these two guys. I will try.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo Online) Nico, this weekend looks a lot like
the Austin weekend. But after your pit stop (in Austin) you suddenly lost
performance and Lewis overtook you. What happened exactly and do you think
the story will be different here?
NR: You say this looks similar to Austin. I don’t know why. Just pole
position. I understand what I needed to improve in Austin: I didn’t find my
rhythm in the race and I understand that, we looked at it and so I’m
confident that I can improve that for tomorrow. Anyways, it’s a different
situation: different track, here we’ve done more long runs, we even did a
long run this morning which will help, in exactly the same conditions as we
expect tomorrow. So all those things should be very helpful.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo Online) Lewis, would second place already be a
good result for you here, even with Nico winning the race? Will you be more
conservative or will you go for it, trying to get your sixth victory in a
row?
LH: I’m just repeating again: I’ve come here to win so the priority target
as always to try and win the race. Of course, on top of that, I want the
team to have another one-two which is going to be our target. We know the
Williams are very close. Hopefully we’ll have a good battle tomorrow.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, we have seen a Williams
which is very very fast in the last sector. Do you think that tomorrow you
could have the chance to beat Mercedes if you can manage to stay close to
them at the beginning of the race?
FM: I think we were very fast last sector but even also in the first sector.
We were just losing in the second sector which is where you need more
downforce, and it’s pretty clear what we’re missing a little bit during the
championship but it’s also true that we have a good car. We have a
competitive car and I don’t know if we will have the chance to be more
competitive than Mercedes tomorrow but I hope we will have the chance to be
in front of at least one of these guys and I will do everything I can. We
know that this race is very important for us and for me, as a Brazilian, and
therefore these people as well who are watching and supporting me, so I will
try everything I can.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, you mentioned the wrong
settings; did that happen by accident or didn’t you know or did you find out
during driving that other settings would have been better?
NR: No, it was not by accident. It’s a progression, from one run to the next
and you learn, with every run. But then the decision is, OK, I know my
settings are wrong but if I change them now, the car will be different and
that can be quite risky because in qualifying I’m really going flat out on
the absolute edge and when I’m on the edge and the car is different, it’s
not necessarily going to be quicker and it’s more risky so I just took the
decision to stay as it was and that was the right decision, so that worked
out well. |
