INDIA in F1

Category: Formula 1

  • One year for Ricciardo since replacing Karthikeyan

    Silverstone, 5 July 2012: Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo marks his anniversary as an F1 racing driver this weekend.

    After beginning the 2011 season as a Friday morning driver for Toro Rosso, the Australian graduated to a seat with HRT for the second half of the year, replacing Narain Karthikeyan. Now returning to circuits where he has prior F1 experience will, says Daniel, provide a boost to his season. +

    “Driving on Friday mornings for Toro Rosso in the first half of 2011 was useful but more is generally better. I think racing for HRT and doing all of those laps means from now on I can hit the ground running on Friday morning: instead of trying to learn the circuit I might be getting on top of balance issues or developing the car right from the off. I think it speeds up your weekend. Maybe it doesn’t make you quicker over one lap but you’ll go into the important parts of the weekend with a better setup and therefore more opportunities in the race.”

    There has been a perception much-voiced in recent weeks that the younger drivers in the F1 field struggle against their slightly older rivals by virtue of not having had access to the thousands of kilometres of testing that were standard practice before the testing ban came into force. Ricciardo acknowledges the difference – but argues technological advances have taken up some of the slack.

    “It’s probably not as easy as having all of that testing but I think we’re coping alright. The simulator has taken over a lot of what we can’t do testing; it has helped us understand a bit more about the car, about what effects a setup change has. It isn’t as good but it’s been good enough and the evidence is guys like di Resta, Kobayashi, Pérez all seem to have coped pretty well.

    “The junior formulae are very competitive too in the modern era, and the cars are very advanced – probably closer to F1, which makes the step shallower. It’s still a big step – just maybe not as big as it was five or ten years ago.”

    Moving back to Toro Rosso for the 2012 season, Ricciardo scored points immediately, finishing ninth in the Australian Grand Prix. Since then Toro Rosso have had a fallow period and have not scored since Malaysia.

    ends

  • Very difficult to predict anything: Bruno Senna

    Silverstone, 5 July 2012: Williams come to their home grand prix with an update package and ambition to improve – but at the same time their drivers are looking at the sky.

    While the update has been described as including some big changes Bruno Senna, speaking in the FIA press conference, chose to describe it as “bits and pieces.”

    “I feel really happy that we’re bring updates because everybody else is also moving forward,” said Senna. “We have a few bits and pieces; we have wings and pieces of the bodywork that will be different, so it’s always hard to quantify how much that will improve the car, but every little helps as we’ve seen in Barcelona when Pastor won. There was a bit of an update there. So, for sure, it’s going to be the case of trying to maximise the package but the weather is very changeable here and that can mean everything or it can mean nothing.”

    Senna argued that racing at his team’s home grand prix will not have any effect, and that the fierce competitiveness that exists on the F1 grid at the moment makes it very difficult to predict any outcomes. “Listening to everybody here, everybody is very optimistic about their chances on this track because everybody seems to think that their cars should be well suited to this type of track so I guess we’re going to see another tough weekend with very close battles,” he said.

    “Of course we’re happy with [our car]. It’s difficult for a team to make such a leap from a difficult season [last year] as Williams has done. So it’s very encouraging for us to have a car that is consistently in the points. On the other hand we always want more. We always want the car to be faster and faster, so we keep pushing the team and the team keeps pushing us to improve. We are always trying to find the magic button to make the car go faster.”

    ends

  • Red Bull pace not guaranteed: Vettel

    Silverstone (UK)

    Sebastian Vettel after Thursday practice in Silverstone. FIA photo

    , 5 July 2012: Sebastian Vettel has said that there is no guarantee that the superior pace Red Bull Racing showed at the European Grand Prix in Valencia will translate to Silverstone.

    In Valencia a fortnight ago, Vettel landed pole position with a lap almost half a second quicker than anyone else, and in the race was quick enough to open a 10-second gap over the chasing pack in the first stint of the grand prix.

    Vettel’s dominance ended with an alternator failure after 33 laps, but the fear for Red Bull Racing’s rivals is that the team will be even quicker at high-speed Silverstone, especially in light of the fact that it is expected to bring more updates this weekend. Vettel, though, warned against such an expectation.

    “I would be very careful with that [thinking],” he said today. “We had a good race in Valencia and we seemed to be able to make a difference straight away. This is a new track, a different track and has different characteristics. We will have to confirm the feeling we had in Valencia, the pace. Also rain is on the way. It should be a challenging weekend for everybody.

    “I think we did a step forward [in Valencia], we were very competitive,” he admitted. “Everything just seemed to work. We felt comfortable form the first session onwards, up to the point where we had the failure and had to stop. That can make a big difference to the whole weekend if you find an extra tenth or two. If you take those tenths away then it might look completely different again. We had a very strong weekend but we need to confirm it here.”

    Vettel said, however, that he is looking forward to the British Grand Prix and said it is a circuit he enjoys.

    “I won in 2009 and it was very emotional,” he said. “So hopefully we can get back to that level. The crowd here is extremely fair. Obviously they’re cheering for the British drivers, which everyone can understand, but they are very fair and they respect and appreciate if someone else has a good race. So, all in all, I’m looking forward to the weekend despite the weather forecast.”

  • Sometimes single-stop strategies are risky: Paul

    DRIVERS – Vitaly PETROV (Caterham), Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus), Bruno SENNA (Williams), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Paul DI RESTA (Force India).

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Vitaly, your thoughts on the updates that the team brought to Valencia, where you ran very competitively, and I think you have more here as well.

    Vitaly PETROV: Actually we bring not so many updates to Valencia, just front wing and, slightly, bodywork. But here, yes, we bring new back bodywork, new exhaust, some front wings and probably the rear wing, so we have quite a big update here.

    Where do you think that can bring you? Do you have any idea? Can you be in the points? That, obviously, has to be the major aim.

    VP: First of all we need to see how these upgrades will work. This weekend we know the weather will be not fantastic it. It’s a disappointment. Also our straight-line test, we didn’t do much work because of heavy rain. But you know all the 24 cars are quite close to each other and quite competitive, so if we gain something definitely we will be, maybe, more competitive than in the last race. So I hope these upgrades will give us some good feedback and we can fight with the cars in front.

    Romain, first of all, congratulations on you marriage, week before last I think. In Valencia, you led the grand prix. People forget sometimes that you haven’t been a front runner for long, that you haven’t done that many grands prix. How exciting was that? And what did you learn from leading the race?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Well, same position as Valencia, behind Fernando. It was a very good weekend, a very good grand prix. It’s nice to be able to fight for the front with Lewis, Fernando with Sebastian Vettel, all the big guys. We have a car, which is very competitive, and the factory is doing a fantastic job. It’s good to be here, good to be able to get a lot of experience by fighting with the big teams and the top drivers and hopefully at the next one we get a little bit more luck and I can got to first place.

    Do you feel you have made a lot of progress this year? Do you feel you have matured almost?

    RG: I think you progress every time you’re in the car. It’s difficult with no testing to improve yourself so every race weekend you learn something new, in terms of set-up, in terms of driving, in terms of tyre management or whatever, and for sure when you fight at the front you learn even more than when you are at the back.

    Bruno, in a couple of weeks’ time you’re going to be picking up the Trofeo Bandini. What does it mean to you to have won that trophy?

    Bruno SENNA: It’s very special. You know that Lewis has taken it before, Seb and Nico. So there are quite a few drivers that are successful now have won this in the past, so it’s very encouraging for me that they see potential in me – especially from last year as that was such a tough situation to be in. It’s going to be a special event and I’m looking forward to being there.

    We can see that the Williams car this year has performance. But are you happy with it? Are there any issues you have with the car?

    BS: Of course we’re happy with it. It’s difficult for a team to make such a leap from a difficult season [last year] as Williams has done. So it’s very encouraging for us to have a car that is consistently in the points. On the other hand we always want more. We always want the car to be faster and faster, so we keep pushing the team and the team keeps pushing us to improve. We are always trying to find the magic button to make the car go faster than the other ones.

    Lewis, we saw in Valencia that Red Bull seem to be really quick, I don’t think there’s any disputing that, but have McLaren got an answer to that, because we see that they’re bringing update to this race?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, we definitely have some upgrades, so I’m really, really excited to see how they behave on the car and if they actually deliver what we think they’re going to deliver. But whether or not… I don’t know if it’s as big as what they brought at the last race, but who knows. I think our car generally goes a little bit better on high-speed circuits than it does at low-speed circuits, so fingers crossed it will be a little bit stronger this weekend.

    You’ve had so many instances where you’ve been so close to scoring big points this season and Valencia to some extent was the same again. Are you still changing your attitude and working towards maximising on those sorts of race?

    LH: I haven’t changed anything from the beginning of the season – everything’s still the same. Things don’t always go according to plan, but that’s life. I’m excited now that we have another race and that we have so many races ahead of us and that we still have plenty of opportunities to continue fighting for this championship and that’s what racing is all about.

    Fernando, Spain have had a rollercoaster of various things: Nadal going out of Wimbledon, you winning in Valencia, Spain winning the European Championships – how has that effected you, or does it not affect you at all?

    Fernando ALONSO: It’s not affecting. You watch TV. Obviously I prefer Nadal wins and the Spain football team wins but it’s not changing your preparation, so your approach for the next race. You are concentrated in your job, speaking with the team, doing some simulator work. You go to bed a little bit more happy or sad but nothing changes.

    You were a winner here last year, at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, won the last grand prix at Valencia as well – but two very different circuits I would have thought. How do you see your changes this weekend?

    FA: Looking at the characteristics of the circuit, Silverstone should be a little bit better for us and suit our car characteristics a little bit better. As we saw at the beginning of the year in the high-speed corners and also as we saw in Mugello, that the car was performing quite well. Hopefully we see a good Ferrari here this weekend, with me and Felipe. And we see, I think, that it also all depends on the weather. We know that here anything can happen, or more rain than dry at times we will have, looking at the forecast, so we need to be ready for all: we need to be prepared for any track conditions at any time and try to have a smooth qualifying – and that will not be easy when the weather is changing, so you need to be in the right moment on the track to do the lap. And then the race, you know, straight to score as many points as possible – as I said, hopefully the car is performing well here.

    Paul, Valencia obviously not such a good qualifying but a reasonable race, I don’t know how you would have looked at that. Really, can you improve on that?

    Paul di RESTA: I think Valencia was by far our strongest performance as a team. You have to be relatively confident that hopefully you can carry that into this weekend. We had the potential to be much higher up in qualifying; a mistake in Q3 by me cost that. But we set ourselves quite a risky target in the race and achieved a one-stop strategy, the only car that did that. Obviously the safety car compromised us a lot, so not ideal, but the positive side is that we picked up points. And really that’s key when you’re a midfield team: to capitalise on those small points that are out there to get.

    When you do a one-stop strategy like that, what is it like for the driver? Are you holding yourself back all the time, is it frustrating?

    PdR: I won’t go into the details of it but it is certainly a different approach. It starts quite early on in the weekend with what your strategy guys come up with and obviously your setup drives you forward that way but I think our car performed well on low and high fuel in Valencia. It was just risky whether that worked. In hindsight, maybe we’d do the race a bit different if we went back – but certainly to come away with a double points finish for the team, we can be very happy. We both ended up doing different things.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Romain Grosjean, you prefer heat, just like your car, what do you expect this weekend with the rain?

    RG: Well, we have to see. This track puts a lot of energy into the tyres so the heat shouldn’t be a problem as it was in Canada, for example, but we have to see if it’s raining or if it’s dry – as Fernando says, take the best chance to get on track at the right time and try to analyse the weather forecast. It shouldn’t be as bad as it has been on the cold conditions.

    Q: (Simon Cass – Daily Mail) Question for Fernando and for Lewis, you’ve been extremely successful, both of you, in wet races over the last few years: between you I think you’ve won, could be half. Just tell me why you think that is, why you think you’re so successful when conditions are like that and what extra demands it brings to a driver?

    FA: I don’t know really. I think it’s a combination of factors, one will be for sure how competitive is your car. I think either Lewis or me, we’ve been normally lucky to drive in our career good cars and winning cars, so in dry and wet conditions, normally it’s a help, for sure. And then I think it’s the experience that you have and how many wet races you do. Probably with Lewis, racing here in the early categories it rains a lot, and it rains a lot in my region, in Spain. It normally rains a lot of the time, so same also with the experience. The first races I did in Formula One in wet conditions, ten years, eleven years ago, I make a lot of mistakes that now I try to avoid. So the more races you do, the better you feel.

    LH: I don’t really have anything else to add to that. I think it’s just a mixture of things coming together on those races. I think we’ve been very fortunate, I would say, to drive for good teams and have good cars in those circumstances.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Lewis, just following on from that, one of your best memories in Formula One, of course, was winning here in 2008. What was the secret to success that day because everybody else was spinning off but you won that race by over a minute?

    LH: I really still don’t know until today why we were so quick that weekend and didn’t really have any problems at all during the race. I think I had one moment when I went straight on at Abbey, maybe, but otherwise it was quite a smooth race, and I really still don’t know, today, why it all came together, but it was obviously a combination of what I was just commenting on: the tyres, the good pit stops, the good call strategies and maximising the grip on a track which I’d learned for a few years before I’d even got to know in Formula One, where that grip was and I was able to put it into play.

    Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) I think, with the exception of one man, all five of you have lived in the UK at some point in your career. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about that, what it’s like for a young ambitious driver growing up in the UK?

    BS: Very wet.

    PdiR: I think it is where home is. Obviously Lewis and I are from this country, it wasn’t wet in Scotland, I don’t think. I suppose there’s no place like it. It’s where your family is. I suppose memories: when you’re a child, travelling all over the UK, taking part in many go-kart races. I wouldn’t change it, I don’t see why I should. It’s got me to where I am at the moment.

    LH: Generally, I think us Brits should be pretty good in the wet. I think a lot of my success in the wet has come down to a lot of the weather we have here. A lot of my races up in Scotland – Larkhall, Rowrah, all over the country – all the experiences I have had in karting, they have all contributed to the success that I have nowadays, so I’m quite grateful for the changeable conditions throughout my career and also grateful for good weather nowadays.

    VP: I agree with what they said.

    RG: Never lived here.

    FA: My English is not very good, but in 2001 it was zero English. It was not an easy time. The supermarket was not easy.

    Q: (Adam Scriven – Racing Post) Fernando, after a difficult winter for the team, you must be delighted with the season so far. How much better is the car now than it was then, and how much more improvement do you think there is to come?

    FA: Yeah, we are definitely quite happy with the situation now in terms of points, at least, because in terms of performance we know that there are still a few cars quicker than our car, so we are still not completely happy but the job that the team has done over the last three or four months has been amazing, recovering the maybe 1.5s or something like that that we were off the pace in Australia. So this is good news, not only for this championship or for this moment, but also for the near future of the team, because we faced some difficult times with the wind tunnel correlation etc which was not the best, also for the next projects. Now, definitely, we are in a good direction. There is still a lot to come from the team in the next couple of races and in the next couple of months, in terms of performance in the car, so hopefully they work as they are working now.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere Della Sera) Fernando, what is the value of the advantage that you have in the championship?

    FA: I think that regarding the points, it’s for sure not a situation that maybe we were expecting because leading the championship is good news for us, but we are also very honest with ourselves and as I said, now there are a few cars that are quicker than us at the moment and we need to close that gap in the next couple of races if we want to fight for the championship. If not, we know that sooner or later they will be in front, if we don’t work better than the others. We are in race eight or nine of twenty, so at the moment championship positions or points are important but it’s not our main priority. As I said, first thing is to improve the car.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Paul, what is the situation with your manager now, because I see reports about Lewis’s Dad no longer working with you. Is that correct?

    PdiR: I think everything’s been said that has to be said. I confirm that we’re not working together. I think it’s been reported that we’re no longer working together, so that is the matter at the moment.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Romain, your first period in Formula One, a couple of years ago, didn’t go too well, and only a few drivers actually get a second chance at Formula One but you did and now you’re a strong candidate to become yet another winner this year. My question is: looking back, was it a mistake to come into Formula One at that time and take the risk of failing or did it help you this second time around?

    RG: Let’s turn it a different way: can you say no one gets a chance in Formula One. The answer is no so it was not a mistake, it was as it was and it was a good experience being with Fernando in the team, it taught me a lot and all the experience I got in 2009 is now in my pocket. I think then it was a little bit of a difficult time but I’m back today, very happy to be and very proud to be part of Lotus and everything I’ve learned is very important today.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Paul,  I appreciate you don’t want to talk about the reasons behind your split with Anthony but can you at least explain what it means to you going forward now, whether you’re looking at other options: a new manager and in particular bearing in mind that this is the time of year when a driver will look towards negotiating a new contract  with other teams etc? How is that going to affect you now without a manager?

    PdiR: At the moment I’m just fully focused on my racing. At the end of the day, it’s the results that count for me and what’s going to drive me forward. We’ve had a good year up until now. We need to continue that progress. The focus this weekend is to have a good race. It’s obviously a big weekend for me to have a lot of friends and family around, a lot of support. Being one of the three Brits, I got a feeling for what it is like to have a country behind you at this venue, and the atmosphere is electric. Hopefully we can put on a good show for them and certainly encourage them to get out in their rain jackets because it looks like they’re going to get wet.

    Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN ) Romain, what are the latest updates you and the team have received about the engine failure (in Valencia) and also how does that affect the sense of reliability, because you had a big loss, you and Vettel, you were fighting relevant things like winning a race? And also, do you already know if the car had something to do with it, other parts of the car maybe, the way the car works? What is the news on that?

    RG: Well, I think the best person to explain that will be the engineer at Renault Sport F1 but no, we have been trying to analyse what has happened. There are a few ideas on things that have been changed since the last race and hopefully it was a one shot experience that we are not going to have again. But on the other hand, it’s the first time that we’ve had a reliability issue. It was a ‘stupid’ issue, not a big deal, so it should be sorted out by now, and we shouldn’t have any more.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Romain, you said that you were fighting with big guys, with three World Champions. How far are you from them, what are you missing, what don’t you have to be a winner?

    RG: At least one World Championship. The more you race, the more you have experience. It’s only my first complete season. I’m in a good team so I’m lucky to have a good car. I’m very pleased to fight at the front but in terms of results, I’m missing at least one World Championship.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Bit of a sensitive question but to anyone who would like to answer: obviously we had the accident suffered by Maria de Villota on Tuesday, I’m sure you’re all aware of that. Just your thoughts on that, first of all, if anyone would like to pass on any thoughts and secondly, obviously it was a straightline aero test. I’m sure you’ve all probably done that at some time in the past. Is there anything that can be learned from what Maria went through, going forward in terms of safety and that kind of thing?

    FA: Obviously we are very worried for this situation because we are still waiting for some more news. We only know what you all know and there are still some difficult days until the situation is completely clear. The operation has passed completely etc. Sad days, for sure, completely shock when you hear the news and how what happened is possible. Obviously we don’t know all the information it’s difficult to talk about the reasons etc until we know the official version but at the moment, it’s so difficult to imagine how this can happen.

    LH: I don’t know her personally, but when I read about it I was absolutely devastated for her and for her family. I think it’s very very tragic and myself and my team, we send on our warmest wishes her way and hope that she has a speedy recovery, hope that things get better.

    Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) On a lighter note, when I look through the preview press releases, a lot of the drivers spoke about the fans in the UK being very knowledgeable. I was wondering if any of you can think of any interaction you’ve had with a fan here that made you really step back and think ‘wow, this person really  knows what they’re talking about’?

    PdiR: I think something that is quite unique here is that a lot of the Formula One teams are based around this part of the country and based in Britain, the majority of them, and obviously you get a lot of factory staff, people that are involved in the manufacturing side, smaller companies that are involved, and it’s nice to see the support and see that people are as dedicated to Formula One as they can be. It’s a shame that obviously they can’t get a bit closer to see the design work that they do but the support is well-respected by us.

    Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN) Bruno, we heard that Williams are bringing a lot of updates. Pastor was saying earlier that he feels a lot of pressure because it’s Williams’s home race and there are the updates, and a lot of expectation also because he has already won a Grand Prix, so I wonder how you feel about it, and also if you could explain exactly what you’re bringing here, because you’ve been testing it since Mugello, if I’m right?

    BS: I feel really happy that we’re bring updates because everybody else is also moving forward. We have a few bits and pieces. We have wings and pieces of the bodywork that will be different, so it’s always hard to quantify how much that will improve the car, but every little helps as we’ve seen in Barcelona when Pastor won. There was a bit of an update there. So, for sure, it’s going to be the case of trying to maximise the package but again, as Paul said before, the weather is very changeable here and that can mean everything or it can mean nothing. But for sure, it’s the team’s home race, we want to do well, it would be great to finish with both cars in good points-scoring positions. I think that listening to everybody here, everybody is very optimistic about their chances on this track because everybody seems to think that their cars should be well suited to this type of track so I guess we’re going to see another tough weekend, very close battles. Hopefully we can score some good points from there. There is always pressure on a driver, pressure is there every single time we’re in the car.

    Ends

  • Maria de Villota loses her right eye, still critical

     The medical team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge has begun the long process of treatment of severe facial injuries and head suffered by Mary. The intervention began in the afternoon yesterday and Mary is still in post-operative phase. His condition is very serious but stable.
    John Booth, Team Principal of Marussia F1 Team, with the consent and support of Mary’s family wishes to give the following information, as complete as possible at this time, the evolution of Mary:
    “Maria has left the operating room at Addenbrooke’s Hospital this morning after a long operation to treat the serious injuries sustained in the accident on the airfield at Duxford yesterday.”
    “We are grateful to the medical team for the attention it has received Mary and her family would like to thank the team of neurological and plastic surgery. However, with great sadness, we report that Mary has lost his right eye. “
    “The health of Mary and support her family are our priorities right now. Your family is in the hospital and are doing everything we can to assist you.
    “We ask all who are interested in the evolution of the state of Mary that have the necessary patience and understanding. We will provide more information when appropriate and respecting the situation of the family.
    “While we wish to acknowledge the work of rescue services Duxford Airfield, which were in service yesterday, following the usual procedures for tests of Formula 1.
    “In regard to the accident, we are conducting a thorough investigation of what happened, it’s not over.
    “Ultimately, we are overwhelmed by the number of messages of support to Mary, his family and the team we have received and wish to express our greatest gratitude for that”

  • Schumy back on podium after 6 years

    Valencia, 25 June 2012: A driver is as good as a car, might not be true always. But definitely the car influences the results and it is an accepted fact in Formula One, the pinnacle of motorsport. Seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher finished third in an incident filled race on Sunday but was called by the stewards. However, the Vodafone Mercedes McLaren driver kept his first podium finish since 2006, despite a post-race investigation into the possibility that he had not slowed down for yellow flags during the European Grand Prix in Valencia, adds an FIA release.

    The veteran racer had driven superbly from 12th on the grid to third and had hailed his best result since first in Shanghai in 2006 as a “deeply enjoyable” moment. However, the celebrations had to be put on hold as the Mercedes driver was summoned before the race stewards over a possible infringement.

    After meeting with the seven-time champion and Mercedes’ representatives, though, the stewards were satisfied that data from the car showed the German had slowed significantly in the instance in question and his third place stands.

    Schumacher only rose to the podium position in the latter stages of the race after he made a late stop on lap 41 for new soft tyres. Afterwards, as the leaders’ older prime tyres began to lose performance, Schumacher carved his way through the pack.

    And when Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado clashed two laps from home, Schumacher suddenly found himself third, though afterwards the Mercedes driver had no idea of his position.

    “I didn’t actually think about a podium at all at the end of the race,” he said. “It was crossing the line that I asked my guys ‘where did we finish?’ I saw [Mark] Webber’s pit board, and close to the end it showed him eighth and [then] seventh and I knew I was one place ahead of that. And then boys told me ‘that’s third, that’s podium’.

    “I can’t believe it! It’s something I didn’t really expect,” he added. “Being pretty heavily involved for most of the race in some kind of battling and then having Webber all the time on my tail and needing to fight forward but needing to pay attention to the back, that was very exciting. But that’s what I’m here for: to be excited and those guys got me excited, no doubt. And hearing finally the message P3 – yeah, that’s a sweet finish.”

    Schumacher admitted, too, that he result had only been made possible by a late-race strategy change.

    “We obviously had a late decision converting from a one-stop to a two-stop strategy, which meant we had good tyres towards the end of the race,” he said. “Other people either did a one or an early two-stop strategy and therefore struggled by the end because they had no tyres left.

    “All weekend, I predicted this to be a difficult one for us and it started to be difficult yesterday in qualifying, mainly because of my own mistakes and to recover from where we are, getting to third position is just awesome,” he concluded. “The team and myself have been criticised here and there, particularly lately, and this is the best way to answer criticism, to go back and deliver as we did today, and therefore I’m proud, thankful and very excited.”

    Team-mate Nico Rosberg also profited from the strategy and, remarkably, rose from 11th to sixth in the final two laps.

    “That was a really exciting race,” he said. “After the restart, I thought I would end up finishing out of the points, because I had the oldest tyres and therefore no grip, which made it very hard to defend. We had planned to try a one-stop strategy but had to convert to two stops, and thanks to the strategy guys, we were on fresh tyres when everybody else was struggling.

    “I was in P12 on lap 48 and P6 at the end, so it clearly worked and we are very happy with a good team result after such a chaotic race, with two cars in the top six. A great result for Michael with his podium and I am happy to score some more nice points.”

    ends

  • It’s a very special feeling: Alonso

    FIA Post-race Press Conference

    Alonso wins after starting from 11th place at Valencia on Sunday. FIA File photo of Sat qualifiers.

    DRIVERS

    1 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

    2 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus)

    3 – Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Three former Ferrari world champions on the podium but Fernando this is a pretty good weekend to be a Spanish sportsman called Alonso. A fabulous victory for yourself.

    Fernando ALONSO: Yeah. It’s difficult to express in words what is the feeling now. Winning a home grand prix is something unique – a very special feeling. I had the opportunity to do this in Barcelona in 2006 with Renault and I still remember that day perfectly. And now I did the same here in Valencia, with this special team, Ferrari, with all the grandstand full of red colour and Spanish flags. Here now, with the Euro football championship also, there is a lot of Spanish atmosphere inside all of us. Feeling very proud to be a Spanish sportsman at the moment and winning in Spain this race is probably the best victory I ever felt in terms of emotions. Nothing maybe compares to this one.

    You joined in the celebrations a little early Fernando. Why did you stop your car, just to take part in the party?

    FA: No, no. We had a problem with the car and we stopped it. It was the right place maybe because we had two grandstands there. It took a little bit of time for the medical car to arrive and we had eight or 10 minutes of all the people saying things about me, saying congratulations. They want me to jump. You know, fun and games and we enjoy a little bit those minutes.

    Kimi, it’s a third podium position of the season for you. Was a victory possible for you today or were the tyres just not there at the end?

    Kimi RAIKKONEN: I think everybody had quite old tyres at that point. I just didn’t have enough tyres. I had enough tyres to get past Hamilton on I think it was the second-last or third-last lap. We didn’t really have the speed to challenge for the win. I think on the start already I got a good start but got blocked by Maldonado in the first right-hander and lost quite a few places because of that. I was a bit behind already at that point. We made a good recovery from that position. I had quite a hard fight with people and overtaking and then second place. It’s OK of course, but not what we wanted.

    Michael, they say you can’t overtake on this track but your saw your fair share today. Welcome back to the podium. At what stage did you think this podium was a possibility?

    Michael SCHUMACHER: I didn’t actually think about a podium at all at the end of the race. It was crossing the line that I asked my guys ‘where did we finish?’ I saw Webber’s pit board and close to the end it showed him eighth and seventh and I knew I was one place ahead of that one. And then boys told me ‘that’s third, that’s podium’. I can’t believe that! It’s something I didn’t really expect. You sort of lose count, because I was pretty busy in the last stages of the race, plus Maldonado and Hamilton had their issue. Probably normally one minus one would give us the three but I lose count at that stage.

    It’s moments like these that brought you back to the sport I’m sure.

    MS: Yeah, it’s those moments that definitely you enjoy deeply. It’s just a wonderful feeling to back after such a long time. We were a couple of times close to it. It happened in a pretty spectacular way on a track where it is difficult to pass but due to various strategies and differences on track it was pretty exciting and that’s obviously the best way, if you manage the way I did today to jump the podium unexpectedly makes you extra happy.

    Finally, back to you Fernando. You described this as your best victory. After the disappointment of qualifying to the euphoria or today. How do you explain that, or is it just Formula One in 2012?

    FA: That’s Formula One. That’s the best thing we can say. It’s unpredictable. Good results. Still a sport. Sport is about that. Sport is about the ups and downs. Yesterday, we had a tough moment. We were said not being in Q3. But you can never give up because anything can happen in sport in general and maybe more in Formula One. There are many factors inside, there are the cars, brakes, engines – anything can have a failure in the race. There are a lot of things we need to take care: the strategies, the start, the overtaking, manoeuvres. When you put all of these in one thing you have a Formula One grand prix. Today, we had an amazing race, amazing start, some good fights, I think I remember six or seven overtakings where it was very close, we touched each other. I touched Grosjean in the restart. All of those little moments can go on the wrong side and you finish the race in the wall, or you can be the winner at the end. And today, we had all the good factors with us and the luck and we have to enjoy this.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Fernando, well done. Tell us about the pleasure of winning here at home in Spain.

    FA: I don’t know what to say really. It’s an amazing feeling. As I said in the other press conference I still can remember Barcelona in 2006, now, so years after the win. So probably I will have better and better memories of today with time. Right now, it’s just too many things on my feelings and too many thanks to give to all the team, all the fans, all the support that I felt all weekend. Especially yesterday after the qualifying, you never think that you can do a good result or that you can fight for the podium or something like that. When you find yourself third in the race after the safety car, I said: ‘hopefully there is the chequered flag now and I enjoy this podium celebration.’ Two laps later I overtake Grosjean on the restart and you think again ‘hopefully the race finishes now’. Then Vettel stopped and it was a very long race until the end and, yeah, I enjoyed so much this moment. But as I said, difficult to out in words what I’m feeling.

    Were you worried that the tyres were going to drop off at the end just as they did in Canada?

    FA: No, they did. I was not worried. They did. They did, about eight laps from the end. I said to the team ‘the tyres are finished, we need to do something’. They said: ‘wait one more sector because they are not quicker than you at this moment’. The next sector they were the same as me. So they said: ‘wait one more lap to see how much quicker they are’ and the next lap they were the same time as us. Wait another lap and wait another and then it was three laps from the end and they were in the same lap times and we went until the end. But the tyres were as finished as in Canada but it was for everybody this time.

    You mentioned a problem with the car at the end. Was that something that was also affecting the closing laps?

    FA: No, I don’t think so. The car felt OK and then on the in-lap I had an emergency call to stop the car. So it was feeling OK.

    So do you not know what was wrong with the car?

    FA: No, I had too many things to enjoy in that moment to ask what happened in the car.

    Kimi, quite a busy race for you too, what with battles with Maldonado and Hamilton.

    KR: Yeah, I got a pretty good start but then in the first right-hander, the little kink, I got blocked by Maldonado so I had to back off. I lost quite a few places there, so at that point onwards it was a case of trying to catch up and try to get past people. I managed to pass some, but it was difficult to pass today. I got sight of Maldonado a few times but he pushed me wide. I tried and tried and then in the end I managed to get past some people and after the safety car I managed to get past people also. On the restart, I lost a place to Hamilton. I just got too much wheelspin out of the corner. It was quite a busy race actually. Then, when I was in the third place, a few cars retired and I thought I would try to save the tyres a bit and try to get Hamilton at some point. I saw him sliding a bit. So I think it was the second-last lap or something but I got him in the end. OK the result second after all things we went through in the race but of course you’re never happy until you win. And for the team, bad luck. It would have been much nicer to have both cars on the podium.

    And your tyres. Were they shot at the end?

    KR: Yeah, the rear tyres were pretty bad. Especially in the middle of the circuit. There were three or four corners that were really bad. The rest was not so bad. I think everybody had similar issues.

    Michael those last few laps – you took on new tyres 16 laps from the end – must have been amazing, especially with yellow flags and all sorts of things going on. What was it like? Tell us.

    MS: Yeah. Certainly I wasn’t aware I was going in the direction of a podium. Even crossing the line I wasn’t aware at that stage. But, being pretty heavily involved for most of the race in some kind of battling and then having Webber all the time on my tail and needing to fight forward but needing to pay attention to the back, that was very exciting. But that’s what I’m here for: to be excited and those guys got me excited, no doubt. And hearing finally the message P3 – yeah, that’s a sweet finish to an unexpected end.

    Particularly because you and Nico were outside the points. He finished about sixth, picking up about four places in the last few laps. Extraordinary race for you guys.

    MS: Yeah, we obviously had a late decision converting from a one-stop to a two-stop strategy, which meant we had good tyres towards the end of the race, when other people either did a one or an early two-stop strategy and therefore struggled by the end because they had no tyres left.

    And all those points must be very welcome.

    MS: Yeah, I guess it has changed my count a little bit, from the two points I had so far. They’re more than welcome.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, an amazing victory but yesterday you sort of predicted what could happen today, when asked if you were sad or angry, you said ‘well, the result is no good, there are two people who are challenging me for the leadership. Vettel and Hamilton are in front but we will have to wait until tomorrow.’ You never know what can happen, and that happened.

    FA: Yeah, it was another example of Fridays and Saturdays in Formula One, which are OK, are fun, are good to make some grid order in terms of  performance of the car and it’s good to check where you are exactly, but at the end of the day, Friday practice is one thing, when we all normally test different parts of the car, and then Saturday is OK, it’s much better and easier to start on the first rows of the grid, for sure, to make a clean race, but until the chequered flag, anything can happen and until today at two o’ clock we had quite a bad weekend and now we have had a very good weekend. It’s something that we need to remember, always, that until the last lap in the race, we need to be positive and to trust in ourselves.

    Q: (Jaime Rodriguez– El Mundo) Fernando, the last time that we saw you cry was in Abu Dhabi 2010. Now you have been crying again. Can you explain the atmosphere and the team’s hard work over the past month?

    FA: No, it was more for my own feelings and the people in the grandstands. I know it’s not the best time in Spain at the moment, with the crisis and all the problems that people have. To come to a Grand Prix you have to make something extra to come here, so there are families who have made long trips to come here, they sleep in the car or in a caravan or whatever, they try to enjoy the race and yesterday… it’s not that you feel sad, we didn’t deliver what they were probably expecting, so today I think we paid back a little bit – only a little bit – the support that they gave us and all the problems that they are facing, all the  worries that the Spanish people are facing at this time, together with the football team – yesterday we saw all the flags in the windows and on the street etc so there is some kind of pride in being Spanish right now with the sport: with Nadal, with the Spanish football team etc and I felt that I needed to do something and today is a very emotional day.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, now you obviously believe in this title because of two impressive victories and some luck this year which you haven’t had in other years. Do you believe in this title?

    FA: I think we always need to be cautious and we always need to be honest with ourselves first and with our supporters, saying that we will fight, will work day and night to be competitive and to fight for the title which is the ultimate goal for Ferrari. Any championship in which we participate, the championship should be the target, regarding the history and the level of the team. But yesterday we were P11 and P13 so we need to work. It’s true that we believe and we will never give up, we will have confidence in ourselves and we will arrive with optimism at every Grand Prix we go to, but at the same time, apart from winning today or finishing sixth today, we know that we are not in the position that we want to be and there are a few cars quicker than us and we cannot be blind to that. We need to work.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Il Corriere Della Sera) Michael, you were back on the podium, the first since you came back with Mercedes. Is the feeling what you imagined or is it something different now?

    MS: I don’t know what I mentioned or didn’t mention but the point is that it is a beautiful feeling, not only being on the podium but the way it has happened. It was not at all expected. All weekend, I predicted this to be a difficult one for us and it started to be difficult yesterday in qualifying, mainly because of my own mistakes and to recover from where we are, getting to third position is just awesome. The team and myself have been criticised here and there, particularly lately, and this is the best way to answer criticism, to go back and deliver as we did today, and therefore I’m proud, thankful and very excited.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Michael, you said you will think about your future during the summer. Summer is beginning and you begin the summer with a podium. Does it change something for next year?

    MS: I don’t think I ever said any kind of time, neither did I say summer and if you may apologise, I have no further news on that matter, so give me the time that I need and we will see.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Michael, what did you feel when you were jumping on the podium and you saw two guys who were at Ferrari after you and you saw Stella (Andrea Stella, Alonso’s race engineer who represented Ferrari on the podium) who was one of the…

    MS: Yeah, well that’s what we were joking about. Andrea is Fernando’s engineer and used to be our engineer in the past and in a way it’s the order. The current driver he works for is first, the second last was Kimi and I was the third last. It’s a funny coincidence and it’s great to see him up there. He’s been doing a great job. I still remember those days and I’m happy for Fernando and the team to have achieved what they did today here and particularly the words that Fernando just said, I think everybody can feel with him and I’m just happy for them.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) The second question was about the difference between now and in the past. You criticised the tyres a little bit on Saturday, saying ‘we can’t exploit our potential.’ Do you feel that your skill is penalised?

    MS: Forgive me if we only think about the positive aspects of what happened today.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando it was a complicated race, also for you coming from P11 to P1. When you look back at it, was there one key moment, was there one point where you can say ‘if I hadn’t done that, I would not have won this Grand Prix’?

    FA: I think there are four or five moments in that race which changed our result. Probably the start and the first lap were very aggressive, nearly touched in the first corner, turn four I think I overtook two cars braking on the outside. That, for sure, maybe changed because we had Button… we were fighting in turn one, and then Button was like P14 or something like that. If you finish in his position, maybe the race is more difficult so we were lucky at that moment. We were lucky in some of the overtaking, I think, with Maldonado and with Webber and Michael as well, at the moment we went out of the pits. For sure, Grosjean overtaking me was very risky at the restart. We touched in the first two corners. After we touched each other I felt that the car was not very good. When you have a little contact with someone, for whatever reason you feel that the car is wrong for the next two corners, because you are so worried that something happened and that maybe you convince yourself that something has happened. But then one lap later the times were OK and the car was good. Those were the key moments of the race, plus the last stint, as I said, the tyres were finished so we had to control the tyre wear plus the pressure from Grosjean, the pressure from Hamilton, with Kimi at the end – not a single lap to relax, in a way.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Alonso, did the team tell you that Hamilton had an incident with Maldonado?

    FA: They told me yellow flags in turn 12. There was a car on the outside and then I saw it was a McLaren.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Kimi, is it realistic to believe that if you had overtaken Hamilton before that you could attack Alonso?

    KR: I would have overtaken if I could. I was not waiting for the last or second last lap. I just didn’t have the speed. I just had to wait until he ran out of his tyres. Then I got the chance. I tried to get closer and closer but I was not fast enough earlier on, otherwise I would definitely have tried to overtake. But basically I let him past at the restart. After the bridge, I made a mistake and he got past me. It was my own mistake.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Fernando, given the roller-coaster of emotions, the fact that you’ve re-taken the World Championship lead, the tyres having gone off, the Spanish situation – how do you rate this victory in your 29 races that you’ve won to date?

    FA: I think from the emotional side this is the best one. The emotions that I felt on the in lap, or during the podium ceremony or right now, I think doesn’t compare to anything before. I confirm that this is the best feeling of victory by far, because the whole situation in Spain, as I said, and the grandstands, the weekend in general, how they support us. In terms of the race itself, or driving, probably they were a little better. We pushed, but as we said, these days races are decided by little factors and today we had retirements from Grosjean then from Vettel. We had the tyres, the safety car when we took the opportunity to stop as probably everybody did but we did a stop. I think there are maybe races like this year in Malaysia that I feel more proud of the driving itself.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi and Michael, about the championship, if you had to bet some money, would you put that money on Fernando or is there still some room for Vettel and Hamilton?

    KR: I don’t even know what the points are so it’s a bit difficult to say. We’ve seen how quickly things can change this year. You only need one bad race and the guy wins so I wouldn’t put money, probably use it for something else.

    MS: Things change so quickly – maybe I put money on myself.

    Ends

  • Hulkenberg 5th, for best finish of the year

    Valencia, 24 June 2012: Force India will take home 16 points from Valencia after a strong weekend saw Nico Hulkenberg land his best finish of the year with fifth and Paul Di Resta race a one-stop strategy to seventh.

    Hulkenberg started eighth, on a two-stop strategy that saw him race used softs until a lap-14 switch to the medium compound. He stopped again on lap 28 for a second set of mediums and then attempted carve his way through the field.

    Initially the plan worked, with the German climbing steadily from 12th to fifth, but as his long third stint ground on his tyres began to fade and he began to struggle. He could have been vaulted to third when Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado clashed while battling for the position, but at the same time, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber, on newer soft tyres, were sweeping past to leave the Force India stuck in fifth.

    Afterwards through, Hulkenberg hailed the performance as a “great achievement”.

    “A great result for everyone in the team today and for me personally,” he said.  “Fifth place is a great achievement after a very long and difficult race. The two-stop strategy worked well, but the last stint was very long and it was hard to hold off the cars behind me on fresher tyres in the last few laps.

    “So the race was a bit messy at times, but very entertaining and it feels great to come through and score such a good result for the team. We got a bit lucky with some cars dropping out, but we were in the right place to capitalise on things so I’m very happy about today.”

    Di Resta, meanwhile, started the race from 10th on the on grid and on used soft tyres. He nursed those through to lap 23 when he took on medium tyres, which he tried to keep alive until the end of the race.

    The strategy could have yielded a better result but a safety car in mid-race allowed the front runners a free stop and Di Resta’s chances were compromised. He battled on however, but his performance faded slightly as the tyres degraded in the closing stages and he too was passed by Schumacher and Webber. He did, however, cling on to seventh place.

    “We went very aggressive by only stopping once and in fact we were the only car to pull off this strategy,” Of course, when you’re stopping once you really don’t want a safety car period and it certainly hurt my race and cost me some track position.

    “But with the way the race unfolded we can’t be too disappointed to finish seventh and it’s great to have another two-car points finish. On the whole our relative pace through the race was strong, but it was hard to keep the tyre performance towards the end and I was really fighting the car in the closing laps. There was some attrition ahead of us, but we were there to pick up the points when it mattered.”

    ends

  • Vettel takes Valencia pole

    Valencia (Spain), 23 June 2012: Sebastian Vettel scored his third consecutive European Grand Prix pole position with a superb last-ditch lap at the Valencia street circuit. Lewis Hamilton will line up alongside the champion on the front row, with Pastor Maldonado third for Williams.
    Narain Karthikeyan of HRT will be ahead this on 22nd position behind teammate Pedro de la Rosa whil both the Sahara Force India teams have made it inside the top 10 with Hulkenberg looking good for more points this time around.

    Vettel made his way through the first two segments of the hour-long session in safe but unspectacularly fashion, finishing Q1 in 14th position and in fourth place in the second section. In the final top-10 shoot-out, the champion stayed in the garage until the very end of the session to conserve a set of option tyres. But when he did emerge for his single run it was with intent. He set best times for the first two sectors and crossed the line just over three tenths ahead of Hamilton.

    Afterwards, Red Bull driver admitted that he had struggled early on.

    “We had one shot there at the end which turned out to be a very good lap,” he said. “Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking. We were struggling to find the balance we did have in practice. It was a good recovery. We had to put a second set of options in Q2. It was the right call because I don’t think my first lap was good enough.”

    But as the track improved, the defending champion felt that an opportunity existed to battle for the front of the grid.

    “In final qualifying, I knew going at the end [of the session], if the track comes in a little more, it should be good enough to have a look at pole,” he said. “I had a good feeling in the last lap and managed to put everything together and I was very happy it was enough for pole. In the end it was a surprising gap. The boys have been working hard in the garage and at the factory to bring new parts. They seem to work. I’m looking forward to race tomorrow.”

    For Hamilton it was a similarly difficult session.

    “I expected to be lot further back because we struggled all weekend with the set-up,” said the Briton. “Going from P3 into qualifying, we had to make a guess with the set-up. It seemed to work OK. I was able to get out the lap when I needed it – but obviously not quite as good as Sebastian did. However, the guys did a great job to get me a gap, and the car felt pretty good but I think the gap is quite big here.”

    The big news before Q1 was that Marussia’s Timo Glock would not be taking part in the session, Marussia revealing that the German had been “fighting a bug” since Thursday and had felt so unwell after FP3 that he would not be able to compete in qualifying. His fitness to race will be assessed tomorrow morning.

    The big news by the end of the session was that Mark Webber was the major front-running loser. The Australian had turned just four laps in the morning session, with work on the front end of his car eating up all but the first few minutes of the final free practice hour.

    Disadvantaged by that, he did a run on the prime tyres in Q1 but quickly returned to the garage. Then he opted to switch to the soft tyres in a bid to ensure passage through to the second segment. However, a hydraulic problem hampered his progress and Webber was eventually dropped to a 19th place start.

    “We had no DRS, and that’s about 1.3 seconds. It makes it very difficult when you have no DRS,” he said. “The car’s put up a good fight today. We only ran a few laps all day and three of those were in qualifying. One lap on the prime at the start and then we had to box, because it was playing up with the gearbox, the hydraulics. And then the guys did the right thing to put on the option as we were in a desperate situation then, to get through. It was very tight obviously. The lap time wasn’t too bad with the DRS out but it doesn’t help with the situation.”

    The second segment would see more front runners struggle – most particularly Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and also Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher.

    Both Ferrari drivers opted to do an opening run on medium tyres as their rivals mostly went for the soft option and when Ferrai also switched to the soft option both failed to make the most of a single run on the compound. With the times incredibly tight, Alonso’s lap, three tenths off top man Romain Grosjean’s 1:38.489, was only good enough for 11th place. Schumacher finished the session 12th with Massa one place behind.

    “I’m not particularly happy about not making it through Q2 but that was clearly down to me – I didn’t get my lap together,” said Schumacher. “On my first run, I was too aggressive in turn 12 on my first timed lap, then had to abort the second lap and pit because the tyres were no longer in good enough condition to improve. After that, I was a bit too conservative on the second run and that cost us, because the times were so close today.”

    That left the final word to Vettel, whose blistering Q3 lap was enough to hand him a second pole in a row, following his front-of-grid start in Canada. Looking ahead to the race the Red Bull Racing driver admitted that in a season as unpredictable as this, pole was no guarantee of anything.

    “I think it’s going to be a difficult race. Difficult to predict,” he said. “We have seen too much this year to be honest to sit here on Saturday afternoon and predict what’s going to happen. I think it’s probably easier to guess the result tonight in football than [the race result] tomorrow. I think this year obviously grid position is important but maybe not as important.”

    ends

  • Nurturing tyres is the key: Hamilton

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren)

    3 – Pastor MALDONADO (Williams )

    TV UNILATERAL

    Congratulations Sebastian, a third pole in a row at this race and only one flying lap in Q3 to try to do it.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, one shot there in the end, which turned out to turned out to be a very good lap. Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking. We were struggling to find the balance we did have early on this weekend, yesterday and this morning during practice. Yeah, good recovery throughout qualifying. Unfortunately, we had to put a second set of options in Q2. It was the right call because it was very tight. I think my time would not have been good enough, I set with the first set. So it was good to go again. But then in the last qualifying I knew that going at the end if the track comes in a little bit more and tying the lap together it should be good enough maybe to look at pole. In the end it was a surprising gap but all in all I felt very well this weekend. The boys have been working incredibly hard in the garage, all the people in the factory as well to make sure that we bring a couple of new parts to the car. They seem to work and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.

    Lewis, a front row for you. Sebastian says it was a surprising gap at the end. Did you expect it to be much closer in Q3?

    Lewis HAMILTON: To be honest, I expected to be a lot further back. We’ve struggled all weekend, just with set-up and you know going from P3 to qualifying we had to make some guesses as to what kind of set-up we wanted to change. It seemed to work OK and I’m really, really surprised. The guys obviously did a great job, as always, to get me a good gap and while the car still felt pretty good, I think the gap is still pretty big here and it will be a tough race tomorrow for sure, as always.

    Is that just the way it is in 2012 then? You go from winning one race weekend and on the next one you struggle and you’re not quite sure where you are?

    LH: I think so. At least it appeared so when we first started practicing here yesterday. But generally, I think, you look at the grid, because it’s so hot, the Lotus cars look massively competitive. I think they’re going to be the ones to watch out for tomorrow. I’m sure the Ferraris will be very quick on their long runs as well. Who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, we just have to look after our tyres in these tricky conditions.

    Yes, 2012 is unpredictable, but Pastor, one is for certain, you quite like Spain don’t you?

    Pastor MALDONADO: I think we’ve been working so hard. The car has been quite quick from yesterday. We were struggling a bit with the option tyres. We were confused because I didn’t feel the same feeling with the prime tyres but then we’ve working so hard trying to understand what was happening with the car this morning, still struggling, especially with the option tyres. But for quali we understand a little bit the way, and here we are. I think we did a pretty good job. Williams is getting better and better every time. I’m pretty happy for the team, pretty happy for my country and it’s going to be a great opportunity to get on the podium and fight for a good result.

    You did, though, use seven sets of tyres during the course of that qualifying hour. How much of a disadvantage does that put you at for tomorrow’s race?

    PM: I think for the long run, for us, the prime tyres were a bit better. We had more range and they were even quicker after a couple of laps. We have tyres enough to race and get very competitive. I’m not worried about that. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll see from the start what happens with the strategy, that will be very important, essential for tomorrow. These conditions are very hot and very difficult for everybody. So looking forward, let’s see.

    Finally, back to you Sebastian. Lewis has outlined some of the potential battles for tomorrow’s race. Where do you see the big threat coming from, or have you, by saving a set of tyres, ensured that you’ll make it a hat-trick of victories as well?

    SV: Well, it would be nice, no doubt. I think it’s going to be a difficult race. Difficult to predict. We have seen too much this year to be honest to sit here on Saturday afternoon and predict what’s going to happen. I think it’s probably easier to guess the result tonight in football than tomorrow. It’s less hard than predicting the ranking tomorrow. I think it’s going to be tough, as Pastor touched on. It’s going to be hot tomorrow – a bit hotter than today even. So yeah, there will be obviously a lot of cars to look out for tomorrow. I think Ferrari has been very competitive. Williams have been quick yesterday on their long runs. Lotus, I think they’ve proven in Bahrain, the first time we had hot conditions, that they’re up there. So, I think this year obviously grid position is important but maybe not a

    Sebastian, well done, your third consecutive pole, does that mean it’s going to be followed by your third consecutive win? Or does that not mean anything any longer in 2012?

    SV: Well it does, so it would be nice, I think… I’m very happy to be here now because, to be honest, we had a very good weekend. Yesterday was very good, I felt comfortable in the car, this morning I felt very good, even though we didn’t get to finish the run on the soft tyre but this afternoon we started and I think we were a little bit off, compared to where we were the whole weekend. And we played a little bit of catch-up through Q1 and Q2: you don’t have that many runs. And we had to go out again in Q2. It was very tight. We saw I think Fernando was just not quick enough for Q3 and I think I was a little bit slower than that, so if we could have stayed in the garage then, yeah, we would not be here now – so it was a good call from the guys on the pitwall, and yeah, obviously we knew then we only had one set of options left, and tried to give it the best shot in the end. I knew that if I get the lap together, plus whatever we tried in qualifying with the car… I mean you can’t really do much, you can’t really change the setup but you can play a little bit with the settings you have inside the car: differential, front wing, and yeah, I think we caught up. And I had a good feeling in the last lap and managed to put everything together in the three sectors – which was good enough for pole. So, I’m very happy, especially after the effort that has gone in, as I touched on, from the guys here but also from the guys in the factory. We’ve got a couple of new bits here, they seem to be a step forward, which is very good.

    I’m told it’s more than a couple of new bits. I’m told it’s quite a large number of bit…

    SV: Well it depends. We’ve tried a lot, we’ve been pushing very hard, to be honest. I think it’s difficult this year. I think we see everyone is very close to each other and everyone is pushing. If you at McLaren, if you look at Ferrari, if you look at Mercedes. The big teams have more resources, probably, to bring new parts than other teams and they have been bringing more than a couple. A couple is two, so maybe we have also bought more than two – but nevertheless, other teams are up there. Force India was incredibly quick all weekend: yesterday I thought it was just a surprise but even on very low fuel it would have been a very competitive lap time and they confirmed it today. I think in the end they ran out of tyres but in terms of lap times, they weren’t far off in Q2. It’s tight, it’s difficult to make the right step and that’s why I’m quite happy to be honest.

    I’m not sure what your team-mate’s problems were but presumably you had no similar problems.

    SV: It’s a bit of a shame, because the potential is there. I think Mark would have had a solid qualifying, no doubt and we would have qualified in the same area with a normal qualifying for him. But he had a problem, with the brakes I think this morning and I’m not sure what happened this afternoon – so it’s really a shame because you always hope for the team as well to get the best possible result – but nevertheless, yeah, I think the race is long tomorrow, the pace was there on Friday for him as well, so confident he will come back.

    But you’ve had no similar problems.

    SV: No, as I said, the only problem he had was the brakes this morning and this afternoon I don’t know. But I didn’t have any problems fortunately.

    Lewis, on pole here in 2009 and three second places over the years. Given the problems you had yesterday, you sound as though you’re pretty happy about today’s performance.

    LH: Yeah. As I was saying, I’ve really struggled all weekend with setup. During the year I’ve not really struggled too much to get the right balance but particularly today, and yesterday was a real struggle. But you have those weekends sometimes. You can’t always get it perfect. Made some changes going into qualifying that I was just praying would work. And they seemed to have worked, so I was quite happy with the balance that I had. And I was able to… and to be able to get out the lap when you need it, just like Sebastian did. But obviously not as quick as his. But to be able to go out and do those single laps and make sure you maximise the potential of what you have – that really does satisfy me, so I’m happy with where we are.

    It’s just been so close at this circuit. Even though it’s a long lap it’s been so close and literally thousandths of a second have made a big difference.

    LH: Absolutely. It’s very, very surprising. Well, not surprising but it’s very interesting to see so many of the teams improving and continuing to bring updates and to see the pack close up. I think it’s great to see all the teams so competitive. It makes it even more challenging for us as individuals and also for the teams to up their game. And also for us drivers to make sure we’re on top of our game when we’re out there.

    How much of a different is it going to be with one DRS zone here? I think there were two last year and this year one.

    LH: To be honest I have no recollection of what happened last year. But, I don’t know, Overtaking here is always difficult. It’s always difficult to follow as it is in Monaco. Particularly going through Turn 10 maybe, is it? Going onto the back straight. It’s not that easy to follow through out there. But the DRS, I guess, will definitely come into play throughout the race. Hopefully I’ll have some chance. Who knows, we’ll see what.

    We’ve seen a number of drivers going off at the end of the straight Pastor, and today we saw you go off as well. Is this going to be a major problem during the race, do you think?

    PM: I don’t’ think so. I was just not ready for the lap. It was so difficult. As you saw, many drivers were struggling on braking, especially with the front. But I think today was a really good day for the team. We did pretty good, especially because this morning it was very difficult for us – but we understand a bit the way how to make quite well the tyres. And here we are.

    Was it a little bit of guesswork, do you think? Lewis touched on guesswork. Normally it’s pure theory.

    PM: Right now, everything is too tight. Everything is too tight and it’s very difficult to make the difference. I saw Q2, and just off one-tenth I was in P7. You can imagine everything counts now. It’s very difficult. Even for tomorrow, it’s going to be a difficult race. We need to be… we need to stay on the safe side, trying to stay competitive and to stay with the same pace we saw yesterday. We need to stay with the same pace we saw yesterday and then we’ll see.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Pastor, would you be happy to finish on the podium tomorrow, or are you hoping for more?

    PM: For sure, the points are very important for the team. It will be good to be on the podium but for sure if we can go for more, I will try my best like always, then we will see. Tomorrow the strategy is going to be very important. The team is ready, so looking forward to that.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis and Sebastian: you are the best of those going for pole. Is there any secret to the last lap that you do, and what are your thoughts before going out for that final lap?

    LH to SV: What is your secret?

    SV: Can’t tell you. I’m not sure whether there is a secret. Qualifying, we know, is all about one lap and to be honest, today it was very difficult, very tricky because the wind plays a  huge role here, sometimes blowing more than at other times, with gusts and generally it seems to be very slippery. Obviously the grip is lower than last year because the cars have less downforce and it makes it quite tricky, as we touched on. A lot of drivers lock up easily under braking, especially in qualifying when you want to brake as late as you can, but knowing that if you lock up you miss the apex and then you lose time. It’s quite difficult but ideally you just try to go through the lap before it happens – at least I had a little bit of time in Q3 – and try to focus on the key points, go through what I have to do and what I have to look out for and then it seems that I did so in the last run. So happy that I got everything together, just on the limit, and got the best out of the car, so I was very happy with the last run.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado deSao Paulo) Sebastian, you have a lot of new parts on your car and the first time you’re going to use them in race conditions will be tomorrow, in these very hard conditions. Are you worried about the reliability of your car, considering there are so many new things?

    SV: No. You’re right, obviously it’s the first time because the first time they were on the car was on Friday and since Friday there was no Grand Prix. It makes it difficult but there’s always a first time for everything. Obviously we try to build the parts so that they are reliable so as I said, I’m not worried. I think it will be tough, it will be hot but it’s not the worst race of the year for the car in terms of the ambient conditions, so I’m quite confident.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian and Lewis: do you realise that you have a big opportunity tomorrow to keep a huge advantage to the third guy who we suppose is a contender in the championship, Fernando Alonso. Are you working on a strategy to save points?

    LH: No. I anticipate that they will come through very strongly throughout the race, so whilst qualifying for some cars is not important, you look at the Lotuses and you look at… even Mark will be very competitive tomorrow. They have great long run pace and they can look after the tyres better than others, due to low speed downforce. I also know that Ferrari had upgrades this week – at least so Fernando told me – so I anticipate that they are going to be very competitive. Again, as I said, I’m very surprised for us because we didn’t have any upgrades this weekend and so to be where we are is a big bonus for us.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) From what you have learned about the tyres here, can it be another race like Montreal where people in the race come out of nowhere with different strategies or different tyre management?

    SV: I think Montreal was different; the tyre choice was different in Montreal. We had the supersoft and soft and I think we already saw on Friday in Montreal that the tyres last pretty well. On Sunday then, some people were able to prove that doing a one stop and obviously when it’s close between one and two stops then there can be a difference and people come out of nowhere. Lewis did the right thing, two weeks ago, by going with two stops. We did the wrong thing but I think it should be different here. The race is not so many laps and the tyres are a little bit different. It’s going to be hot again but I think it’s a different race, different track, different conditions.

    Q: (Panayiotis Seitandis – Alpha TV) I would like to ask all three drivers: given the fact that this is a street circuit, next year we have New Jersey, we now have an effort in Greece to have a similar race in Athens. What do you think is the perfect mixture between street circuits and proper (permanent) circuits and of course what’s your opinion about coming to race in Formula One in Greece?

    LH:I don’t know how many street circuits compared to other circuits we should have, but I love street circuits. They always provide entertaining races, perhaps not always the tracks that enable you to overtake as often as other places like Spa but still, as a driver, they are the most fun because on street circuits you have less room for error. I’ve only ever been to Greece once. I went years and year and years ago with Nico Rosberg. We went on holiday there, when I was about 13 and I’ve been dying to go back ever since. I was going to go earlier on this year but the weather wasn’t as good as I had hoped. I imagine at some stage  in the future, once the world and Greece is past the stage they’re in now, I think we would welcome a race – at least I would.

    SV: As Lewis touched on, I think street circuits are always good fun. It’s a different challenge because you haven’t got room for error, but one thing you can’t have on a street circuit is fast corners, really, because there’s no run-off and no space. I think the street circuits that we have are pretty quick but it’s maybe the exception. If you would build a new track again or look for a new layout you probably wouldn’t go that close to the limit, knowing what could happen, so therefore we need to make sure it’s not going to be all street circuits in the future but surely, it’s very good fun, a lot of bumps and that makes it very technical, very difficult,  challenging for us and if we could have a race in Athens it would be great. It’s a beautiful country, I was there last year so yeah, obviously there’s a lot going on right now and it’s not looking too good but being German, we are doing our best to help – not yesterday, that’s sport! As I say, it would be great and a great opportunity for Formula One as well, but I don’t know if there are any plans so we’ll have to wait.

    PM: I agree with Lewis and Seb. I think it’s not only fun for us as drivers, I think it’s fun for the fans and I think we need both conditions just to try to put Formula One in the top position. Spain, here, is a great one, especially because of the city and a lot of facilities but the future is like that. We follow the future and for sure we enjoy these kind of tracks.

    Q: (Sylvia Renée Arias – Revista Parabrisas Argentina) Pastor, I would like to know if there is extra power for you to have all these people coming from Venezuela, more than 100 people? Do you feel it’s nearly like a home Grand Prix?

    PM: It’s not a proper  home race but here in Spain we have a big community of Venezuelans and as well, it’s quite easy (to get here) from Venezuela, we have many flights. It’s a really good feeling to see them, especially in the stands, full of flags. It’s good. I hope to give them back some good news tomorrow, so we will see.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) We had 0.291 from Grosjean first to Massa in Q2. Does this tiny difference make you drive accurately; does it change your approach with the team’s set-up? What does it change in your regular work?

    SV: I think it makes it extremely difficult. I know exactly what happened to Fernando because I had the same in China. There were three tenths; Mark was first in Q2 and I was eleventh. It’s not nice, because you probably always know that if you’re looking for five hundredths which would be enough, a little bit here and there, but that’s the risk you have to take to set the time in the first place, but it’s tight and there’s very little room for error, especially like here where it’s very slippery, very easy to lose a little bit, lock up the wheel towards the apex, don’t get it perfectly right, maybe the exit is not 100 percent either, so it’s tricky but you have to attack otherwise you’re not there in the first place.

    LH: No, it doesn’t really change the approach in qualifying, you’re always attacking and if anything it just means you need to be more precise.

    PM: I think now, with these gaps, you just need to put everything together just to be there. It’s difficult for everybody, especially for the tyres, to get the maximum out of the tyres is not easy and when you get it, you are here.

    Ends