It’s a mid-summer morning in Coimbatore. It’s unusually cool, as we stand in front of a huge white gate. Soon, a security guard escorts us to an outhouse in one corner of a big compound lined with trees and a well-manicured lawn that gives you the impression of an English courtyard.
Except for a beautiful black 911, there is not a hint that we are soon to be in the company of an F1 driver. And then, with two playful dogs jumping all over, Narain Karthikeyan emerges and leads us to the drawing room, adorned with trophies and memorabilia. The 2005 Jordan F1 helmet stands out, reminding us of the glory of an Indian first competing in Grand Prix racing.
Narain has just returned from Malaysia, and sits in his typical relaxed style. “It’s one of those rare days when I spend time at home between F1 races,’’ he says, to begin his free-wheeling interview with TopGear. With the rain-lashed performance still fresh in his mind, he speaks for the first few minutes about Malaysia. The mastery of how he piloted his car in the pelting rain at Sepang again showcased Narain’s driving skills.
“It was a great feeling to dominate in the rain and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve always said I’m as quick as anybody else out there. But we knew the car wouldn’t sustain the pace once it dried up. It yielded nothing in terms of the result, but it was nice to prove your talent and show the control you have on the car in such adverse conditions, even if only for a few minutes,’’ he says. On the last lap before the race was red-flagged, the HRT driver was in 10th place and his sector-one time of 42.4s was faster than the nine drivers ahead of him. Only Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, who also flourishes in rain, came close, with a time of 42.9s.
As we settle down, Narain speaks about his father, GR Karthikeyan’s influence on him. “My dad was a rally champion in his time, and the great S Karivardhan was a relative, so the sport ran in my family blood. It became my childhood passion and I was very stubborn about becoming an F1 driver. My father encouraged me a lot but he also knew it was a daunting task,’’ Narain explains. “If you really want to become a professional racing driver, you go and train in Europe, to see if you have it in you to make it big,’’ Narain recollects his father’s words. “I was still a schoolboy and my father thought once I saw the tough competition and the difficulties of competing in Europe, I’d give up,’’ Narain feels.
“That’s how I landed in France at the Elf School,’’ he points out. That was 1992, just after finishing school in Stanes Anglo Indian School in Coimbatore, and “I was all of 15 and raring to go. I impressed my teachers at the Elf Winfield Racing School, making it to the semi-finals of the end-of-the-course race,’’ he says. It was in the Pilote Elf Race for Formula Renault cars that his inherent talent was spotted. “Frankly, I didn’t understand that getting into Formula 1 is such a gigantic task. In hindsight, I feel it was a blessing in disguise, as I might have given up, had I known the tremendous difficulties one faces,’’ he confesses.
“But I’m glad I worked with single-minded determination. It was always going to be tough since motorsports was primitive in India in those days,’’ feels Narain.
Talking about his childhood pranks and how he and his friends used to ‘steal’ cars and do all kinds of stunts, he notes: “Those days, Coimbatore roads were not so busy and we used to take on empty streets… and I remember doing a Mahindra jeep when I was in Class 8. I had great fun, sliding, throwing-out and what-not,’’ he says while giggling.
On a serious note, he talks about how Karivardhan transformed motorsport in India. “Kari was a genius. He built completely indigenous racecars at a very cheap price, which allowed young race drivers to practice in single-seater cars. Those days when racecraft was virtually nil, and only a few understood the intricacies of Formula racing, he promoted motorsports and encouraged young talent,’’ Narain says.
After his debut podium in Formula Maruti in 1993, Narain returned to Europe to gain valuable experience in the Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship. Then came his first chance to watch an F1 race live, at the Portugal Grand Prix in 1994. He was driving the F1 support race and became the first Indian to win any race in Europe at the British Formula Ford Winter Series. “It was an amazing experience watching an F1 race and it only reinforced my dream,’’ says Narain, whose pioneering work laid down a path for other Indians to follow.
He crossed hurdle after hurdle and became the first Asian to win the Formula Asia International series in 1996. He moved back to England to make his debut in British F3 in 1998, after which he took time to settle down and finished third in the last two races. Five podium finishes, including two great victories at Brands Hatch in 1999, got him sixth place in the championship. In 2000, his third year in British F3, he did a notch better, moving up to fourth place, getting a pole position and fastest laps in Macau Grand Prix. He peaked with two stunning victories at Spa Francorchamps and Korea Super Prix, which got the attention of the world and soon landed him a test drive with Jaguar Racing.
And that is how Narain Karthikeyan became the first Indian to test a Formula One car at Silverstone, on 14 June, 2001. His amazing performance got him two more test drives for the Jordan F1 team in October and September, but it was a long wait till 2004 before he got an F1 call from Minardi. That effort proved futile because he couldn’t raise sponsorship money.
“You can master the sport and do everything you can, but when it comes to sponsorship I keep my fingers crossed even today. Nothing has changed even after reaching the zeniths of driving skill. One moment, I go down to utter despair, but then, I find a glimmer of hope somewhere. It was the same in 2004, and even now. But in all these periods of uncertainty, I trained hard and kept myself ready. In all the ups and downs, I thank Tata for steadfastly supporting me in my grueling journey from F3 to F1, and even today,’’ Narain says thankfully.
With his F1 career on the backfoot, Narain took time out for family and married Pavarna in 2004. “I met her through a common friend in 2001. For an outsider, the racing life looks very glamourous and glitzy but for your own family and wife, it’s very hard to cope with the rigorous and unconventional lifestyle. But Pavarna has been a stabilising factor in my life and has stood as a pillar of strength,’’ says Narain.
In Februray 2005, at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, the deal with Jordan saw him qualify 12th on the grid, ahead of giants like Michael Schumacher. On March 6, he created history when he became the first Indian to drive in Formula 1. He finished 15th in that first race. The rest as they say is history.
Narain continued in Formula 1 as a test driver for Williams in 2006 and 2007, in his struggle to keep racing at the top level. And just when the world believed his racing career was over, he landed a drive with HRT in 2011. “I always said I still have the mettle and Formula 1 is a continuing dream. So I trained extra hard to realise that dream of driving in front of the home crowd as F1 made its debut in India,’’ he says with a smile.
Narain continues to live that dream for another year with HRT. Asked if missing the podium in 2005 at the Formula 1 US GP was his biggest disappointment, he says: “With only six cars, I came fourth. But my greatest regret is not winning in Macau in 2000. Starting from pole, I was doing the fastest laps. It was over-exuberance and I was pushing too hard and made a stupid mistake. I was not mature enough. A win here at one of the toughest circuits in the world could’ve changed my entire career path,’’ he says a tinge of sadness.
“But I bounced back and retrieved whatever I could with dedication and hard work. That’s when I realised the importance of training hard. Now my training regimen is very strict. I do weights, endurance and specific workouts for individual muscles. Working to keep the neck and lower back fit is a complete routine in itself. I also do yoga and meditation,’’ says Narain, whose personal trainer now is Chandigarh-born German Balbir Singh, who once famously looked after Michael Schumacher.
“Karthikeyan is a true representative of India’s young spirit and he has set an example for the entire motorsports fraternity,’’ was how Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described him. “The Padma Shree was one of my proudest moments in 2010. It is not just an individual honour, it has come as recognition for all of motorsports in India,’’ Narain says, just as the fax machine rings. It’s his day’s training schedule, from his trainer in Austria. No time to waste. Another race weekend, another battle beckons. The Shanghai GP is just days away…
From pole position Webber got a good start on Sunday, got to the first corner ahead of Nico Rosberg and never looked troubled. 78 laps later the first six crossed the line nose to tail, but this was rather more exciting than that suggests. Behind him Romain Grosjean spun after contact with Michael Schumacher. Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber hit the spinning Lotus and both were out. The sixth race of the season also threw up a new winner in Webber to make it six different winners in six races at the principality of Monaco. Thus Webber became a double winner at the street circuit and joined the exclusive club
Webber, 2nd from left, poses after winning the Monaco GP on Sunday. An FIA photo.
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The safety car was deployed, the order behind it was Webber leading from Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Alonso, Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Schumacher, Nico Hulkenberg and Bruno Senna. The variable in play was that Vettel, like Button and di Resta further down the order, was on the soft tyre, the other leaders were using the supersoft. Rosberg was the first man in for tyres, stopping on lap 27. Webber followed two laps later and got out comfortably in front of Rosberg. Hamilton, Räikkönen and Hulkenberg stopped at the same time.
One lap later Alonso came in and picked Hamilton’s pocket. Schumacher stayed out until lap 34 and jumped Räikkönen. The Finn had emerged behind the Marussia of Charles Pic and, with no way through, was forced to lap three seconds slower than Schumacher for several tours. Vettel led the race and began to put in a series of fast laps. His hope would have been to build up a cushion of over 20 seconds to be able to stop and retain his lead, but Webber began to pace himself against his team-mate and Vettel’s lead never got above 18 seconds. Finally it began to decrease as his tyres went away: he pitted on lap 46 and emerged in fourth, having jumped Hamilton and Massa.
“I was a little surprised that [Rosberg] went then because the tyres were still going not too bad – but it was worth a go,” said Webber in the FIA press conference after the race. “The prime tyre was a very tricky tyre to get started. Obviously Seb was in the groove and underway and he was doing some very quick lap times in that part of the grand prix. And it was hard for us to get going, so I had to keep an eye on the Sebastian gap but also manage the tyres. So when Seb pitted, then I could revert my concentration back to Nico. It was pretty good after that.”
Schumacher was forced to retire from seventh with a fuel pressure problem and then rain began to threaten but only a few drops fell on the circuit. It was enough to make Webber drop his pace by a few seconds and the leaders bunched behind him.
“It’s always tricky when you’re the first guy arriving into corners when it’s sprinkling,” said Webber. “On other tracks, a little bit of rain like that, you wouldn’t really have to back off so much but all of a sudden the car is wheel-spinning, the front’s not biting, and around this place that’s not very encouraging. Particularly when you’re in the lead with only ten minutes to go in the race. So it required me then to really, really control the race and get the car home.”
Despite the first six being covered by two seconds, no-one attempted anything desperate in the damp laps. “I was hoping I might get a chance or something but my tyres were really struggling too,” said Rosberg. “Also, I had Fernando behind me and at times it was very difficult, just front and rear warm up, tyres lost temperature and then they picked up again towards the end.”
Alonso, whose third place lifts him into the championship lead, agreed. “Five or six laps to the end with the drops of rain that we had, I think we were all praying ‘no more rain’ because it was so difficult.”
What rain there was soon abated and the track dried, allowing the front runners to resume lapping at their previous pace. Webber took victory, pushed across the line by Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton and Massa. Further back Force India had a good day with di Resta and Hulkenberg seventh and eighth. Kimi Räikkönen was ninth for a disappointed Lotus and Bruno Senna took a consolation point for Williams.
Alonso leads the Drivers’ Championship on 76 points, closely followed by Vettel and Webber on 73 each. Red Bull Racing had a fine day and extended their lead in that competition to 38 points, with 146 to McLaren’s 108.
“It was a very, very special victory today, and hopefully there’s more to come,” said a jubilant Webber. “The start was key, the pitstop was key, both of them went well. I did a little bit of work in between and we got an incredible victory that I’m very, very happy with. It’s great memories for me to win here twice, fair and square off the pole positions. Nico kept me honest. I had him under control but he drove well. It was good grand prix.”
Monte Carlo, 27 May 2012: The first Indian to drive in Formula 1, Narain Karthikeyan, achieved the best-result thus far in the season for HRT, the Spanish outfit at the principality of Monaco as he finished 15th ahead of Jenson Button, who was classified as 16th in a race won by Mark Webber of Red Bull who started on pole. The F1 World Championship 2012 set a unique record of throwing up six winners in the first six races of a season for the first time. In 1983, the season saw five different winners in the first five races.
The other highlight for Indian fans is a strong double finish by Sahara Force India. Paul Di Resta finished 7th followed by Nico Hulkenberg to boost the points as co-owner Vijay Mallya and his son Sid tweeted merrily.
For the team it was a bittersweet sensation once again as Karthikeyan skilfully drove through the Principality’s streets and, after a two-stop strategy, crossed the finish line with his F112 but his teammate Pedro de la Rosa who, despite completing three good practice sessions and an impeccable qualifying session, fell victim to the tricky Monaco circuit. The Spanish driver got hit from behind when trying to avoid a car that had crashed on the first lap of the race. The damage suffered to the rear wing was quite severe and de la Rosa was forced to retire.
With no time to lose, HRT Formula 1 Team will head to Madrid this very night to prepare all the material that will fly out to Canada in a couple of days for the seventh Grand Prix of the season which will take place in Montreal from the 8th to the 10th of June.
Pedro de la Rosa: “It was a terrible shame; I feel sorry for the team because yesterday we did a good job and today we were starting from an interesting position and I think we could have achieved a good result. Our one-stop strategy with softs first and super-softs second was good, you only have to see what Vettel did, so it was a shame not to have been able to complete more than 300 metres. It wasn’t a mistake by me or the team, but one by another driver, but those things happen in races. One day it might happen to me too, the sad thing is that it happened precisely here after all the good work we’d done and how much I was looking forward to finishing in Monaco with a good result. I leave here a little bit sad because, although we wouldn’t have scored a point, we could have at least finished with a good result”.
Narain Karthikeyan: “It was a tough race because we were very limited on our tyres. We tried to keep a constant pace, stay out of trouble and finish the race; we knew that if we managed to do that we would be able to finish in a good position. 15th position is a good result and a good way of getting over the disappointment from Barcelona. Now what I need to do is work on putting together a good lap in qualifying as that has been my weakest point this season. Hopefully I’ll be able to carry the momentum from here onto the next race in Canada and continue to progress”.
Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “We’ve got mixed feelings today. Pedro got hit from behind in the early stages, which was a real shame but, on the other hand, Narain completed a very good race and we achieved a 15th place finish, our best result this season so far. This race is always complicated and, given the forecast, we started with a strategy planned for a wet race. In the end it didn’t rain and that cost us a couple of positions. But we’re satisfied because we finished the race, with one car at least and only two laps off the winner, something which here in Monte Carlo is positive for us”.
Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo
Sunday, 27th of May 2012
Weather: Cloudy – Air 22ºC, Track 38ºC
Race: 78 laps – Track distance: 3.340 km
Pedro de la RosaF112-02 #22DNF
Narain KarthikeyanF112-03 #2315th
Force India managed to get 10 valuable points on the day.
P7 Paul Di Resta (VJM05/02)
Tyre strategy: New soft, new supersoft
Paul: “A great result today and I’m very happy to make up so much ground on my starting position. We went aggressive with the strategy and I have to say the team really optimised it. The secret was managing the tyres and trying to find clean air when we could. The car felt really good, much stronger than yesterday, and that allowed me to push when we needed to. Fortunately the rain held off at the end because that could have had a big impact on the end of the race. It’s great that we managed to get both cars in the points and we can celebrate tonight.”
P8 Nico Hulkenberg (VJM05/03)
Tyre strategy: New supersoft, new soft Nico: “It was a pretty messy start with lots of cars touching and I was lucky to make it through because I had to avoid Grosjean, who was in the middle of the track. For the first few laps I was running with Michael [Schumacher] and we were stuck behind Kimi [Raikkonen] who was struggling on the supersofts, but it was difficult to get by. Unfortunately Kimi stopped on the same lap as me so I remained behind him and we came out in a lot of traffic, which is when Paul jumped ahead of me. The rest of the race was quite uneventful and I just focused on looking after the tyres. It’s a great result for the team and we should be happy with the result.”
Team Principal and Managing Director Vijay Mallya says: “A very enjoyable Monaco Grand Prix and I am delighted to see both Sahara Force Indias well inside the points. Paul drove a very strong race, making up seven places on his grid position and managing the tyres perfectly. Nico was running the reverse strategy to Paul, which also worked out well, and means we leave here with ten important points. Now we look forward to the next race in Canada where we hope to continue our run of points finishes.”
HRT's Pedro got the best grid position with a P21 while Narain starts on P23 at the Monaco GP. HRT F1 photo.
Narain Karthikeyan, the first Indian to become a Formula ! driver and a pioneer in Indian Motorsport continues to get the second best car at the HRT, the Spanish outfit, and took his appointed 23rd place with Sergio Perez being last man on grid this time around as he failed to set up a time. Karthikeyan opted to go in only two times during the qualification thus saving a set of option tyres while his teammate Pedro de la Rosa, whose car is doing much better these days, set up the best qualification time ever for the HRT team and took 21st place on Grid at Circuit de Monaco on Saturday.
Sahara Force India made the most of a competitive qualifying hour as Nico Hulkenberg qualified in P11 ahead of teammate Paul Di Resta in P15. With a grid penalty for Pastor Maldonado, both drivers will move up a place on the starting grid.
Narain Karthikeyan: “We carried out a different strategy to Pedro, and went for two runs when maybe three would have been better. The positive note is that we have one more set of new option tyres for tomorrow’s race and we have to get the best out of them. Pedro and I have been quite closely matched all weekend and I’m sure we’ll have a good pace tomorrow. Although, if it rains it will be a bit of a lottery. Whatever happens, we have to be ready to make the most of any opportunity that may arise”.
Schumacher sparkes:
Indian interest apart, at the top it was 7-time world champion who found glimpses of his old charm to take pole but was pushed back due to a penalty. At his 44th time of trying after coming out of retirement and joining Mercedes in 2010, Michael Schumacher took a magnificent pole position on the streets of Monaco. However, he has a five-place grid penalty hanging over him from the Spanish Grand Prix and will start from sixth place. P1 instead will go to Mark Webber for Red Bull Racing.
The Australian will start alongside Schumacher’s team-mate Nico Rosberg. Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix saw a stampede to the track with everybody going out early in the session but four minutes in Sergio Pérez caused proceedings to be halted. The Sauber driver tagged the barriers in the Swimming Pool section and badly damaged the left side of his car. Trying to recover to the pits his left rear wheel fell off and the red flags came out. With the cars of Caterham, HRT and Marussia most likely to fill the final six grid slots, and with Pérez unable to set a time, Q1 became largely irrelevant.
Heikki Kovalainen made it hard for several drivers, in particular Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel who had to make last minute runs, but ultimately eliminated were Kovalainen (18), Petrov (19), Glock (20), de la Rosa (21), Pic (22) and Karthikeyan (23). All were well inside the 107% time. Pérez, having not completed a lap was 24th and last and will have to rely on the Stewards’ discretion to start the race.
At the other end of things fastest lap was 1:15.418 set by Nico Hulkenberg. At the start of Q2 it was yellow flags rather than red as Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne limped back to the pits with a damaged front wing. Vergne had snapped to the right at the tunnel exit and went into the barriers in a manner reminiscent of several accidents last year – this despite the resurfacing work done on that section of track.
The surprise elimination was Jenson Button, down in 13th position, eliminated along with Hulkenberg [11], Kobayashi [12], Senna [14], Ricciardo [15] and Vergne [16]. With the exception of the stricken Vergne, the entire field was lapping within ninth-tenths of the leader. Nico Rosberg was first out in Q3. He, Grosjean, Hamilton and Webber had all saved a set of supersofts, allowing them to have two runs during the final session. Rosberg soon went to the front but the track was getting faster, and all the action happened in the final minutes.
Rosberg was deposed by Webber but with the chequered flag out Michael Schumacher took the top spot. Still out on track Romain Grojean had set a fastest first sector but lost ground in the middle. Schumacher topped the qualifying times for the first time since the French Grand Prix of 2006. “Obviously I saw my time on the dashboard and I thought ‘Well, that shouldn’t be too bad,’” said Schumacher afterwards. The first four were within 0.2s.
Schumacher’s penalty lifts Webber to P1 with Rosberg alongside him. Lewis Hamilton will start third with Romain Grosjean fourth. Fernando Alonso will be fifth and Schumacher sixth. Felipe Massa had his best qualifying performance of the year with seventh, while Kimi Räikkönen finished eighth. Pastor Maldonado qualified ninth but faces a ten-place grid penalty for his collision with Sergio Pérez in FP3. Sebastian Vettel, who didn’t set a time in qualifying, will therefore start ninth in tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix.
HRT at Monaco
Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo
Saturday, 26th of May 2012
Weather: Sunny – Air 24ºC, Track 39ºC
11.00-12.00 FORMULA 1 PRACTICE SESSION 3
Pedro de la RosaF112-02 #22 24th (19 laps) 1:19.151
After enjoying a day off yesterday, Formula 1 action returned to the track today for the third free practice session. An hour of work which enabled HRT Formula 1 Team to fine-tune the set-up on its cars and Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan to gain confidence at such a tricky circuit. The work paid off as Pedro de la Rosa achieved the team’s best result in qualifying so far this year, with a 21st place finish ahead of Pic’s Marussia and only one tenth off Glock. And not only did the team cut down the distance to its immediate rivals but it was also the best qualifying result with respect to the best time, with a percentage of 103.6%. Narain Karthikeyan carried out a strategy with two sets of super-soft tyres and finished 23rd.
Tomorrow will be a tough 78-lap race where anything can happen so getting off to a good start, getting the pit stops right and maintaining a good level of concentration will be key.
Pedro de la Rosa: “It was the best qualifying session of the year and, without a doubt, the best lap I’ve ever done in Monaco. The car went well and we decided to do three runs with three new sets of super-softs because we already know that in Monaco the most important thing is to do one good lap. And that’s just what happened and I’m delighted about it because getting into the 18.0’s here is very good. I’m very satisfied because we got our timing right, the team knew when was the right moment to come out in order to avoid traffic and I accomplished my job, which was to do the best lap possible. I must admit I took some risks, on some laps in the last sector I even almost closed my eyes, but I had to attack and did just that. With one more tenth we would have also overtaken Glock but the truth is that we’re very happy with how the day went”.
Toni Cuquerella, Technical Director: “The minor upgrades which we’ve brought to Monaco have helped us to achieve the best qualifying result in the history of HRT Formula 1 Team by finishing Q1 103.6% off the best time. Besides, we also managed to finish much closer to our main rivals, which is very important. The red flag forced us to alter our strategy; with Pedro we decided to switch to two short runs, whilst with Narain we continued with our original plan and did one run. We got our timing right since we were on the track at the right time and you could consider Pedro’s lap to be perfect. It’s a shame that Narain was unable to set a similar time but tomorrow he should have a good pace in the race. It will be an open race and I’m sure that we will be competitive and will fight to gain positions”.
Sahara Force India Qualification Report:
P11 (will start P10) Nico Hulkenberg (VJM05/03)
Q1: 1:15.418
Q2: 1:15.421
Nico: “I had a pretty good run in both Q1 and Q2 – managing to avoid the traffic and my quick lap in Q2 was pretty neat so I don’t think I could have found more time. In fact, I almost set identical laptimes in Q1 and Q2. So I’m pretty happy with where I’m starting and hopefully we can come away with some points tomorrow. It’s always a fun race, a special place to be and we will be pushing hard to maximise the strategy and get a strong result.”
P15 (will start P14) Paul Di Resta (VJM05/02)
Q1: 1:16.062
Q2: 1:15.718
Paul: “I felt pretty happy with the balance of the car during FP2 on Thursday, but unfortunately it didn’t carry over for qualifying. We haven’t changed much on the car, but I was struggling with the rear and with traction. So I’m not as far up the grid as I would like to be and it leaves us with a hard task tomorrow, especially because it’s so difficult to overtake here. But we also know that Monaco can be an unpredictable race and I hope the strategy can help us fight back tomorrow.”
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director
“It’s well known that the qualifying hour in Monaco is the most important of the season, so we worked hard to make sure we had optimised the set-up for qualifying. Nico did an excellent job and only missed out on making Q3 by a tenth of a second. In fact, he was only half a second off the quickest time in Q2, which shows once again how closely-matched all the teams are. Paul didn’t feel totally comfortable with his car, but I’m confident he can bounce back and have a strong race starting from P14. I always enjoy the Monaco Grand Prix and we’ve seen in the past that anything can happen here, so we will be targeting points finishes with both cars.”
ends
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Monaco, 26 May 2012: Post qualification press conference by FIA saw the following drivers interact with the media: 1 – Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes), 2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing) and 3 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes).
TV UNILATERAL to begin with:
Michael, many congratulations, a great lap. I guess the only shame is that you have to move five places back on the grid, so a bittersweet feeling is it?
Michael SCHUMACHER: First of all, I am more than thrilled and excited about making a pole here in Monaco. Monaco to all of us is the track of the year, which has a very prestigious position, and to manage pole position here after what I have gone through in the past two-and-a-half years is just fabulous. That’s what sticks in my mind. I told you guys already in the press conference, my situation is going to be pole, start the race in sixth and I’m going to win it. That’s what I’m here for and what I’m going to aim for. That’s all I gave in min mind and the past doesn’t matter at all.
Mark, you were on pole here in 2010 and you’re going to inherit it tomorrow from Michael, what do you think about that?
Mark WEBBER: Pretty amazing session wasn’t it. It was very, very close. Q3 was tight between the first few rows. Obviously there were some different tyre strategies going on with different people getting through different parts of qualifying with different sets of tyres and in the end it was a good little battle. Michael did a good lap, fair play to him, but it’s nice to move up a position. Of all places, it’s good to start definitely towards the front here. The guys have done a good job, they worked hard on the rest day, they pushed very, very hard. We weren’t too strong on Thursday and obviously didn’t get much running, though everyone’s the same. But the car on Sunday is generally pretty good, so looking forward to tomorrow.
Nico, you’re only a tenth off pole position. You had provisional pole for quite a long time. I guess you thought you’d done enough. Nevertheless, a chance to win the race tomorrow from where you start.
Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, I wasn’t too aware of the situation. I knew I had done a pretty good lap time but at the same time I knew that I would have to improve on that time to be able to get pole. But in general it was a good qualifying for me too. Everything went to plan. I didn’t optimise my car perfectly in the end, bit too much understeer, but as such, front row is a great place to start tomorrow.
Back to you Michael. Obviously it’s been a tough couple of years since you decided to make your Formula One comeback. What does this pole say about you and how do you feel?
MS: Well, I’ll leave it up to the others to say what it means or doesn’t mean. For me, I’m obviously excited, very happy. It confirms what I have felt for a long time. It’s just sometimes you have put everything at the right moment together. Here it worked out. I have to say a great thanks to all the team, in particular to some of the guys who work very close to me. We had a special session earlier this week that, yeah, it sort of uniforms and unites us even further and those are the result that come together with it. I’m grateful for all the trust that Mercedes, the team had in me and [they] supported me. I’m able to give back a little and I hope I give even further and more back tomorrow.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Michael, your feelings about this pole position? Admittedly, it will be sixth on the grid.
MS: Obviously I saw my time on the dashboard and thought, ‘well, it shouldn’t be too bad’. But then you don’t know – as I was one of the earlier ones on track for the lap – what is going to come behind. So I was watching all of these monitors around the track and at one point I saw with a little sign, number one. And that was the moment I started slowly to believe and got confirmation on the radio. Yeah, just beautiful.
Is this a good Mercedes track? Obviously you’re first and third in qualifying.
MS: I mentioned before the weekend that here and probably Canada are tracks that are probably going to suit us. We shouldn’t look too bad. I told in the round of media after this one down at the TV stations, I said the plan is to be pole here, start the race from sixth and do whatever is possible – may even win – and here we are. It is not a complete surprise that we are able to fight for the front position. But after Thursday free practice and even this morning I wasn’t at all confident to be able to fight for pole position. Then everything seemed to work together. We just dialled the car in to perfection and it’s… yeah… it’s just a result. It’s a result of team effort and team work and getting everything sorted and being ready for it.
The statistics say that the highest winning grid position is third on the grid here. What can you do from sixth?
MS: Well, what can I say? I’ve finished fifth from being last; I won from I don’t know what positions. I will do as good as I can. It’s most likely to be a one-stop strategy here, that’s what you have to live with so in terms of strategy there’s only a very small window to play with. Overtaking we know is tough but we have DRS and KERS so you might as well try – and be sure I will.
Mark, as we mentioned the other day, you had your first podium here, you won from pole in 2010, you’ll be starting on pole tomorrow, you’ve been in the top five for the last four years. It all looks good, doesn’t it?
MW: First of all, I think it’s Michael’s day. It’s a good lap for him so obviously it was a tight session for us. Lots of different people arrived in the back part of the important session in quali with different situations with tyres. Quali went quite smooth for me. It’s the first time of the weekend where you put everything on the line – within reason – so it started to feel pretty good for me and I knew it was aiming for the first few rows for sure. And then it became very, very tight between us and I thought, OK, well, after the first run in Q3, it wasn’t too bad a lap, I thought, we can still go for pole for sure on the last run. And yeah, it was a pretty good lap, I’m pretty happy with it. Very, very good position to be starting tomorrow and we have a very, very good car, the guys have done a good job and I’m very happy with today’s effort.
How well prepared are all the teams, would you say, after losing most of Thursday?
MW: Everyone’s in the same boat. I think that we don’t have a huge amount of experience with the supersoft around here on long runs, but everyone’s going to be in the ballpark I would imagine.
Michael says he feels it’s a one-stop race. Is that pretty much the strategy?
MW: 24 hours mate, we’ll see!
Nico, obviously you’re starting on the front row. What does it mean here at what is your home circuit?
NR: I can also be pleased with today. Generally it’s all gone well, the whole weekend until now. It’s especially great to see how we, as a team, have managed to turn things around from a difficult time the last two races and now be right at the front again. It’s just nice to follow all the progress we’re making, moving forward and really fighting hard to improve the car and get the best of the situation – and that’s why today to really be on top as a team in qualifying is great and I’m very pleased, obviously, to start on the front row in Monaco. That is a great place to start to have a good race.
You needed two laps on the first set of tyres in Q3. We didn’t see what happened at the end of the lap.
NR: Two things: mainly the front warm-up on the tyres was an issue but also I did some setup changes from Q2 to Q3 and I had to find my way around those first, because it was quite a different strategy so that’s why it took me two laps.
And, as was the question to Mark, is the team perfectly happy with the preparation, given that you lost most of Thursday afternoon?
NR: Yes. It’s not going to be easy, the race, definitely, you know a long race and tyre degradation is going to definitely be an issue but I think we’ve prepared well and done the best we can to make sure we have a strong race car.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Vincent Marre – Sports Zeitung) Michael, you set a fantastic pole position; I would like to know how you rate this one among all the others?
MS: May I just say that you have to see two different chapters of life and this is the second one, which stands by itself, because in this Silver Arrow time, in terms of qualifying is the best position I have been in and luckily I’m able to give back, in that way, all the trust that has been shown in me over the last two and a half years.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov– F1 Life) Michael, is this pole position the best of your life and secondly, how many poles do you think you can set for the team this season?
MS: Similar answer to what I just said before, because how I rate this pole to others… it’s the first one of the second part of my career and naturally that’s the better one, because it’s the first one. It’s just sweet and a good feeling after you have come back and have hoped for better results in all circumstances at the end of the day, after why and what has happened, but to finally get it together and being able to prove it – that’s much more important and therefore I’m certainly delighted.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Mark, on Thursday you were not very optimistic about getting on the front row. What did the team change to make the car so much better today?
MW: We certainly pulled the balance together a lot more. Obviously there are no real fast corners here but there are a few where you need to be able to keep the car in the line, especially into Casino but also through the Swimming Pool. You need to have a very good rhythm and pace through there, which we didn’t really have on Thursday, so the car, between low and high speed wasn’t great. We really really pulled that together. Also I think the track helped as well, the rubber on the circuit helped pull it together. The driver always brakes a little bit later on Saturday, so that helps a bit as well. Altogether the guys have done a great job and I think we got the maximum, actually, from what we could do today.
Q: (Andrew Frankel – Forza) Mark, with all the hoopla, all the sponsors, everybody here, do you sleep just as well, starting tomorrow from pole position? Are you a bit twitchy, nervous or whatever?
MW: That’s Formula One around here. It is unique, it is a special event. In some cases I used to like Magny Cours because we could go there and just drive the cars and leave, but here, getting around and the people… always being close and demanding things and all that sort of stuff is not always ideal, but that’s the way it is. Sponsors, they come to a lot of different races. They are great for our programme but they are not in the cockpit with me and that’s why they trust in us to get the job done.
Q: (Marco Giachi– Paddock) Michael and Nico, do you think the special device that you have in the front wing helped you get this very very good performance, to keep the car more balanced?
MS: First of all, it is obviously only available in qualifying and only if we can overtake in the race, otherwise it’s not available. Monte Carlo… you almost get no effect from it. There’s a very small advantage because of the nature of the track, so I don’t think you see any particular advantage in this one. For sure there is some advantage – that’s why we have it, otherwise we wouldn’t have built it, but certainly not enough to discuss it.
Q: (Cedric Voisard – Le Figaro) Question regarding penalties : would you say that it would be better and clearer for the public to apply penalties on site instead of at the next race ?
MW: After qualifying, I thought I had the penalty because my engineer said ‘well done, great lap, de-de-de, penalty’ and I thought ‘shit, what for? I’ve done nothing.’ Yeah, then I was slightly relieved to hear it wasn’t me who had got the penalty. When you have an incident in a Grand Prix, that’s obviously the tricky thing, because it’s people’s decisions after the previous race… When incidents happen I suppose that apart from fines, what else can you do? Sunday’s indiscretions. How do you enforce any regulation on driver behaviour or team behaviour or whatever after that? Do you have any ideas? I don’t know.
Q: (Malcolm Folley – Mail on Sunday) Michael, with your rich history round here, can you tell us what it was like to put that lap together today. The world watches this qualifying session perhaps more so than anywhere else; it was the ideal time to remind everybody that you still do have it.
MS: You have probably already put my answer into your question. Monaco, being so special… we call it a bit more of a driver track than some other tracks we run on through the year, but particularly because of the prestigious atmosphere and what it all means to us, it is super-fantastic if you manage to do such a lap. I knew that I was on a lap but then you can never be sure because we have seen how close and how tight today qualifying has been and I just managed to get it together perfectly, because everything was prepared and that is the nature of Formula One. It is very tricky these days and it’s not always possible to have everything together at all times but here and now we did, and we hopefully learn more and more in order to do that more often. But reminding people that I’m still around, yup, that’s a good point.
Q: (Frank Schneider – Bild) Michael, how come that you were able to predict this pole position last week when you were in Le Mans?
MS: Yip, not only did I say it on Wednesday here but I did so at Le Mans as well, that’s true. I sort of felt that our car could be strong here, so it wasn’t out of the blue, and it wasn’t just a funny comment. There was quite a bit of optimism in there but I guess that’s my nature.
Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) We’ve had some particularly variable weather over the last three days and we were expecting a wet qualifying session; are you expecting or afraid of a wet race or do you think it’s going to stay dry?
MS: I’m expecting, at my pit stop, that it will start raining.
NR: Local knowledge hasn’t really helped the last few days. It’s been very unusual, that’s not the normal weather here, that in the morning we have sunshine and then in the afternoon everything goes dark. It’s very strange.
MW: I just do whatever Jenson does!
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paul) Michael, does a result like this – the maximum, pole position – have weight in your decision whether to continue or not in Formula One?
MS: You imagine that just because of one result I’ve done at this moment I’m suddenly restarting or opening a different subject. No, that’s not the case. I’m focused on what I’m doing right now. There will come a time when I will make summary of everything and then I will sit down with the team to see what we’re going to do.
Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Michael, in the first chapter of your life, when you were on pole, you had two or three cars trying to win, like Ferrari or McLaren, and now we have 10 or 12 cars potential winners here. How do you see the race tomorrow from pole position?
MS: Naturally there are more contenders for winning this race than maybe there used to be in the past, that’s true and that is why it’s also so tight. I don’t know what the time gap is between positions one and ten today but I guess it’s much less than it used to be in the past. But that’s how Formula One has evolved and there are particular reasons for this. Being up front, I like it but being on the other side you may disagree.
Q: (Olivier de Wilde – Le Derniere Heure) Michael, it’s a pity you have this penalty, especially here. Do you think it was justified?
MS: I’m not thinking about two weeks ago. I’m just thinking about the now and what will happen. That’s it. I’m focused forward.
Monaco, 26 May 2012: Mark Webber reckons he has a “very good car” with which to aim for his second Monaco win from pole position after he inherited the front-of-grid slot thanks to pole winner Michael Schumacher’s five-place penalty, says an FIA press release.
Webber, who won here in 2010, was in provisional pole position today as the clock ran out in the Q3 top-ten shoot-out in Monaco, but Michael Schumacher was still on track and the German quickly notched his first pole position since the French Grand Prix of 2006. However, the seven-time champion’s joy was tempered by the knowledge that he will start from sixth tomorrow, having been hit with a grid penalty after the Spanish Grand Prix where he crashed into Bruno Senna.
The German’s misfortune was a bonus for Webber though as he now moves up to the front of the grid for the first time since he took pole position in Germany last year. “Pretty amazing session wasn’t it,” he smiled afterwards. “It was very close. Q3 was tight between the first few rows. Michael did a good lap, fair play to him, but it’s nice to move up a position. Of all places, it’s good to start definitely towards the front here.
“We weren’t too strong on Thursday and obviously didn’t get much running, though everyone’s the same, but the car on Sunday is generally pretty good, so looking forward to tomorrow. [It’s] a very good position to be starting tomorrow and we have a very, very good car. The guys have done a good job and I’m very happy with today’s effort.”
Webber added that the team had worked hard to recover from Thursday’s poor showing and admitted that he too had played his part it he improved performance. “We certainly pulled the balance together a lot more,” he said. “Obviously, there are no real fast corners here but there are a few where you need to be able to keep the car in the line, especially into Casino but also through the Swimming Pool. You need to have a very good rhythm and pace through there, which we didn’t really have on Thursday, so the car, between low and high speed wasn’t great. We really really pulled that together.
“Also I think the track helped as well, the rubber on the circuit helped pull it together,” he said. “The driver always brakes a little bit later on Saturday, so that helps a bit as well. Altogether the guys have done a great job and I think we got the maximum, actually, from what we could do today.”
Team-mate Sebastian Vettel was less pleased with his Saturday afternoon efforts, the defending champion admitting he had taken a wrong turn on set-up. “It was looking very good this morning, but then I think we took a step in the wrong direction and ended up with a difficult car for qualifying,” he said after qualifying 10th. “It’s a bit of a disappointment, as Mark showed what the car can do around here, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.” Vettel will start ninth tomorrow thanks to Maldonado’s penalty.
Nurburgring (Nurburg, Germany) : The see-saw of fortunes finally swung in Sailesh Bolisetti’s favour when the Indian sealed his first victory of the season at race two at the second round of the British GT championship held here.
The weekend had started on a positive note for the Vizag pilot, with his Lotus Sport UK team finishing third and first in the two official practice sessions. But an unfortunate onslaught of technical gremlins prevented Sailesh and his teammate
Phil Glew from exploiting the performance of their Lotus Evora GT4 during the qualifying sessions.
The first race turned out to be a disaster of a different kind when a sudden drizzle left the track damp leading to Sailesh spinning out on the warm-up lap while the car was on full slick tyres (not wets). The brush with the barriers left the Evora slightly bruised, but the team was able to stitch it up in time for race start.
A slow puncture and a broken side view mirror further added to his woes and impeded progress during the race. Phil Glew then took over after the mandatory pit stop and tyre change, but could manage to do no better than fifth.
Post-race, Sailesh was understandably disappointed given how things had turned out.
“After showing promising pace in qualifying, it was disheartening to endure all the back luck we did. We definitely deserved better.
“The pace was there all along and we fancied ourselves to challenge for the podium, but it was ultimately not to be.
Things didn’t look brighter for race two as it was cloudy in the morning.
Phil Glew was behind the wheel for the opening stint this time and he proceeded to battle all the way through with the front-running Ginetta’s for the lead, just managing to keep them behind.
Glew pitted from the lead for the mandatory pit stop just past the 30-minute mark, giving Bolisetti the important task of keeping the victory challenge alive.
“When Phil handed me the car from lead, the first thought in my mind was to preserve it and try to keep the opposition behind and the car out of the barriers.
“The margin was slim but we managed to turn the car around in pits quicker than our competitors so I had a little more breathing space.
Soon after, one of the Ginetta’s retired from the race due to a mechanical issue – giving Sailesh further leeway to hold on to the lead. From then on it was just a matter of maintaining the cushion and driving to the car’s limits.
Finally, Sailesh crossed the finish line 27 seconds in the lead from the second-placed Ginetta, clinching his maiden victory in the series.
“The team really deserved this given the tough weekend we had, they were extremely patient and perseverant throughout.
“To win at a track which we’ve never driven or tested is the cherry on the cake, and it isn’t just any other circuit but a place like Nurburgring which is steeped in motor racing history”, quipped Sailesh on the brink of emotions.
The first win is always the most memorable but Sailesh’s focus remains firmly on the job ahead.
“You first win in a new series is always a great feeling, but it surely can’t be our last given the task ahead. We have some exceptionally strong competition so there is no way we can afford to lay back and relax.”
For the team, it is all systems go for Rockingham, scheduled for June 9th.
“We’ll get back to UK and back to our schedule. Hopefully we’ll get in some testing before the weekend as it is once again going to be a brand new circuit for me.
“This is the critical phase of the championship so we need to push all the way. It is party-time tonight but thereafter it is back to business”, concluded the elated youngster.
“Sailesh did a good job during his stint in the car, we knew it was a comfortable win if Sailesh just kept his head cool and drive without making any mistakes, which he did!”, said Phil Glew.
Lotus Sport UK Team principal, Gary Ayles said “Sailesh showed a great performance today, but he could have done better provided he gets more practice on the circuits! This win has increased my responsibility of giving him better training
and keeping this in mind, we are trying to make the necessary arrangements to get him more comfortable in the coming races”.
Hinwil, 16 May 2012: In a major announcement, Peter Sauber said that he has taken a decision in the interests of continuity, to transfer a third of the stake in the Sauber Group to Dehradun-born Monisha Kaltenborn (formerly Narang). Kaltenborn. Peter Sauber, the Team Principal and President of the Board of Directors of all Sauber Group companies, will retain the remaining two thirds, according to Press Release by Sauber F1 team today.
“When BMW pulled out of Formula One in 2009, Monisha Kaltenborn was instrumental in the team’s survival and since then she has been doing outstanding work in her capacity as CEO,” says Peter Sauber.
“Transferring one third of the stake to her represents an important step for me in providing continuity. My desire is to ensure that the company continues to be led as I would want over the long term. Monisha Kaltenborn and my son Alex, who joined the company as Marketing Director in 2010 and has since also been a member of the Board of Management, both embrace this aim. It means we can offer our employees a positive outlook for the future.”
CEO Monisha Kaltenborn adds: “For me this step is a mark of the greatest possible trust, which I will do everything in my power to justify.”
Monisha, who completed 41 last Thursday, lives with her two children in Kusnacht, near the Sauber factory in Switzerland, when she is not globe-trotting with the F1 bandwagon.
Lewis Hamilton of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team finishes on way to a successful pit stop in the Spanish GP for a second place which keeps him in the third place in the drivers' championship with 53 points. Vodafone McLaren photo.
DRIVERS
1 – Pastor MALDONADO (Williams)
2 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)
3 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus)
TV UNILATERAL
Pastor, your first victory, brilliantly judged – describe your emotions?
Pastor MALDONADO: I think it’s a wonderful day, not just for me but for all the team. We have been pushing so hard since last year to try to improve race by race and here we are. Yesterday we were here after a great qualifying and today we did it again. It was a tough race because the strategy as well, it was tough especially because of the rear tyres – after a couple of laps we were struggling with [them]. I need to say I’m pretty happy because the car was so competitive since the first lap. Fernando did a better start than me but I was just following the pace and it was so great. It’s my first podium and my first victory and you can imagine what I feel.
Fernando, second today and obviously a lot of progress for you and the team. And once again a blinding start.
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, it was a fantastic start again. The team prepared quite nice again the clutch and everything – the procedure to do a good start. It was close on the straight until Turn One with Pastor, and then we had the better side, the inside. We took the momentum there and we led the race for the first part but then William’s anticipated the stop and get in front and at the end it was close. We had a newer tyre than Pastor and we tried a couple of times but it was not possible out of the last corner. Then in the very last laps I felt the car was strange, we lost a lot of grip. Maybe we lost some aerodynamic part or something because we were very slow… (inaudible) …we were lucky at the end. Second place at home feels fantastic and thanks to the people that came here and the people at home and hopefully a step forward in terms of championship possibilities.
Kimi, third today. You were a lot of people’s favourite going into this grand prix. Do you think you and the team made all the right choices this afternoon?
Kimi RAIKKONEN: We have to look. I’m a bit disappointed. I expected us to be a bit stronger in the race, especially at the beginning. At the end we were very good, but it was too late. We were not fast enough and quick enough to race and that’s why we couldn’t fight for a win. But we showed in the end that we have to speed but we just have to look at what we did. Maybe we took the wrong choice in the first pit stop. In the end, like I said we were not fast enough in the beginning and that cost us the race, so I was not so disappointed during the race because I saw that I couldn’t follow them at the beginning. But at the end when you catch them up almost 20 seconds then you get a bit of a disappointed feeling afterwards, when you just needed a few laps to be even able to fight for the first place. That’s racing and at least I scored some good points and we’re going in the right direction.
Back to you Pastor and this is the first Williams win since 2004. They managed to get you to jump Fernando at the second round of pit stops but he gave you some real pressure at the end didn’t he?
PM: Yeah, it was so close. We were looking to manage the tyre degradation so I wasn’t pushing that hard, just to keep the tyres alive for the end of the race and Fernando got too close. There were some moments that he was so close, especially at the end of the straight. But I was managing the gap and controlling everything. I think our pace today was pretty strong and the car looks fantastic. Even the team. We did a small mistake at the last pit stop but it doesn’t affect our performance.
Fernando, describe your feelings at the second stop when Pastor jumped you because you were caught up behind a backmarker in that critical lap weren’t you?
FA: Yeah, we were a little bit unlucky maybe. We had a Marussia but I think he got a penalty at the end. Obviously, it’s not a solution now but hopefully people start to understand that they need to respect the rules and today again they didn’t and they paid the penalty. It’s more of a penalty the penalty we paid – maybe the race win – but yeah a little bit disappointed. But they [Williams] did a great job and they had the pace, because in the last stint, if we were faster than the Williams we had the opportunity to overtake but they were quicker than us so thy deserve the victory.
Kimi, it’s the second podium for you in a row. Do you feel a win is around the corner?
KR: Yeah, twice already. Unfortunately you’re not always going to get there. If you get the chance, you should take it because it’s not every race that you will be able to fight for that position or even try it. Hopefully we can keep doing what we’re doing now and at a certain point I’m sure that things will go exactly right and we can. But so far it’s been a good step and the car has been strong everywhere. The next race is a bit different – Monaco – it’s hard to say how it goes there. The team has done a good job and we have still work to do, things to improve. But so far it’s going in a good way and I’m happy with it. OK, we’re not 100% happy with it because we are not winning but that’s a very normal thing and I’m happy for the team.
As Kimi says, we go to Monaco next Pastor. That’s one of your favourite tracks. What chance a back-to-back victory for you?
PM: I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for us to be strong again. For sure I will be doing my best on the driving. The team is looking after the car so we need to continue like that. Keep pushing with the car, to develop it as soon as possible and consistency will be the important thing in this championship.
PRESS CONFERENCE
When did you think you could win, because obviously there have been changing emotions, obviously you were second on the grid and then first on the grid and then obviously the start etc., When did you think this was possible?
PM: After the qualifying. Y’know, it was so great to start from the head, from the front and for sure the team did a great job to give me a car and I did my job on the qualifying. And then starting from the pole it’s much easier, everything.
And then obviously overtaken at the start…
PM: Yes, our start wasn’t that great, Fernando had one better than us but after the first lap the pace was very competitive, the car looks very good and we were looking at the strategy, that’s it.
And what about the tyres at the end? Because obviously Fernando closed on you and then dropped back.
PM: When Fernando got close I was looking after the tyres, I didn’t push that much, just because the big tyre degradation. We did an extremely good strategy today, everything under control, even some moments when Fernando got too close but we had a little bit better traction than him, using KERS and everything. So it was managing the race, looking for the gaps and the pace.
You must have thought that with KERS, him within a second, at any moment it was going to happen – but it never did.
PM: For sure it was difficult from this morning because the gaps are so close between the top teams at the moment. When I saw that I was second in the first corner, ‘OK’, I said, ‘the race is going to be long. We need to keep pushing, we need to prepare to change our strategy just to attack Ferrari and we did it. Everything was perfect, except the last pitstop. We had a big moment there but it doesn’t affect our final result.
Fernando, you got so close, right up there, and then it just went away I guess, and then by the end it looked as though you really were struggling on the tyres.
FA: Yeah, it was close with ten laps to go, ten laps to the end. We were attacking Pastor when we were closing to within one second but then the last seven or eight laps we lost the grip, around Turn Seven I felt. I informed the team some corners after, in Turn Nine, to check if everything is OK because maybe we lost some aerodynamic part of the front wing or under the floor or something because we had no more grip at all. So, from that point the last seven laps, it was monitoring the distance and the gap with Kimi. We knew it was a very long last seven laps. At the end it was close. I think one lap more and Kimi overtake us. So we were lucky at the end and happy – happy with the weekend in general, not only with the race, because we had a very strong weekend, on Fridays with good practice, the car felt more or less competitive yesterday. I think we extract everything from the car again, maximise the potential of what we have in our hands and today the start was great, the race pace was good, at one point we were lapping one Red Bull in front of us with the blue flags, so… it’s very strange. We were 57 seconds behind Vettel in Bahrain, and we were lapping Webber here. No one understands probably. Not us either.
It really was that sudden when you lost the grip? It was almost like a switch.
FA: Yeah, yeah, it was in turn seven, over the kerb maybe, something fall out of the car or something, we need to check. But it was difficult. As Pastor said, in the last corner, turn 16, it’s difficult to follow anyone after the chicane, so we knew that when you lose the position at the pitstop, you have to have a big pace advantage if you want to overtake someone. With the difference and with the pace that Williams had today, we knew it was difficult.
I suppose everybody in Italy wants to know, has Ferrari turned the corner? Are you now back in front again?
FA: We’ll see. I think when we are first and second in one qualifying and first and second in one race, we have to say that we have the best car. Until that moment we are fighting. I think this year is very difficult to have a pace advantage or to be happy with the car you have in your hands, because everything is so close. Consistency and continuous development will be important in this championship because two-tenths can be six or seven positions in one qualifying this year. But what we can say is we have probably the most difficult start of the championship in these three years in Ferrari, with a car that was not competitive at all, and we finish the first quarter of the championship, so this is the fifth race out of 20, and we are leading the championship, or the same points as Vettel, so we have to be very, very proud and very happy with the points we achieved and with the position. Maybe we have not to be so proud about how competitive we are but we are working on that.
Kimi, tell us about the start, because that pretty much established your race.
KR: Yeah, I had a pretty good start, nothing to complain about. I thought I would get the chance to overtake outside both of the first two but I didn’t have enough speed in a straight line – I actually hit the limiter I think in fifth gear which kind of stopped my acceleration a bit but after that I didn’t have the speed to hang on and hound them. I was pulling away from the guys behind me but I couldn’t stay. The first stint was pretty OK but the second, I chose the soft tyre and I didn’t have the speed to keep up with them. I’m a bit disappointed but I just tried to fight and then we changed the tyres and it seemed to turn out to be pretty good but we were just too far away. We need, like, ten more laps and then I think we could have been fighting for the win.
Absolute charge at the end, your tyres were OK?
KR: Yes, it was OK. I had two new sets of Prime but unfortunately I didn’t have more sets of Prime anyhow to put in the first pitstop. The car was very good but just a bit too late for me. We fall off too much in the last stint to be able to fight for the win. But one more lap we could probably could have got Fernando – but it’s easy to say after.
And what did you tell the Finnish viewers just now?
KR: It’s Mothers’ Day in Finland.
So Happy Mothers’ Day?
KR: Yeah. I had nothing else to say to Finnish viewers.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) Kimi, second place in Bahrain, third place in Spain; is this the maximum for you or can you win?
KR: The fact is the reason why I’m disappointed is because in the end if we have done everything right, we could have put ourselves into first place. The car has been fast enough but we’ve been doing small things not correctly and I’ve done some mistakes on my side but if everything was 100 percent OK we could have won. There’s no issue with the speed of the car, but it’s so close between all the teams and drivers that if you have a small problem or a small issue during the weekend then it’s going to cost you a lot. If you’re three tenths behind then you’re suddenly not in the last qualifying. As you give yourself the chance to be fighting at the front, I think our car can do it but everything has to fall in the right place to be able to win.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) Pastor, you are now a national hero. Are you ready?
PM: For sure everyone is so happy in my country. I’m very lucky to have a country behind me, pushing so hard, to see me here in Formula One and especially to be here, between these guys. I’m pretty happy for Venezuela, I’m happy for Williams as well. They did a wonderful job to give me a great car for this race. We are getting better and better, race after race.
Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, after the first five races, and all the problems you’re supposed to have in your team, no one has scored more points than you have now. How much more confident are you today than you were on Thursday, or on the inside were you expecting this?
FA: No, I am a definitely surprised by the quantity of points that we have; I’m a bit surprised by today’s result, or the weekend’s results. We were confident of improving the car, we were hoping for some signs of improvement here in Barcelona. As I said, in Bahrain, we were nearly out of Q3 and then in the race, P9, one minute behind the leaders, so we arrived in Barcelona with some hope, some optimism about the upgrades but I think the result, the overall weekend pace has been a little bit better than expected, because we were quick in qualifying and quick in the race but this, in my opinion or how I feel after the weekend, I still don’t know where we are. I think we need to wait for more races, for the championship to stabilise a little bit because I think we maybe over-performed a little bit compared with the potential we have and maybe some other teams under-performed or they had some problems to get their tyres working or something, because, as I said, some of the results that we saw this weekend feel very strange.
Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, if we take a look at the race, maybe it was a bad decision to stop so late after Pastor after you’d had the problem with the Marussia because it’s so important in Formula One to stay in front from the aerodynamic point of view.
FA: Yeah, obviously you never know. After the race it’s always easier to review the strategy. The choice was always to stop on the same lap or one lap later than Pastor, always try to cover the position. When Williams decided to stop in the second pit stop, we had one Marussia in front of us for a lap and a half. When we saw that in the second sector, we were already exiting behind Pastor so at that point, we decided to keep going for a few more laps and try to get the opportunity at the end of the race, with a shorter stint. I think we didn’t lose the win because of the Marussia because if you had the pace in the last stint, you had to overtake Pastor and we didn’t because they were faster than us, but for sure, we went out of the plan because of the backmarker.
Q: (Jaime Rodriguez – El Mundo) Pastor, could you explain the start of the race, because you had a good fight with Fernando, and I want to know if you’ve received congratulations from your president in Venezuela?
PM: You know it wasn’t the best start ever from us. I think the clutch slipped quite a lot. Fernando had a better jump than us. It was so close, I tried to defend the position but he was already on the better part of the track, so I decided to back off and follow him. At that moment, I thought that the race was long and we changed our strategy, to attack Ferrari. I think from the second stop we did pretty good and I think we surprised them because we did it so early.
And the call? No, not yet because I was on the podium before, so no time to even see my family, my people. Maybe he will call. I don’t know.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Fernando and Kimi, did you believe that Pastor could be your main rival today, and if not, how big a surprise is it?
FA: Yeah, I think so. We saw in general that during the weekend that Williams was good. Lewis was maybe the favourite for this race after the pace we saw from Ferrari on Friday and the pole position by half a second yesterday. With Lewis’s penalty, Pastor was the strongest at the front so no surprises.
KR: Williams have been quite fast for two races in certain points and I think, as we’ve said before, it’s very difficult to say who is really the quickest overall because at one race one team is there and then suddenly they are tenth in the next race, so it’s bit of an odd situation where we are this year, but it gives a lot of chances for all the teams who have the speed and when the tyres are working for them they are much better than the others. The tyres seem to be the key thing. If you get them working well you seem to be fast. Sometimes you just drop out of the window a little bit and you have a hard time.
Q: (Marco degli Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Pastor you are the fifth winner in five races, so the top of the field seems to be very close. Do you put Williams and yourself among the possible winners of the championship?
PM: For sure we are a little bit backwards compared with the leaders, with Fernando and Vettel, but we need to keep working. We are not the best team at the moment. The car looked pretty good today, but I think we need to keep pushing some particulars at Williams, especially in the car, but everything is possible. The gaps are so close at the moment, I’m driving well, I have a good feeling with the team, with the car, so everything is possible. For sure we are looking to do our best, looking forward to winning some races, to getting a couple more podiums and I’m really happy because the team hasn’t won many races for many years so this is a great moment for us. I hope to continue like that.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Pastor, you were in the same team last season. When you finished the season you were in front of only three teams: Marussia, Hispania and Caterham, and now you are in front of all of them; what has happened to explain such a change in performance from one season to another?
PM: We made big changes in the factory, we have new staff in some of the departments and completely changed the approach to building the car. I need to say that this year’s car has great performance, great potential to become even stronger than it is and for sure, this is great for motivation, to motivate the team, the factory, to keep pushing like that. I think this is the way. We are motivated and we need to keep pushing.
Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Pastor, it looks like this could be a very long Sunday in Venezuela. Do you have any information as to what’s going on now or can you imagine what might happen there?
PM: I can imagine that there will be a party everywhere but I don’t know at the moment. I need to see some of the fans, my family there. I think everybody who saw the race and for sure all the people are happy at the moment and this is great for Venezuela after nearly thirty years without any driver in Formula One, so I think it’s a great moment for our country.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando, you have already said that at the moment everything is possible and not many things are explainable which is very strange for Formula One. I don’t think we ever had this situation before. Do you, as a driver, enjoy this uncertainty or would you like to have some more answers on open questions?
FA: I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer. We probably like the unknown situation that we have now, so you arrive in Monaco next Wednesday and you don’t know if you will be a winner or if you will be out of the points. That’s what we feel at the moment, not only for us. But in a way, after eleven years in Formula One and seeing Ferrari dominate most of them, now that I’m at Ferrari, I would like to have more stability and a dominant car.
Lewis Hamilton qualifies to get the 150th pole for McLaren on Saturday. A Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 team photo.
DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren)
2 – Pastor MALDONADO (Williams)
3 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)
TV UNILATERAL
Lewis, McLaren’s 150th Formula One pole position today. You really had to manage to the process though, particularly with the tyres. You were in the groove from the start, but what happened at the end when you stopped out on the track?
Lewis HAMILTON: Well, firstly it was a fantastic qualifying session for me. Really, I’m very happy with the way… I think it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever had. Amazing job by the guys in the garage. Huge thanks to the guys in the factory for bringing us the upgrades, which have worked fantastically. I stopped on the track. I was told to stop. I don’t really have any idea why. But the car was feeling great today. It’s a great day for the team, I think. I don’t know what happened with Jenson, but he’s got great strength and pace throughout the race, so I have no doubt that he will make his way up through the grid.
Pastor, a sensational session for you and Williams. Where did you find the speed from?
Pastor MALDONADO: I think we’ve been working so hard from the beginning of the year trying to understand these tyres and to develop our car around the tyres and I think we actually did a really good step forward for this race. We need to continue to like that, keep pushing. I think at the moment there is a great atmosphere in the factory, a great atmosphere here in the team, the car looks pretty consistent and fantastic, especially in the race pace, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It’s a great feeling to be here, it’s my first time in the top three, so I’m really happy and hopefully we will continue like that and I would like to say thanks to the whole team.
Fernando, a lot of updates also on the Ferrari. Are you heading in the right direction now?
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, I think so. Obviously for us it was impossible to even dream about being in the top three in the four races, we just had eyes on Q3 with no new set [of tyres] left or anything like that, so definitely it’s a step forward. The grid is so compact now that if you improve two or three tenths it makes a huge difference in terms of positions: five or six positions. So we did a step forward. I still doubt how much we did, because I think maybe P3 is a little bit over-performing what we can do at the moment. But I’m extremely happy with the lap; it was perfect. I don’t think there is much more to come. I think I could put 100 more sets of tyres on and I could only repeat the lap time probably. It is the way it is. I’m extremely happy for today and hopefully we maximise or capitalise on this good starting position tomorrow with a good result.
Back to you Lewis. Obviously a lot of tyre tactics going on in qualifying today. What about the race tomorrow? What’s your read on how things are going to shape up and what kind of shape do you feel you’re in to become the fifth different race winner in five races?
LH: Well, we’ve looked after our prime tyres, which is generally the better tyre for the race, or so it seems at the moment – the longer lasting tyre. Also the option tyres are all in good condition so… I think it’s going to be a massively tough race tomorrow. Of course, I’ve got these two great drivers next to me. I’m really happy to see this guy [Pastor Maldonado] up here and to see Williams up here and also Fernando. It’s really great to see my old team-mate up here as well and I’m going to have a great battle with these guys and I really hope we’re going to put on a great show for all the fans.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Lewis, congratulations. That was a great lap at the end. You must be so satisfied with it?
LH: I really am. I think every time you go out, every time you qualify you’re searching for that perfect lap. You’re searching to put the car in just the right sweet spot, where you’re gaining all the time you could possibly gain and you’re not losing anywhere and I really felt that throughout Q1, Q2 and Q3… after Q1 I was like ‘damn, that should have been my Q3 lap’ but I was really grateful that I was able to continue that throughout the session and yeah, fantastic feeling really – overwhelmed.
Lewis, you’ve started third on the grid here for the last three years and you haven’t yet won this grand prix, you’ve been twice second. Do you really want to tick this box, win this grand prix, one of the ones you haven’t yet won?
LH: Well I’m very much aware that I have an incredibly tough race tomorrow with these guys who are massively quick – also on their long runs – and just how tricky it is in general. But it would mean a huge amount for me to win here in Spain. It’s always been a great place for me, it’s beautiful weather all the time and the people are just incredible and the support that I’ve had continues to grow year by year. And it’s become such a pleasure for me to come here. So, to win at one of the circuits where they have one of the biggest fan bases for Formula One in general, would be fantastic.
Can you explain why there should be such changing fortune, even between team-mates? For example, your team-mate didn’t get through to Q3, his [Maldonado’s] team-mate didn’t get through into Q2 even and his [Alonso’s] team-mate starts 17th. It seems extraordinary the changing fortunes even for team-mates.
LH: I think it’s surprising all of us. We are all very surprised. Obviously we are very happy that we’re up here! It just fantastic to see how close it is. You lose a tenth or two, that means you have to use your next set of tyres which then has a knock-on effect for the next session if you do or don’t get through. And so it’s massively competitive and it’s great for… I’m sure the fans are loving it – maybe not enjoying Q3 so much, but we definitely did.
Pastor, where did it come from? How much did you get sorted out in Mugello? Do you think it’s a knock-on effect after Mugello?
PM: I think all the guys in the factory did a wonderful job because the upgrades we have for this race, everything is working on the car. I was pretty happy yesterday in the free practice and the balance is there. Even though our strongest point has always been in the race, so I’m looking forward for tomorrow. Actually we improved – our worst thing was the qualifying pace so pretty happy for that, pretty happy for the team, for my country, for myself. It’s a great job today.
Is this a favourite circuit, one of your best? I know Bruno [Senna] said it was one of his favourite circuits…
PM: I think all of us, we know very well this circuit, we enjoy this circuit because of the combination of corners we find here, even the teams know very well. I think we have been working so hard in the winter tests here and so we find a good balance in the car and a good compromise for quali and race.
Did you feel yesterday ‘hey, we can really do something here’? Did you already feel that yesterday?
PM: Yes. I think yesterday we were thinking about top ten, it was possible. This morning I was quite surprised about our performance because the car was so quick with lower fuel. This morning it was possible.
Fernando, I don’t think anyone was ever going to discount you here. I don’t know what it was, maybe the crowd, or Ferrari etc, etc, How much satisfaction, third on the grid?
FA: Really happy. No doubt that this is a special weekend for me. And as I said on Thursday, there is always some extra motivation, some over-performing a little bit of what you have on hand, and yeah, thanks to the updates we had here, definitely we did a step forward, in the right direction because we hardly get into Q3 in the first four races and now we arrive with a little bit more comfortable way and then in Q3 the lap was good. I said before in the other conference with another hundred new tyres I would repeat the same time – I don’t think there is any time left. But the points are given tomorrow, not today. We did as much as we could today and we are happy to start in a much better position that what we did in the previous grands prix. But we need the points tomorrow. Especially… the grid positions are mixed a little bit as you said, with some of the people that are in front of us in the championship, they start at the back tomorrow – so we need to take benefit of this good position today and score more points than them.
We remember in particular your start last year. Are we going to see a repeat of that?
FA: I’ll tell you tomorrow. Definitely, a little bit like Pastor and Williams, our race pace is much better than qualifying pace – that is normally our weakest point and we suffer on Saturday some bad positions and then compromise a little bit our race pace. So tomorrow we have a privileged position to start, so the first corner will be important if we can gain some positions, but it’s important also not to lose. The race tomorrow is very long with the tyre degradation and, as I said, we must score points tomorrow, good points, with this position we have. So, aggressive start yes, crazy start not.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, will you be happy tomorrow repeating this position or will you be looking for something more?
FA: You never know in Formula One. I think a podium position, we tend to agree in the team, if someone tells us two or three days ago, before coming to Barcelona, or after the Mugello test, that in Barcelona you will be on the podium, I think we all agree, we all be happy with that position. Today, obviously with this position, that dream or that target is closer. But I think the race is very long tomorrow and we saw even in Bahrain, Kimi started ninth, (11th), he was P10 or P11 in lap one and he nearly won the race in the end, so the positions are not crucial anymore as previous years. I think it will be an extremely tough race tomorrow to take care of the tyres again. Degradation, DRS, KERS to overtake. Pitstop strategy, we will see probably a lot of pitstops for everybody. The more pitstops you have, the more risk you have to have a problem in the pits. There are a lot of factors tomorrow that we need to take account. It will be a difficult race. A podium, I think, will be a good result for us and happy.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) Lewis, are you happy? What are you feeling now? What do you think about tomorrow, this position?
LH: I really feel fantastic. I’m very, very happy. Normally you can always be happy with a pole position of course, but for some reason even more so this time than maybe any other qualifying that I’ve had, except for the first pole position I have had in Formula One. Just because, as I was just saying, you’re always looking for that perfect lap, and I really, really felt that I got everything just, just sweet there and got absolutely everything out of my car. I didn’t miss apexes or anything like that. It’s an incredibly feeling when you have that. It’s really just a very unique experience. But tomorrow’s going to be a tough race. As you were just saying, Fernando had a great start here last year and it’s such a long drive down to turn one – but he was also saying people are coming to win from quite far back, or to compete for wins from quite far back, so tomorrow’s just going to be about looking after your tyres, getting the right pitstops at the right times and really being patient, I think, at the most important times during the race.
Q: (Fulvio Solms – Corriere Dello Sport) To all three drivers; they have chosen new rules and tyres to have an unpredictable Formula One. Do you think this championship is just unpredictable, or technically less logical as well?
FA: I don’t think they choose the tyres for the championship to be unpredictable. We have the tyres that we have.
LH: I’m not sure that they were expecting it to be as it is, but I definitely think that it is a bit unpredictable at the moment, massively close. There have been several different winners in the races and you can make such a big difference, if you don’t finish one race but then you win the next race, it can still keep you in contention so it feels for me – out of all the championships that I’ve been in – it feels to me to be one of the most exciting ones. Regardless if I haven’t won yet, it just feels like one of the best, I imagine, for people to watch.
PM: I think that the tyres are the same for everybody so all the teams and all the drivers are working hard to adapt ourselves, even the cars to these tyres and to get the best performance we can.
Q: (Marco degli Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Pastor when you reached Williams, there were a lot of people, among journalists too, who expressed doubts about you and they said that you have got the seat because of your rich sponsors and so on. Now, are you convinced that you have proved that you are one of the top drivers, thanks to your qualities?
PM: I’m think that I’m lucky, I’m lucky to have not only a sponsor behind me but also a country behind me, pushing me so hard. Here I am, doing my job, doing my best, trying to improve every time. I have a mission, which is to be back with Williams to the top, so here we are. We still need to keep pushing, to keep improving and I think that is possible.
Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Pastor, congratulations, I want to know about the start tomorrow. What do you think? Is it going to be easier to attack Lewis at the first corner, or defend from Fernando?
PM: I think it’s going to be a very tough race, because not only us three but even the other drivers have a very close pace. Our strongest point was always race pace so hopefully our car will be very consistent and pretty good in the race. I hope to continue like that, I hope to stay in the position, the podium is very important for us, the points, so it’s very important to keep calm and to do good race.
Q: (Laurentzi Garmendia – Berria) Lewis, we have such a close championship in terms of times in qualifying, but I think your gap was over half a second to Pastor. Does it surprise you? It looks like a dominant car.
LH: Yes, I’m definitely surprised to have such a big gap. I wasn’t surprised that it was a good lap because it felt that I switched the tyres on the right way and I feel that I extracted everything but yeah, considering that all the sessions are so close, all the teams are so close, I definitely wasn’t expecting to have such a big gap. That’s quite a big gap for us but we definitely can’t take it for granted. I think we’ll go to other races and it will be slower and in some races we will be faster but we really, really hope that with the continuous upgrades that we get we can try to maintain the pace that we have, especially through qualifying but most importantly to try and improve through the race.
Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Fernando and Lewis: I think we all agree that it’s a good thing when Williams is doing well in Formula One and both of you have had moments this year when you’ve been racing with Pastor or the other Williams driver. I wonder if either of you or both of you could tell me where the car has strong points that you’ve noticed while racing with it on the circuit.
LH: I can’t remember exactly what your strong points are but for me it’s fantastic to see Williams up here, really, really very happy for them. I know Sir Frank quite well since I’ve been here and I’m a huge admirer of him and his team and to see them up here again, I think Formula One’s just not been the same without Williams being at the front, competing. So it’s good, it’s great for them and for the whole team. I’ve always thought they had quite a good car, it always looked quite beautiful but I think this year it’s performing as well as looking good, so we’ll definitely be on our toes to try and make sure we’re ahead of them.
FA: Yeah, I don’t know. Obviously I fight a little bit more with them than Lewis probably in these four races. The car looks strong in race pace as Pastor said and basically taking care of the tyres. I remember in China they did like 32 laps with the same set of tyres that no one could adapt to. Apart from the car, they are doing a very good job, setting up the car with the engineers – I know some of them, very talented and a fantastic job from the drivers as well. Pastor has this year proved, not only today, but many times this year that he’s doing a fantastic job, also with Bruno but less lucky sometimes. In Australia, on the last lap, Pastor crashed behind me but I was already fighting in the top five so it’s not new that he’s fighting in these top positions so well done to all of them.
Q: (Jaime Rogriguez – El Mundo) Fernando, after the last free practice this morning, did you imagine that after qualifying could be fighting for pole? When did you feel the real change in the car?
FA: No, obviously this morning’s practice we didn’t think we could be in the top five or top six. I think P8 to P12 was more or less our position after practice, same as after yesterday’s practice as well, that we were fastest in the morning and P14 in the afternoon, so we were something in between those positions in practice as well. Yeah, I’m happy and a little bit surprised to be in front of one McLaren, both Red Bulls, both Lotuses, so definitely this is not what we were expecting but qualifying went like this, it went our way this time and as I said, today means nothing if we don’t finish the job tomorrow.
Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta ) Fernando, are you worried that you might not to be able to finish the race in the same position you are in now, or are you worried the rhythm of the Renault – because they were very strong on Friday – and maybe some of the guys behind. I ask about Kimi because I think he could be a contender for the race.
FA: Yeah, yeah, definitely, the Lotus will be a threat tomorrow, starting fourth and fifth. They’ve been quick all weekend so tomorrow no surprises if they are fighting for the podium or even for a race win. Sebastian is P8 so he will be fighting for a top position later in the race. With Jenson and Mark having the possibility to chose which tyres to start on, I’m sure that they will prepare something good to recover position because they have the pace. They had the pace yesterday in FP2 and I’m sure that tomorrow they will be quick. The race will be tough to maintain positions because we believe that there are quicker cars behind us but let’s see what we can do. On the other hand, this is not an easy track to overtake on,
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) The forecast for tomorrow is significantly cooler, can that change the picture that some cars which hadn’t been up to speed today might fall into the operating window of the tyres tomorrow?
LH: I think it could be the opposite. If people are struggling today to switch their tyres on then potentially they would struggle even more if it was cooler but that is a real tricky situation to be in, that sometimes three tyres come in and one, your left front doesn’t work and then you just have understeer and you don’t get the time. If it is the case and it’s cooler tomorrow it will be tough for everyone, even the guys who did switch their tyres on today.
FA: Maybe rain.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all drivers: you approach the times that you registered in winter testing today, with the same tyres but 20 degrees hotter asphalt. Can you make an analysis about this?
LH: Did we do these times in the winter?
FA: Yes, 21.6s for Grosjean in winter I think. We did 22.2s, we did 22.5s today, something like that. I think the cars improved a lot between February and now but the temperature… we know that the hotter it is the slower you are. It happens in the winter as well. If you do your best time at 9 ‘o clock in the morning, then you cannot repeat those times in the afternoon. In a way that shows how much the cars improved for everybody from February to here. It’s good.
PM: I agree. I think today was a bit more windy, which is a penalty for everybody.
