Questions from the floor
Q: (Juha Päätalo –
Financial Times Deutschland)
Heikki, you seemed to lose a little bit of time in your first sector on your last attempt. Can you describe what happened there and how happy were you with your lap in general?
Heikki Kovalainen:
Well, I think I mentioned already on the radio to the team that I think I was a little bit cautious in turn two. It was tricky to find the right balance in terms of making the time at the entry and not losing anything at the exit. I think I probably lost a bit of both on my best lap but the middle of the corner was pretty good. You always lose and gain and everyone has these little moments. Overall I think I can be quite happy about the lap. I think there were no big mistakes, just these small adjustments. All the drivers, after every qualifying, they can always say ‘you can do this and that’ but actually doing it is the tricky bit.
Q: (Fréderic Ferret –
l’Equipe)
Felipe, you had trouble with your tyres in qualifying [in Germany], and you said that in Q3 you had trouble heating the tyres. Is it still a problem there?
Felipe Massa:
No, for sure not. It’s completely different problems we had in Hockenheim, so it’s not related to this.
Q: (Ian Parkes –
The Press Association)
Lewis, well done, from where you were after the race in France, has it come as a surprise to you just how much things have turned around and how dominant you’ve been these past few weeks now?
Lewis Hamilton:
Not really. I don’t understand why it should be a surprise. Like I’ve always said, we had a couple of dodgy races but we still had great speed through Montreal, and then even in Magny-Cours we were still quick, so it’s no surprise. There are no miracles. We just work very hard and made some good steps forward.
Q: (Heikki Kulta –
Turun Sanomat)
Heikki, any concern defending your position from the dirtier side of the grid?
HK:
Yeah, it’s not ideal but it’s better to be ahead of the other people. To be honest, as we saw at Hockenheim, I was expecting it to make a bigger difference but it didn’t. So I hope it’s the case here as well. I’m not going to stress myself about it. I’ll attack tomorrow as much as I can at the start and we will see how it works out but I’m not going to lose sleep because of that.
Q: (Jérome Bourret –
l’Equipe)
Heikki, what will be your aim at the start tomorrow: passing Lewis or controlling Felipe and keeping him behind you?
HK:
Ideally both, but we will fight with Lewis and I will try to pass him but he will try to defend. We respect each other and at the end of the day, we are employed by the team and we try to do the best job for the team that we can. But like you saw, at the start of
Silverstone, we do race but we also know where the limit is. I think as it is with the guys at the top in
Formula One, you can push people hard and you race hard but fair. There’s nothing wrong with that.
