Post-race press conference - Turkish GP Pt.2.

Drivers: Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), Fernando Alonso (McLaren)

Questions from the floor

Q: (Juha P??talo - Financial Times Germany)
Kimi, you already said that this is your second race in a row where you are following the leading car and you said it's a little bit boring being there, but having said that, you did the fastest lap in both races. Is that just to keep you awake or is it more to try and see how much you can get out of the car?

Kimi Raikkonen:
I think we can get more out of the car if we really push but there's no point in really wasting your second position to push like crazy and maybe go off so... It was just that I wanted to try and see how good the car was and maybe we can learn something. As I said, it's a bit boring because you quite often know, especially after the pit stop, where the other cars will stop and that's it. You know that you cannot really do anything if you don't get past the guys and it's very difficult to get past.

Q: (Sal Zanca - Associated Press)
Fernando, do miracles happen and what did you say to yourself when Hamilton's tyre shredded?

Fernando Alonso: Nothing, to be honest, because the race was still going on, and I had 20 or 18 laps to go or whatever. The team told me on the radio 'be careful because it seems that you may have the same problem that happened on Lewis's car because at the pit stop we are seeing that your tyres are not in perfect shape either, so take care of the car in these last 15 or 18 laps, in order not to have the same problem.' So I wasn't thinking anything special, I was just taking care of my car.

Q: (Ian Parkes - The Press Association)
For all three of you: how much has Lewis's puncture helped your title chances?

FA:
Nothing changes, to be honest. The gap for me is only two points difference, so at the end of the day it's just a second and third place, or a first and second. I'm still losing points from the last two races. If you take Hungary and here, I recovered two points here, I lost five in Hungary, so I'm three worse than what I was in N?rburgring so it's still the same. As long as all four top cars finish all the races, the gaps don't increase or decrease too much, so it's still very open for the last final three races that will probably be the last chance for everybody.

Felipe Massa:
It helped me six points.

KR:
Yeah, it was definitely better for us. We know that anything can happen in a race, we gained more than if we had finished third, so it's helping but there are still many races to go, so we just need to keep pushing and try to win and see what happens.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazzetta dello Sport)
A question for the two Ferrari drivers: did the positions on the grid decide who will stop earlier than the other in the two different stints?

FM:
It was decided yesterday in qualifying. I had one lap more fuel than him (Kimi).

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazzetta dello Sport)
Fernando, your Grand Prix was not very good from the beginning; is it because you don't like this circuit or was there something else that disturbed you during this weekend?

FA:
No, no, nothing special. It's true that from Friday it was not an easy weekend, but we found the pace yesterday in qualifying - especially in Q1 and Q2 the car felt good again. Q3 was looking good until the last new tyre run, so we found the pace there. Today, starting fourth, if I was fourth in turn one I would probably follow everybody, overtaking would maybe be impossible but maybe I was fourth following everybody with no problems. It's true that it hasn't been an easy weekend but nothing was disturbing me.

Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat)
Kimi, is starting from pole the only way to win at Monza also?

KR:
Not really. It depends how much fuel you have against the others but racing with teammates, you know exactly much fuel the other guy has, so when you are in that situation, you pretty much know what will happen in the race. If it's someone else it's a different story but for sure, pole position makes your life easier, you have better chances but it doesn't really decide the race completely.

Q: (Adrian Rodriguez Huber - Agencia Efe)
Fernando, how are your feelings after this one hundredth GP? Are you happy, could you be happier? And of the last five races, which ones do you think will be best for you and how confident do you feel in winning your third title?

FA:
I can't remember the first question any more! The hundredth Grand Prix. I felt good and I'm feeling good now. I feel happy, as I said before, especially because of the result; that was the best news of the weekend. To be on the podium is always a nice feeling and given the start of the race, it was a nice finish to the weekend, to be on the podium. I won't remember this Grand Prix for the rest of my life but it has been quite good at the end. And the chances for the title? They are still there for everybody, still all four drivers - two McLaren and two Ferrari drivers - with possibilities to win the title. You see ups and downs for everybody. It depends on how the weekend goes, how lucky you are in that particular weekend, so five races to go and the better one and the lucky one will win in the end.

Q: (Peter Hesseler - Auto Bild)
Fernando and the Ferrari drivers as well. Is it the wrong impression that you have generally started worse this year or has it changed since the beginning of the year when Ferrari lost some places?

FA:
It's true that our start is probably not the best. We know that the BMWs start really really well, every weekend. For us, it's true that at the beginning of the championship we were having good starts, sometimes overtaking the Ferraris. I remember Malaysia, I remember Australia or I don't know where. Obviously we haven't made our starts worse, we keep improving but for sure the Ferraris did a bigger step forward than us.