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

Questions from the floor

Q: (Fr?deric Ferret - l'Equipe)
Question to Kimi and Robert: you're still in the battle for the championship, how do you rate your chances?

Kimi Raikkonen:
I don't even know the points' situation now. There's always a chance. It's not going to be easy but we saw today that the guys in front of us were quite excited. Anything can happen, they can crash again and we could end up in front. But I'm in the worst position out of the four guys. I saw last year that things can go right or wrong, so we keep pushing and trying.

Robert Kubica:
I think you at least have to try, there is nothing to lose; as Kimi says, everything is possible. I think Kimi showed last year that anything is possible. The difference is that I have two guys in front of me, not one and at normal pace it's no secret that we are not as fast as Massa and Hamilton, so life is a bit more difficult but everything can still happen.

Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat)
To Robert and Kimi: you had a similar fight in Hockenheim with bad tyres. How hard is it to keep Kimi behind and for Kimi: is Robert the most difficult guy to try to overtake?

KR:
I think all of them are more or less similar. Some are a bit more aggressive but it depends a lot on how your car is handling at that stage of the race and on different circuits. Sometimes you have a lot of difficulties and sometimes it's easier to get past people but I think the differences are not very big and on this kind of circuit, you probably have one or two places to overtake. I couldn't get close enough, early enough. It was a good fight but I lost it, so next time I try again.

RK:
From my point of view, it was not so easy but I knew that it was only possible for him to overtake me under braking into the first corner. I was trying to exit the last corner as fast as possible to get as much speed as possible but of course with the tow he was catching me. I had quite a lot of problems with graining, so I was hoping the graining phase would soon finish, so I was also trying to clean the front tyres with quite aggressive driving into the hairpin, just to try to pull out of this graining phase. For four or five laps it was very difficult and then I was able to pull away and that was that.

Q: (Juha P??talo - Financial Times Deutschland)
Robert, you said that your car is probably not as fast as Hamilton's and Massa's car but today's race showed again that everything seems to be possible with these tyres, especially in the second stint when you could easily match Kimi's pace. Do you think that's a possibility for you?

RK:
Well, I was able to keep pace with Kimi but I was not able to keep up with Fernando's pace. They were quicker, this time Renault was very strong. We were lucky that Piquet made a mistake in qualifying otherwise he would also have been there. We saw yesterday in qualifying that I just made it into Q2 by two tenths, so the pace was not fantastic. I managed to have really good pace throughout the race with consistent driving, not really exaggerating, just the right amount of pushing and just taking care of the tyres and it worked out. But to be honest, I think in normal conditions it's very difficult to beat Felipe and Lewis, but as I said, everything can happen and the last three races - in Singapore, Monza and here - are good examples.

Q: (Fr?deric Ferret - l'Equipe)
Kimi, were you surprised to be doing the same lap times as Robert ahead of you in the second stint? Do you think that had something to do with the damage to the front end of the car?

KR:
As I said, we hoped to have a little more speed today. I was catching up sometimes and just as the car started to get a bit better I got stuck behind Barrichello in the first part of the lap. I lost around a second at least. It was a crucial moment. And then at the end, just before the pit stop, I caught up Robert a lot but it was a bit too late. It was a close fight but I just didn't have the speed to beat him today. For sure, we expected to have a faster car in the race but it didn't happen today.

Q: (Livio Oricchio - O Estado de Sao Paulo)
To all drivers: the stewards decided to give Lewis Hamilton a drive-through penalty for what happened at the start. Do you consider that was fair?

Fernando Alonso:
I agree.

KR:
I don't know. I didn't see the whole thing. I only saw him when he came up next to me. I'm not sure if he hit me or not but they make their decisions, so I have nothing against it.

RK:
I don't know what happened in the first corner, so it's difficult to judge.

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto Moto und Sport)
Fernando, how much is still missing to Ferrari and McLaren under normal circumstances, in terms of lap time?

FA:
I think about four tenths, half a second. The average disadvantage we find... Okay, there are some circuits where we are a little bit closer, some circuits where it's a little bit more than half a second but I think another four or five tenths would put us in a very strong position.

Q: (Erkki Mustakari - STT)
Fernando, do these two back-to-back victories help you to make up your mind where to drive next season? You said that you will make up your mind after the season is over.

FA:
No, no. I said that I would make a decision after Brazil but it doesn't mean that I don't know what to do. I know what to do but I will announce it after Brazil.

Q: (Fr?deric Ferret - l'Equipe)
Fernando, how do you rate this victory and was it an easy one?

FA:
No, never easy. I think victories are always a combination of things. Obviously, we were lucky to be in fourth place yesterday because with some milliseconds we would have been fifth or sixth and maybe the race was very different. And then the first corner was the key part of the race because the McLarens and the Ferraris were out of [the track at] turn one, so after that my race was with Robert. At this moment I don't think the BMW is maybe as quick as before, so to have to beat Robert was today maybe not easy but he's a friend, so he would slow down if I had the possibility to win!