Q: Michael, fifth to third, at least you made up a couple of places but even so I don't suppose it was what you were hoping for
MS: Yeah, you always hope for better but realistically, from how the race developed falling back with Jarno actually it is quite reasonable to end up third.

Q: What about the car during the race - at times you were perhaps a couple of seconds off the pace, but that probably had something to do with fuel, obviously
MS: Yeah, obviously the strategy was staggered differently to others but I wouldn't say the situation was the greatest with my second set. I really struggled up to a certain point and then it got going but at the end of the day I think it would have been very difficult to jump another position.

Q: Then at the end you were catching these two, what was going to be your tactics then?
MS: See and wait. You never know what happens.

Q: But otherwise, obviously, six points. Not too bad
MS: Yep, that's the way you have to see it. We lose another two in terms of the championship, it is back to four, but it could have been worse.

Questions From The Floor

Q: Michael, given the expectations of the 2003 car, is this weekend a surprise and a real setback?
MS: I think it is nothing to do with the car, honestly. It is nothing to do with the car so there is no surprise if sometimes we don't win a race, that's the way it goes. These certain conditions, probably it is fair to say in the tyre side, it is fair to say we didn't look too good this weekend.

Q: So it was just strategy and tyres then was it?
MS: To some degree, if you look at our pace we were not far off but we were not in front and I would put that down to the tyres.

Q: Michael, it may be hindsight, but looking back at yesterday obviously you qualified relatively heavy. Was that a bit of a miscalculation with the one-lap pace of the tyre?
MS: I don't think it was a wrong calculation we did because if you see with the more laps I managed to jump two positions because I was longer out and I put in very fast lap times. We probably, if we could have known that, we should have put in just a little less fuel to jump Trulli and then it would have been a little bit easier but how you know that…You have to make up your mind and sometimes you are better, sometimes you are a little bit worse and that is the way it goes.

Q: To Michael, were you using the same kind of tyre on Thursday and Saturday because you were really fast on Thursday and Saturday not so much
MS: If you don't mind I will just tell you that we use Bridgestones.

Q: Michael, may I just ask you what happened in between say laps 38 and a bit later on like 46 or 47. You seemed to be a bit off the pace, just lapping over 1m16. Were you just struggling in traffic or was it something with tyres?
MS: No. I guess it was something within the tyres because in certain periods I simply couldn't achieve the lap times anywhere.

Q: Michael, you said your Ferrari is a fantastic car, maybe better than the old car. After this race, have you the same opinion or not?
MS: I don't think I need to answer this, huh?

Q: To all of you, at the beginning of the race it seems the last corner of the track was not so clean. Was it a problem for you?
MS: Just to say, if you saw after the Porsche race I think all of us were expecting a lot worse conditions but actually the marshals did a good job.

Q: Michael, last year you had a great technical advantage. This year you are not leading the championship and you were third in this race. Is it the new regulations of have the others caught up?
MS: I think simply the competition is much closer. It is very clear. If you see even other races, like Barcelona last year, we were miles ahead and this year it was a tough fight so it has just got much more together.

Q: Michael, the last ten or fifteen laps it was great for us and the crowd, it was very exciting. But as you were closing up you must have known that you were depending on a mistake to happen for you. Were you enjoying chasing the other two?
MS: Yes. To some degree you do enjoy catching up then you just wait for your opportunity because the race finishes when the chequered flag comes out and not before. From my point of view I wanted to race until then and see what happened because I knew those two guys were very close and maybe one tries to overtake the other and something occurs from this.