Q: Michael, close behind Fernando at the end.
Michael SCHUMACHER: Yeah, thanks to the safety car everybody got together again. It was just a shame that there wasn’t another ten laps left which could have made it a little bit more entertaining. It was very easy to go off line and then to lose a lot of time. A tough race in a way but due to the beginning, it was sort of pre-decided and at a certain moment I just had to drive according to the situation which I did. There was not much more I could do. Obviously when the safety car came out, we went a little bit more on the attack and luckily we gained a position. Q: And of course you were catching Fernando in those last couple of laps; what were your thoughts at that moment?
MS: Yes, as I said, I wished the race could have kept on going for a bit longer but then I don’t know; you really need a mistake although I have to say that in these conditions it is easier to make that kind of mistake which then may lead to an overtaking possibility. But it was as it was, we kept the damage as small as possible. We didn’t have a perfect weekend but we managed to have a good result finally, so we go from here on.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Michael, you had a pretty good view of the Montoya/Rosberg incident. What happened?
MS: They crashed! I will leave it to them to explain.
Q: Then you were stuck behind Jarno Trulli and you were fairly desperate to get passed.
MS: I was, yes. It was a crucial period of the race. We were hoping to do that at the start, which completely failed. Nevertheless, finally I got by, but at the moment it was clear that in order to do something at the front, it would need either a lot of mistakes from the guys and when I pushed to get myself there, naturally you go a little bit wide and that meant several times that I had to go off line as well, and it’s not nice here.
Q: You had a bit of a moment at the hairpin on lap 44 as well.
MS: I ran wide at the same place where Jacques went off but there were certain areas where you simply couldn’t allow yourself to go a centimetre off line because then you were already on the dust.
Q: You had a long first stint; were you tempted to make it a one stop?
MS: Don’t know, need to check the numbers, to see if we could have done or not.
Q: You went to lap 32 which was just short of half distance. You might have gone all the way to the chequered flag from there, not that it would have made any difference in the end, of course.
MS: Absolutely, so I guess that’s what the guys thought.
Q: What about Indianapolis after today?
MS: Look, honestly it all depends on the tyre situation. On the car side, we know what we have for this weekend. We struggled a little bit. We managed to keep the damage as small as possible and get them to work reasonably at the end, but we need to see how much they suit this kind of circuit and I think that’s what we’re going to see towards the end of the season, that one manufacturer is going to be better equipped at one circuit and the other at another. Obviously we have to make sure that we have the majority of that.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Rob Martier – CJAD 800 Radio Montreal) Indianapolis is next on the docket. With what has been said this week by Bernie Ecclestone leading up to the race and Tony George, I was wondering if you guys think we should continue to have a race there?
MS: Yeah, I mean I don’t see any reason not to race at Indy or in the States at all. I mean, to judge the general Formula One picture on one race, I don’t think that’s at all fair, and the people who are not interested don’t come and stay at home, so I’m pretty sure we’re gonna have enough – they’re gonna want to come - if not more (people) to some degree with all the attention that was created by last year.
Q: (Daniel Bastien – Radio FM 103.3) The last, the Q3. Is there anything you’d like to change instead of going around for 15 minutes just burning gas?
MS: I think finally we have a system that works and people are interested. Whether you can make it more perfect than what it is, I don’t know. If you change something and it goes the other way around – we have had some experience of that, so you might as well keep it if it is just a small change.
Q: (Matthias Brunner – Motorsport Aktuell) Michael, did you touch the wall on lap 29 coming onto the straight?
MS: Yep.
Q: Did the car feel affected after that?
MS: Much quicker, no.
Q: Seriously, no effect?
MS: No, it was just a small kiss.
Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Michael, first of all, how important was this last-minute present from Kimi for the championship? Secondly, today McLaren was strong enough to put between you and Fernando. Are you getting worried that it could happen more often at different parts of the season?
MS: I mean, it may work against you or it may work in favour of us at some moments in the season. So far we have avoided that kind of situation and it’s for us to see how the rest of the season will go, but whether it was vital or not we will see at the end. If the championship is decided by a point at the end then it maybe was vital, if not then maybe not. Every point is vital in that situation.
Q: (Bill Beacon – The Canadian Press) Michael, what specifically made it risky and difficult to drive out there today?
MS: Basically in the first stint, after the first stint after about 30 laps it started that the track, actually before, that the track falls apart and the asphalt got loose and more and more dust, dirt, asphalt, tyres, came flying, and even breaking itself. Pieces got thrown up. I was behind Kimi and I had stones coming towards me, so that was the main part of it. When you got off-line it was like driving on ice. I had a lot of trouble, plus having the tyres dirty and the straights, means that you could not clean them and trying to turn into turn 14 was several times impossible, so it was tricky conditions.
Q: (Matthias Brunner – Motorsport Aktuell) Michael, what was the reason for your bad start?
MS: We need to analyse. It just didn’t bite and didn’t go.
Q: (Jeff Pappone – The Global & Mail) Michael, you’ve been on the other side of this, dominating the sport. Now you have to watch Fernando doing the same. Does this become frustrating for you?
MS: No, last year was, to a certain degree, frustrating. This year we are having fun. Not all the time – I mean you can be having more fun in winning, but you can’t win all the time so the better one wins who is doing a better job in the end and we have only been able to do that twice. There have been six times for them so far so we need to do a better job.
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