Q: Felipe, you too drove a brilliant race, set Ferrari’s 200th fastest race lap today. Fantastic in the dry, talk us through those early conditions and the race from your point of view.
Felipe MASSA: Well, I think it was a pretty good start, so I could manage to pass Fernando and almost try and pass Kimi, but it was a good start. And then in the beginning of the race it was very difficult, everybody on grooved tyres and it was raining and it was pretty easy to go off. I almost went off two or three times. And then suddenly I came straight into the pits and just saw Kimi not coming and I thought it was really a chance to pass him as well and I did so. The car was just very good in the dry, a little bit of understeer at the beginning of the stint but then it was really really good. I was able to pull away at a very nice and controlled pace. But then, unfortunately, the rain came again and we put another… I think our car was not so bad even in the rain, but then I don’t know what happened. I took a set of tyres which was vibrating a lot from the beginning and I couldn’t manage to find the pace. Then Fernando was just getting closer and closer and we had a fight. Q: We saw some pictures of you not looking too happy as you got out of the car; what are your thoughts on that manoeuvre from Fernando?
FM: I was really surprised when he came to say that I did that on purpose. I would never do something like that on purpose. Like I said in Barcelona, it was normal, here it was normal and it’s going to be like that. So if he was a little bit unhappy, it’s not my problem.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Felipe, do you think it was a little bit of set-up? Could you see where you were missing out in the wet conditions?
FM: No, no. I don’t think it was set-up problem. I just think, at the beginning of the rain it was ok, it was not a problem. Maybe Alonso was quite close but it was not possible to pass and the car was behaving quite well. Then in the end I just took a set of tyres that were vibrating a lot, I don’t know what happened, and I couldn’t keep the pace anymore. Maybe something was wrong, the balance of the tyres was completely upset and it was vibrating a lot. I couldn’t keep the pace and Fernando was much quicker so it was difficult to hold. So he passed me.
Q: But even, in fact, on your last set of dry tyres you were losing time to him.
FM: No it was not true. I was really controlling the pace. He was getting closer but not so quickly, I could have gone quicker for sure. I proved already in the first stint that our car was quicker and we were pulling away in a nice way so it was just controlling the gap… But then the rain came, so it was really a shame for me because the race was already finished.
Q: You had a quite a fright when you saw what I understand was Fisichella’s wheel centre on the track.
FM: Yes, I saw something on the track. First of all my engineer said we have some debris on the main straight but I was looking and I didn’t find it and I said it was close to braking. Then I just saw the part of his car in front so I was lucky. It could have been a big accident.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) In the beginning of the race many people went off at the first corner, you obviously didn’t. Were you warned from the pits that there was a lake on the inside?
FM: I was really lucky because I braked reasonably late when we just came on lap 2 or something and it was really wet. I was really lucky because I completely locked the wheels and I though I was going to spin off but I could manage to control and fortunately I didn’t manage to spin off. I think Fernando had a difficult moment as well behind me.
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