Q: You didn't feel well straight after the race. What was the problem?
"I've had a cold since Saturday, and I sweated quite a lot during the race, so I just felt bad after I got out of the car. My water bottle was too hot because of the three starts, and I just couldn't drink it, so I felt bad."

Q: But presumably you feel better than you did after what happened last year!
"Not really – I won the race last year…"

Q: Your problems started in qualifying – you didn't quite get the lap time, which proved very costly. What happened?
"I chose a different tyre from Michael, and it didn't pay off. It was a tyre that should have gone better in the race, as it did, and I reckon I would chose it again. The problem was that I was all the time behind people, and I couldn't overtake. The rain made the gap even bigger, so that was costly, and after the small problem we had at the pit stop, there was no way."

Q: How was that tyre in qualifying? You suffered graining before the end of the lap…
"They were maybe half a second away from each other in qualifying. We knew that there was no way it would be faster than the other one, but it could be a good choice for the race."

Q: When you chose that tyre did you still think you could qualify second, and thus traffic wouldn't be an issue?
"Second or third. I didn't think it would be fifth. But it wasn't a good lap, as the track was so dirty when I went out."

Q: What went wrong at the pit stop?
"The fuel wouldn't go in."

Q: Was that related to what happened to Michael?
"I have no idea. I don't think so, because the pump that they used on me couldn't be used again. They had to rebuild it during the race."

Q: How difficult was it during that shower?
"It was no more slippery than Alonso's oil was. It was fun for three or four laps!"

Q: How hard was it to get past Jenson?
"Jenson was actually very fast to begin with, and I saw that he started to get a little bit oversteery. I saw a chance, and he was very fair, and didn't do anything that would cause us drama. I knew that I had a very heavy car so I knew I had top be quiet for a moment. I tried as best as I could, but I had to make my tyres survive as well. But looking at things I was 23secs behind Michael and I could go as close as 15 secs before he actually started to back off. So I think it was a good strategy all in all."

Q: So if Jenson hadn't delayed you, you would have been closer to Kimi a lot earlier, and would have had a better chance to pass him?
"Oh yeah, I would have done it I think."

Q: Michael has won three times, but you are only 12 points behind. The new system is working in favour of someone picking up seconds and thirds, so is that encouraging?
"I don't care, I just wish I could have won the race!"

Q: But it's still looking OK…
"It is, it's much more alive than any other time."

Q: Any thoughts on Monaco?
"I'm looking forward to that. I have a break now from testing, which I probably need for my cold. It's great fun driving Monaco, but not as fun as just being there for the race weekend!"

Q: How much do you enjoy driving there?
"I enjoy the qualifying. I think the race is a bit boring, to go round and round."

Q: How difficult is qualifying going to be?
"Yeah, Monaco is going to be the most difficult one. I have no thoughts on it yet, but it's going to be interesting to see. People are going to do all sorts of things…"

Q: How do you decide how much risk you can take when you have only one lap and the cost of a mistake is so great?
"It's going to be tough. Thursday and Saturday are all about finding the limit."