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F1: Malaysia Postrace Interview Highlights
Written by:
SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com
SPEEDtv.com
03/24/2008 - 11:13 AM
Sepang, Malaysia
The Malaysian GP top 3 celebrate. (LAT photo) » More Photos
Q: Kimi, that was a fantastic win and from the start it looked like a very close race between you and your teammate Felipe Massa.
Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah, I think so. We were pretty similar, speed-wise. Once he went into the pits my car got much better, because when you are one or two seconds behind it is a massive difference. I was able to go much quicker on my in-lap and I could pass him. After that when you are in free air the car was handling perfectly and I was able to pull away. After a few laps I don’t know what happened to him but it was a pretty easy race after that first pit stop.
Q: You were outqualified by him by a small margin. In retrospect did that reflect the fuel load or was the car a lot better on race day than it had been on Saturday?
KR: I think sometimes that we still have some difficulties to get the qualifying right. It was good in Q2 but then in qualifying two we could not find the grip with the tires. But we knew we were running one lap longer, so I was not really panicking. The car usually has been much stronger in the race for us than in the qualifying, so as long as we kept close I thought we would have a good chance to pass him and it worked out in the first pit stop already. The car was very good all weekend but sometimes with new tires it is difficult to get the best out of it. The team did a great job this weekend.
Q: You seemed to make a pretty good start. Talk us through the first corner as it was pretty close there and for a moment it looked as if perhaps you might have a go.
KR: Yeah, I got alongside Felipe. I got a bit better start, but in the situation I knew that we would run one lap longer, so we didn’t want to risk it between the teammates in the first corner. Maybe if I had pushed harder I could have made it past, but I decided to stay behind and try my move at the pit stop. I think that was better for everybody and it worked out perfectly.
Q: The Malaysian Grand Prix, traditionally, is a very tough race particularly in terms of the heat. But you jumped out of the car and looked pretty fresh when you got out.
KR: It wasn’t too bad, really. Of course it is hotter than any other race. Australia was hot but in here it is so humid but for me it was OK. There was a small issue on the podium.
Q: There was champagne under the eyelid there…
KR: Yeah, we should put it in the mouth not in the eye! Things go wrong sometimes. Anyway it has been a perfect weekend.
Raikkonen celebrates his and Ferrari's first '08 win. (LAT Photo) » More Photos
Q: It has really looked good all weekend, hasn’t it?
KR: Yeah, I think so. The car has been good all weekend. Of course we had a small problem in first practice on Friday. The car was not exactly what we wanted in qualifying but we knew that we should have a good race pace and it worked out perfectly.
Q: Who have you felt most threatened by during the weekend?
KR: For sure Felipe has been fast, but like I said from last year already that the qualifying has not really been the strongest point. Again we had a good Q2, then the tires didn’t work as well in the final qualifying. That was a bit disappointing but I mean we knew that the car would be strong in the race and we would stop one lap later. We put a lot of effort on that and it worked out good.
Q: Do you think your pace was comparable to Felipe?
KR: We were very close in the first stint. Once he went into the pit my car was much faster. When you do not have anybody in front of you it improves a lot. After the pit stop we were quite easy to pull away from him in the clear air. It is always difficult to follow people close and you need to be very close to be able to pass them at the pit stops so it makes it more difficult.
Q: And after that quite a lonely race, really.
The champagne tasted especially sweet to the overheated Kubica. (LAT photo) » More Photos
KR: Yeah. For sure we could have gone much faster if we had pushed but we had already turned the engines down before the first pit stop, after the first laps, so it was quite easy for us.
Q: In fact, talking of lonely races, Robert, you had no one anywhere near you: twenty seconds in each direction.
Robert Kubica: Yeah, that’s true. Only at the beginning of the race I had a close fight with Jarno and Nick, into the first corner. I didn’t manage a good start but afterwards I was trying to increase the gap to the drivers behind. I was expecting McLaren to come on strong. It didn’t happen, luckily for us, and we had quite good pace for the whole race.
Q: It was the best result of your career and also your major sponsor’s home race, so what does this result mean to you?
RK: After a disappointing race in Australia, where I qualified second with a small mistake which cost me pole position, the race pace in Australia was not really fantastic, especially in the first stint. Here we worked mainly on the race pace. I knew with some solutions which we chose in qualifying, we would suffer a bit, but then in the race it paid off, so I’m very happy for myself, for the team and for Petronas.
Q: How do you see your pace in comparison to Ferrari?
RK: I think Ferrari was something special because they were not where we were expecting them to be, and here they are exactly where we think that they are. We are lacking a few tenths per lap and this brings the final 20 seconds in the race of 60 laps.
Q: You had a bit of a battle with Jarno, Heikki. Were you basically looking to overtake during the pit stops?
Heikki Kovalainen: Yeah, that was always going to be the case. In my race today I suffered a little bit at the beginning of the first
So, I wasn’t too worried when Jarno was behind me, because I knew that I was going very long in the second stint, and I was fairly sure that he wouldn’t be going that long. So I just kept it nice and easy with my tires, trying to make sure they were in good shape whenever he pitted and I was able to do a few good laps at that point and for the last stint it was relatively easy.
Q: Was there much difference between the tire performance?
HK: The first stint didn’t feel quite as good with the softer tire. The second stint felt better with the harder one but then the last stint on the softer tire felt good again. I think there was a bit of track evolution. So it wasn’t too bad.
Kovalainen, here giving a thumbs-up to Kimi Raikkonen, offers an upbeat attitude as well as speed to McLaren. (LAT photo) » More Photos
Q: Kimi and Heikki, this was the greatest ever grand prix result for Finnish drivers. How does it feel to be a Finn and when will we see a one-two result?
KR: It hasn’t changed anything, even the results, for me at least. For sure it was a good day for Finns but it’s still early season. Hopefully at some point we will be one and two, but I will be looking for first place all the time and a best possible overall result. It was a good day for us.
HK: Yeah, pretty much the same for me. It’s good to have Finns here on the podium and in Finland they are talking about the Formula 1 Finnish championship, but let’s see if it carries on like this. There are many other good drivers and it’s not always going to be like this, but I wouldn’t complain if it happened a few more times.
Q: Kimi, were you surprised at the start when Felipe was closing on you a little bit?
KR: Not really. I think I had enough space. He was pushing me a little bit on the right side but that’s racing. It was OK.
Q: Kimi, did your tires behave to your expectations at the end of each stint?
KR: No. The first stint was the most difficult because I was quite close to Felipe so, like I said, once he came into the pits, the car suddenly felt much better. It’s always when you’re one or two seconds behind somebody that there’s still a massive effect on the aerodynamics. Apart from that, it was very good, the tires felt perfect. I think the soft tire could have been the faster one in the end, but of course we didn’t push any more in the last two stints.
Q: Kimi, after the quite disastrous race in Australia, how much more confidence do you take from this race that the rest of the season will be OK?
KR: We never lost confidence in our team. Of course we had quite a difficult race in Australia, but the whole winter the car has been working well, it’s been quick. Unfortunately we had some problems which we didn’t really expect at the first race and hopefully we can get rid of them like here where we didn’t have any issues but you never know, we’re still not one hundred percent happy with things. We still try to improve them but for sure, we have confidence in the team, in the car, in the people, so we will definitely do the best that we can, and hopefully we can be fast again in the next race.
Q: Kimi, were you surprised McLaren were so far behind you?
KR: No, I think it’s been the same all weekend. I already said in Australia that our speed should be fine. When you start behind someone, as in Australia, you can never use your own speed. Australia is not exactly a normal circuit, so sometimes you get slightly wrong results there. Last year we were much faster than everybody there, and coming here we were not so happy anymore, so it’s a bit the opposite now. I think the next race can be different again, so we need to wait and see and after a few races we will get a clearer picture where we are exactly.
Q: Kimi, in the lap that you came in for the first pit stop, you did the best T1 and T2 times of the race at that stage. Could you do that with Massa in front of you or did you expect him to go into the pits to do that?
KR: Like I said already, when he went in my car got much better because I was quite close. It always affects the car. I think it needs to be around six seconds in front of you before you don’t feel anything anymore. I was only less than two seconds, so once he pulled in my car just got much quicker and I was able to go more than half a second faster on the in lap. It was enough, we knew that it was going to be close and it worked out perfectly. Once I was in front of him the car was much better in the second stint and I was able to pull away.
Q: Heikki, even in the middle stint, when you couldn’t quite go at the pace of the BMWs, although you said that the tires were working quite well, do you think you had no chance to beat them today, and how do you see your team in comparison to Ferrari?
HK: I think there was no way we could match Ferrari. BMW also seemed to be very strong on race day, but then again, when you start further down on the grid, it’s always going to be a compromise. You initially lose quite a lot of time, the first few laps you can lose a couple of seconds a lap if you get stuck in traffic and you’re fighting for position, so by the time I sort of got going in the race, the gap to Robert was 17 seconds. It’s impossible to say what would have happened had we started where we qualified, but in any case, I think we did the maximum today that was possible and third place for me was more than enough today.
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