German GP - Post-race press conference - Pt.2.

Drivers:Mark Webber (Red Bull), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Felipe Massa (Ferrari)

Questions from the floor

Q: (Frederic Ferret - l'Equipe)
On the podium we saw you watching the flag. How important is it for you to win as an Australian?

Mark Webber:
Very, very important for me to win because not many Australian drivers have reached Formula One and there are even fewer that are successful. So for me to win a grand prix and have the career that I've had - a long career - but for sure I wanted better results but this year has been very, very special and now we are able to say that we've won a grand prix, fair and square, which is nice. It's a real message to the Australian people. I've always tried to represent my country as best as I can. We're a very proud sporting nation, we have done well on two wheels, on motorbikes with Mick (Doohan) and with Casey (Stoner) but the motorbikes aren't motor sport in general at world level, where we haven't been amazing. It's a great day for me and Australia and that's why it was a special one.

Q: (Dan Knutson - National Speed Sport News)
Mark, how long and tense were those final laps, thinking that maybe it might rain, something might go wrong with the car or the track or anything?

MW:
On lap 40, when I knew everything was pretty much in the bag, then it got a bit darker, I could feel it got a little bit colder in the car and I thought 'hmm, we're going to be tested once more again.' But from lap 52 or 53 onwards I knew it probably wasn't going to rain again and actually I was pretty relaxed. I was enjoying driving the car, it's always nice when you have a buffer but for sure I wanted the chequered flag to come, and yes, I was thinking about the car a lot. There was a little bit of debris in the first sector, so I was making sure not to pick up any punctures and also some stones in turn nine, so lots of things like that which you start to really keep an eye on which normally you don't care when you're twelfth but when you're leading it's a different ball game.

Q: (Ian Parkes - The Press Association)
To Mark and Sebastian: do you guys realise that in taking points off one another as you are doing these past two races that you may be playing into Jenson's hands a little bit? You're not making the big leaps forward that perhaps one of you might perhaps expect to if there was just one driver going for the title?

MW:
It's a good problem for us to have at Red Bull. We probably never envisaged the season that we're having. We knew the car was going to be good but it's in some cases quite rare that two drivers are performing quite closely and getting very similar points. It could have been different for Sebastian today. It's very difficult to call how the races are going to be. Strategy is always playing a little bit of a role here and there, so if you put all your eggs in one basket I think it might help but you can do that for two or three races and then that guy might have two DNFs and the guy that you took points off before is in a slightly worse position, so we're taking the fight as hard as we can to Brawn. Either of us can have DNFs from mechanical problems or anything, so at the end of the day we've got a lot of points to go and that will be a decision for the team later on. We're getting on well, we drive the car on the limit, we love getting the most out of it, our team is brilliantly strong inside and we love fighting at the front. It's a team championship, a team sport at the moment. Maybe in the end, the last three or four or five races it will turn to one of us if we have a chance to fight Jenson but... The last two races have been interesting for them. Let's see how we go in the hot races and maybe it's a bit more difficult for us.

Q: (Alan Baldwin - Reuters)
Mark, at the end when you crossed the line, we haven't heard you shout like that for ever, I don't think. Was that years of pent-up emotion coming out and was there ever a time in your mind when maybe you thought you were more of a Chris Amon than a Jack Brabham?

MW:
I thought that but you know I think during my time at Williams it was very tough for the motivation, that's the hardest part of it. No one likes turning up and getting your arse kicked every weekend. That would test anyone's patience and that's why I suppose you've got to take your hat off to someone like Jenson and maybe myself a little bit, where you're still trying to stay involved and keep your motivation high to focus on other goals to keep your drive high and now it's obviously different. We can turn up at race weekends and get very, very good results. I've certainly had testing times in my career with unreliable cars and being in a position to get results hasn't happened for whatever reason. It's happening at the moment and as you say there was a lot of emotion. What happened today is not going to change my life massively but it's a very, very important thing. I will sleep well tonight, everything's fine but I'm not a different person because I've won one race. I'm just very, very happy that I've won it fair and square, that I've beaten everyone else today, so that's the most important thing to me.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti - Corriere della Sera)
Felipe, you told us that we couldn't consider Ferrari back completely yet. So can we consider this podium as a victory in some way?

Felipe Massa:
First of all, I would like to take this chance to congratulate Mark because I know how he's feeling. It must be a great feeling. I cannot say this is like a victory. I think this is like good work. Victory is victory. We finished on the podium, we finished in third position starting from eighth, so it's definitely a great result but victory is always first place. I think this huge motivation, it's a huge result for us to keep pushing, to keep working and just show the people that we can do it.

Q: (Bob McKenzie - The Daily Express)
Mark, it's a pretty good day for Australia. You will be happy to know that England are six wickets down against Australia. It's like it's going to be over by tea-time. Have you had any contact with [Australian cricket captain] Ricky [Ponting] this weekend at all?

MW:
No, not this weekend. Obviously, we spoke before I came away here and you know the baggy green, it's a very famous thing in Australia. They are fighting again in a very special series and that's their war. They're enjoying it, they love beating the Poms in that special series, so I'm very, very happy that they're doing well. They batted phenomenally and I'm going to a dinner tomorrow night with Ricky Ponting and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the Australian players and hopefully we can have a double victory. Hopefully they can get a few more wickets and knock Monty [Panesar] and a few of the tail-enders over quickly and they can go one-nil up in the series which would be very good.

Q: (Alessia Cruciani - La Gazzetta dello Sport)
Felipe, yesterday you said 'I have to be honest, a podium is impossible.'

FM:
Well, to be honest, I didn't expect that.

Q: (Alessia Cruciani - La Gazzetta dello Sport)
What's the reason for this good result, and how was the behaviour of the car?

FM:
The reason was that I was wrong, so a podium was possible. We are here but always when you see these guys very quick in qualifying, the whole weekend these guys were very, very strong and Brawn as well, they were pretty good. I started eighth with a lot of fuel, maybe some degradation of the tyres, so I thought a podium would not be realistic. We fought so hard during the whole race, the start was also very important to manage to get the podium at the end, so it was possible.
The car was good, the pace was reasonable. When I was on soft tyres at the beginning I was not as quick as Sebastian and Rubens and Mark but that was with a lot of fuel in the car. The second stint was pretty good. I was following Sebastian, even catching him. Sometimes at the end of the stint he started pulling away slightly but in the last stint the car was good on the hard tyres as well, so the car was pretty reasonable.

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto Motor und Sport)
Felipe, again as at Silverstone, your performance in the race was much better than in qualifying. Is qualifying the discipline you've got to work on?

FM:
Yeah, maybe. Maybe qualifying is something that we still need to improve a bit. Also the strategy. Starting with a lot of fuel at some tracks is maybe something that pays quite a lot. At Silverstone my pace was very good but the strategy helps a lot, to pass all the cars in front. Here, as well, we had a race where many people were struggling on the tyres at the beginning, so we passed some cars at the beginning and we were heavy on fuel, so the strategy pays a lot. It's difficult to say that we are much better in the race than in qualifying. I think in the race, together with the strategy, we manage to do a good job.

Q: (Juha P??talo - Financial Times Germany)
Sebastian, you were expecting a lot from this Grand Prix and your public was expecting a lot. You look a little disappointed. I don't know if you are but can you just describe your feelings? Do you think it was not such a successful weekend for you and how do you cope with the fact that your team-mate is now a title contender with you as well?

Sebastian Vettel:
I don't think it's just from this race onwards. As someone said before, we are very close if you look at the points. Of course I would be lying to you if I said that second is very, very good. Of course I wanted to win but I think today after starting fourth and losing a lot of positions on the first lap, I think second was all we could do. I was basically in the group led by Heikki which I described earlier, then together with Felipe, Jenson and me, there was no way through and I lost a lot of time which allowed Rubens and Mark to disappear in front and after that I think it was more or less decided already. If there's anything or anyone to blame it's maybe myself in yesterday's qualifying. In the last run I was thinking I had two laps, it turned out to be only one but in the end on the lap I had I possibly had the car to put on pole but I didn't get the lap as perfect as usual and lost two tenths which made a big difference. The threat was there from the start, with the KERS cars behind and I was the first one to be in the shit. What are you supposed to do? I turned into the first corner, I'm P7 or P8 and I started fourth. It's a strange feeling and after that, having quite a lot of fuel on board and the strategy brought us back to where we finished.