German GP - Post race press conference - Pt.2

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Adrian Huber - Agencia EFE)
Fernando, it looks like a perfect weekend; yesterday you set your 22nd pole and today it's your 30th victory in Formula One. Did you really expect this much? And secondly, although there is still half of the championship to go, do you think the team and yourself have established the basis for your third world title?

Fernando Alonso:
I think before coming here we were not sure about the performance of the car. It's true that we were OK in Valencia, but Red Bull was quicker than anybody there but we took advantage of the mechanical problem that Sebastian had in Valencia and we won the race there. In Silverstone we were OK in wet conditions but a little bit slower than Red Bull in dry conditions and Mark won the race and he deserved it, because he was the quickest. Yesterday, OK, we set pole in wet conditions again which seems to suit our car but in the dry, we again saw that we are still not the quickest. Sebastian and Jenson put a lot of pressure on us, also Hamilton was extremely quick but he had some problems in the race. It's halfway through the season; we made a very good recovery when you think of where we started in the Jerez test where we were maybe two seconds off the pace. In Australia we were 1.6s in Q2 and now we are very happy with the points that we have achieved in the first half but it means nothing, because there are still another ten races in which we need to improve the car. We need to be consistent and we need to keep finishing all the races. One or two drivers always don't finish the race because of mechanical problems or incidents or something, so we need to avoid these problems.

Q: (Vincent Marre - Sport Zeitung )
Fernando, don't you think it was risky to fight Hamilton as he was already lapped? You could have lost the race, because you lost some seconds.

Fernando Alonso:
For me, yes, I didn't feel any risk to be honest. I knew that if Lewis was close enough and using the DRS and trying to overtake, going for it, I had a problem to leave the space and I knew that he was not in the race, so we didn't want to risk anything. For me, it was a good position to have Hamilton between me and Sebastian because we were approaching the pit stop time and having Hamilton there meant that Hamilton was around a second behind you and Sebastian was another second or 1.5s behind Lewis, so this 2.5s to Sebastian was very good, approaching the pit stop time so I tried to keep Lewis behind.

Q: (Vincent Marre - Sport Zeitung )
Sebastian, you were waving your hands at Hamilton; as you just said, you were upset about this. Do you think the rules should be changed, that someone who has been lapped should not be allowed to fight in the race?

Sebastian Vettel:
I think I've said it before, I don't think we need a different rule. As I said, if you want to go quick and you're a lap down and there's no chance to win the race any more, I think you should respect that and use common sense so I don't think we need a rule. I think everyone is aware. As I said, to be honest I didn't expect him to attack because I didn't see the point, and then I was surprised when he was side-by-side and lost quite a bit. For Fernando it was quite welcome, I think. He didn't mind. Then later on I saw that he was defending against Lewis so obviously he knew that as soon as he gets passed by Lewis he will lose some time, so he tried to avoid that, especially as we were approaching the pit stops.

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Motor und Sport)
Jenson, at the beginning of the last stint you flat-spotted the right front; was that a problem for the rest of the race?

Jenson Button:
No, it gave me a little bit of a headache, but that was about it. It was unusual. I guess they just weren't up to temperature when I hit the brakes that time. We've been very good with front-locking in this race. Normally it's a big issue with the McLaren. In testing we had big issues with front locking. We did some set-up work and we've solved a lot of that, which is great for us. It makes a big big difference having confidence when you hit the brakes, but that was just a one-off time. It did give me vibration but it didn't continuously lock up because of the vibration which was positive.

Q: (Marc Ellerich - Sport 1.de)
Sebastian, how frightening was the news in the morning that Red Bull was under inspection by the FIA?

Sebastian Vettel:
I had the answers on the grid. Our car was on the grid and not in the pit lane so I guess it was fine. There wasn't much I could do, could I, so as I said, as soon as we got the message that it was fine, which I think we were convinced of, then there was no more need to spend any energy thinking about that.

Q: (Livio Oricchio - O Estado de Sao Paulo)
Fernando, at the end of the race were you confident that you could keep the pace and not suffer a repeat of Silverstone when you lost the race in the last six laps?

Fernando Alonso:
Yeah, I was more confident. At Silverstone, the problem was that we were with different tyres so we knew that in the last stint we would have a tough time coming because we were forced to put on the option tyre which we thought was the less performing tyre and for sure Webber was a little bit quicker on that. The stint here... stopping on the same lap as the others and putting on the same type of tyre, I was much more confident.

Q: (Marc Ellerich - Sport 1.de)
Sebastian, which feeling is stronger: not breaking your July spell in Germany or the happiness about your second place?

Sebastian Vettel:
Well, as I said, unfortunately there was never really a chance to start a manoeuvre to try to overtake. I think if I was close enough I would have tried for sure, because the target was to win, just as at all the other races, but we didn't have the chance, so, as I mentioned, in some phases of the race, we were quite competitive and very quick, I think quicker than Fernando. I was able to close the gap but then, yeah, not enough to get close enough. I think second place was the maximum we could get today, so I'm very happy with that. It was nice to be on the podium. It's my home Grand Prix and yeah, nice to see the fans and give something back.