1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Martin Brundle)
Well done Nico, fantastic. Your 200th grand prix, your third victory in four
weeks, you now lead the championship again, but it wasn’t all plain sailing.
Nico ROSBERG: No, but it’s been an awesome weekend here in Singapore for me,
already yesterday with the pole lap and then today, a great start, had a
good car in the race. Of course Daniel tried to pull one up on me with the
pit stop in the end there. We knew it was going to be tight at the end, but
it worked out, so I’m really, really happy.
They were going to call you in to cover him off and then they made a late
call, and it was the right call, but then you were under pressure all the
way to the flag?
NR: Yeah, we couldn’t come in because I had traffic, so I was very slow on
that lap and he would have beaten me. It was a cool ending.
We heard you were managing your brakes for more or less the whole race, tell
us about that.
NR: Yeah, the whole car was on the edge, it always is in Singapore, so it’s
all the more satisfying with a race like that.
Daniel Ricciardo, it’s your third consecutive time on this podium, but you
needed just a few more centimetres for the top step.
Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, we’ve come very close this year on numerous
occasions but you know, I’m not going to stand up here and be disappointed.
I think we gave it a good shot. We tried something at the end with the
strategy and we got within half a second. It was close but hey, we’re up
here again; it feels great. There are a lot of Australian flags, every year
I see more and more, so thank you very much.
You were on schedule to be on his gearbox with one or two laps to go and
then he got a bit of traffic but it just fell away. One more lap and you
would have been there.
DR: Yeah, it was close. As soon as we did the pit stop we thought Nico was
going to come in, so I pushed really hard on those tyres and by the end they
were a little bit dead, but at least we close and made it exciting.
The champagne pouring off you is boiling hot – a tough race.
DR: It’s a physical race, absolutely.
Lewis, it’s your 99th podium but it’s not the sweetest one I suspect.
Lewis HAMILTON: No, definitely not, but first of all, big congratulations to
Nico, he drove fantastically well all weekend and fully deserved the win.
Very tough day today, as always it is here in Singapore. This weekend has
just been a bot of a tricky one for me, but I’m still glad I could get back
up on the podium and get some points for the team.
The first half of the race you were a bit frustrated with the tyres and your
own pace and wondering what was going on and then suddenly you came alive.
LH: It was my brakes. I was struggling with my brakes, they were way
overheating, so I just had to slow down, so I just had to watch the other
guys pull away and I was just looking at different ways to try and get them
back under control. Eventually once I did my second or third stop, all of a
sudden my brakes were under control. But of course, towards the end I still
got a bit of heat in them. I have a lot of support here this weekend and I
just want to say a big thanks to everyone for coming out and we’ll keep
pushing.
Eight points behind in the world championship now, is that a big concern for
you?
LH: Well, it’s a lot different to when I was here last year, but in all in
all, with everything that’s gone on this year, I’m still in the fight,
there’s still a long way to go and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.
Final word then Nico – six races to go in this championship, you are leading
it yet again now, so you must be thinking ‘I can win this, I can take this’.
NR: No, I’m not focused on points. As I always say, I’m just happy with the
win today. Thank you very much for coming today, you’ve been awesome this
weekend, I hope you had fun and see you all again in Malaysia, soon.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Nico, many congratulations, you’ve won your 200th Grand Prix, it’s your
22nd Grand Prix victory and you’ve now got an eight-point lead in the World
Championship. It was a brilliantly judged race – but were there a few
nervous moments as the man on your right was closing in?
NR: Like with ten laps to go, or 15 laps to go, just after the pitstop, the
team said he would be with me at the end of the race, which was the case, so
for sure I had to be on it in that last stint and get everything right and
nail all those laps. It really worked out, with the management, all the way
to the end. The tyre lasted just right, so very, very happy, of course. By
the time I started the last lap I knew it was going to be enough because
Daniel also, his tyres weren’t as fresh any more, so by that time it was OK.
Q: Daniel, coming onto you. It was a brave roll of the dice at the end in
terms of strategy. What are you feeling now? Just one more lap – or do you
think you could have done anything differently?
DR: No, I don’t. I’m sitting here pretty happy because I felt I did all I
could. The perfect race. If there was anything that could have been more
perfect it was the start but Nico got off the line well. So, even with an
amazing start we wouldn’t have got the jump. It looked like his was
near-perfect. From that point we just tried to do what we could. Team put me
on a three-stop at the end. It was fun. It was good to push the whole race
and I knew I would get close to Nico at the end. So even if the track’s
difficult to overtake, it was nice to be able to push to the last lap and
know that I was at least putting some pressure on him and giving the crowd
still a little bit of hope.
Q: Lewis, coming on to you. It was nip-and-tuck between you and Kimi
throughout the race. How surprised were you that they called him in after
you made your final stop?
LH: The team suggested they would do the same. To be honest we were both
struggling with… we were both pushing quite hard in that stint and we both
would have not made it to the end at the pace we were going, and so I kinda
knew I was just pushing on my out-lap to see if I could undercut him, which
fortunately we did.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Lennart Wermke – Bild) Nico, first of all congratulations, brilliant
drive. There was a little incident with an over-ambitious marshal on the
track at the very beginning of the race. I think you were driving towards
him. Can you describe to us what happened and what did you see in this
moment?
NR: Yeah, that was pretty hairy, for sure. I think just as we didn’t expect
the restart, he didn’t either, I think, because the restart was somehow
pretty abrupt. But he got out of the way just about in time so it was OK. Of
course we all had to drive a bit carefully through there.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Nico, a couple of days ago you
told us, 200th race, not that big a deal. Is it now – or will it be one of
your big deals?
NR: Yeah, winning the Singapore Grand Prix today is awesome. I’m really,
really happy about that. The whole weekend went perfectly, so yes, today
it’s a big deal. Tomorrow, not so much.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) To the Mercedes drivers, we
heard over the radio your team was giving you warnings because of the
brakes. Can you tell what happened and did these brake problems accompany
you the whole race?
NR: Yes, the brakes were just on the limit. But we know that, it’s expected
and it worked out fine. Yes, it’s right on the edge so it was not easy to
manage throughout the whole race.
Lewis, do you have anything to add?
LH: Same as Nico. I guess the things that pops to mind is how much worse
it’s going to be next year when we’ve got a heavier car. It’s a shame the
cars are as heavy as they are because we can’t push, you can’t race very
well when you’re behind people here – but that’s maybe just the
circumstances of this race.
Daniel, can I follow up on that. Did you have any brake problems?
DR: Nothing in particularly. You do get… towards the end of the race you
feel sometimes the pedal get a bit longer, so you know the brakes are
wearing but we never got into a critical phase or I never really had to
manage it. We came in expecting a few issues but it was actually pretty
good.
Q: (Lim Say Heng – The New Paper) Nico, seven times in the last eight year
the overall leader from after the Singapore race has gone on to win the
drivers’ championship. How do you feel about that and how confident are you
going into the last few races of the season.
NR: A statistic like that, it’s not something that I focus on, at all. It
doesn’t have any importance to me. Today I’m just happy to win the race
because that is what I came here to do. And now I’m going to celebrate after
this. I can’t wait to get home. Next up is Malaysia, where I want to repeat
that because feeling good at the moment. On a good roll so I’m going to try
to win Malaysia next.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, could you explain to
us what happened when Kimi overtook you? Was it just a bumpy situation or
were there no tyres left
LH: Yeah, it was just a mistake. Locked up on one of the bumps and ended up
going almost straight on. Costly, but fortunately I was able to not lose
anything after the next stint.
Q: (Ian De Cotta – The New Paper) Lewis, question as a follow-up of the
statistic about the Singapore race, drivers going on to win the
championship; how do you feel going forward to Malaysia? Do you think
Mercedes could solve the problems that you had?
LH: We have a good car. We’ve got to have a good weekend. We’ve come from 43
points down so theoretically eight points isn’t anywhere near as steep as
that but still, Nico’s been performing fantastically well. This weekend he’s
done an amazing job. I expect him to continue like that so I’ve got make
sure that I do the same..
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, at the end of the race, you seemed
quicker than at the beginning. Was it because you had fresh tyres or because
you were allowed to push to maximum attack?
LH: It was partly because of the fresh tyres but mostly because the car was
getting lighter, the brakes became a lot easier to control. Once my signal
of brake overheating reduced, I was able to start to pick up the pace. I was
still getting the warnings towards the end but like the last ten laps, I
just kind of just let it continue flashing as a warning and hoped for the
best. Fortunately the pace was better.
Q: (Berk Serioglu – Motorsport.com) Nico, it seems like you have changed
your strategy in the race. Did it happen as the race went on or was it
planned before the race?
NR: No, everything went according to plan, just it was they (Red Bull) who
didn’t go to plan that caused a bit of a challenge at the end. But for us,
everything was to plan.
Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawkes Bay Today) Nico, you’ve won Spa, Monza and now
Singapore, races you hadn’t won before and you’ve taken the championship
lead again. Surely that must excite you or do we start giving you the
nickname Mr Cool?
NR: No, I’m just excited about winning the race today. I’m not excited about
any of those other points. Sorry. Just awesome to win here in Singapore,
first time out there. I don’t have the best of memories here, this track
hasn’t treated me well here in the past so today is a good one.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Daniel, just before you pitted
for the third time, you had reduced the gap to Nico to three seconds, I
think. With hindsight, do you think you would have had a better chance even
to beat Nico if you had stayed out?
DR: I don’t know. I felt pretty good on the soft tyre, so I think our pace
was more or less there but to overtake around here and a Mercedes isn’t
easy, so to do it on the same tyre, even if I was half a second quicker,
maybe if I caught him, you still need a pretty big advantage to pull
something off here unless a mistake is made by the guy in front. Yeah, I
think we did the right thing in the end. Obviously it still didn’t give us
victory but I think staying on the same tyre probably wouldn’t have given us
any better chance.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, Speedsport) Daniel, this was, as you said
before, one of the best chances to win. Where will the next one come?
DR: With some rain, yeah. I think in dry circumstances this was our best
shot. We got within half a second but after the race I said on the radio to
the team that we will win this year. We’ll get a downpour somewhere and
that’ll hopefully throw a few curved balls and we can middle it and get the
victory we’re after.
Q: (Wojciech Paprota – Swiatwyscigow.pl) To Nico and Lewis, yesterday Toto
said that it was one of the highlights of his life to see you being
competitive during the Singapore Grand Prix after last year’s race. Do you
also see this year’s result as a milestone?
NR: It really shows that not only do we have the best car but also we have
the best, most competent group of engineers, to extract the potential from
the best car, from every weekend, changing the car, adapting to the new
circuits, to the different circuits and understanding, because last year we
were absolutely nowhere here. We got destroyed by Red Bull and Ferrari and
we understood what we did wrong and came back this year and beat them on
their strongest track. That’s really awesome to see that.
LH: I think Nico just answered it perfectly well. |