© FIA

After his victory at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, Kimi Räikkönen answered the questions of the journalists in the FIA press conference. He reported about his race and spoke about his prospects for the second part of the season.

Question: Kimi, a fantastic win for you, effectively won in the middle phase of the race, those six laps after Fernando had made his pit stop. You seemed to have a relatively free track in terms of traffic and you took the lead.

Kimi: Yeah, we had a little bit of traffic but I think we had a good car all day – all weekend, actually. At the beginning of the race I was just trying to save some fuel and look after my tyres and car and then once Lewis pitted I tried to push and gain some time on him and that went well. And then Fernando did a very short stop, so we knew that we were going to run longer in the second stop so I just tried to push as hard as we could once he came in and it was enough. After that, it was pretty easy.

Question: Let’s talk about that first phase of the race: Lewis took the lead, you seemed to match him, fastest lap for fastest lap for the first few laps of the race and then it looked as if you could put pressure on Lewis.

Kimi: Yeah, like I said, we just saved fuel and then once we knew that we had enough I was able to close the gap pretty easily and try to overtake him, but then we were expecting him to stop a bit earlier, so I didn’t want to risk too much. I think it worked out pretty well.

Question: Different tyre combinations for all three of you in terms of the Bridgestone hard and soft compound; what was it like from your point of view in terms of the car balance and indeed, any other events in the Grand Prix?

Kimi: I think it was good. Both tyres seemed to work very well. It didn’t make any difference really. The hard one was very good at the end but then we didn’t need to push any more. So far everything worked well.

Question: And the British Grand Prix is always a special event for any racing driver; your thoughts on your closing lap and the slow-down lap, the Lewis Hamilton crowd out there but you spoilt the day for them.

Kimi: Yeah, it was a very nice feeling to win the race of course. We’ve been close here a few times, but something has always happened and we haven’t been able to win. Now, finally, we got the win and it’s one of the nicest races really so it’s very nice, a nice feeling and it was a good day.

Question: Kimi, two great wins in a row now for Ferrari and for you. It looks as if you have the edge, but the championship is not over yet.

Kimi: Hopefully. You never know. It’s going to be a long season still. We seem to have good speed right now but I also think it depends a lot on the circuit conditions and the places where we go. But I’m pretty happy now with the car, all weekend being good. I just made a mistake yesterday which made our life much more difficult than it should have been in the race. But in the end, we came out with a win, so that’s the main thing. The guys did a great job in the pit stops, being able to stay ahead of the other guys. I think we’ve had a pretty good weekend and we try to improve the car again and go and try to do the same next week, or the next race.

Question: Kimi, two in a row, two wins, how significant are these two wins?

Kimi: Of course they’re important. We gained some points on the other guys, also in the team championship. I’m not sure we gained today but anyhow, it’s important, for sure. We seem to have got the car a bit better for me now and everything seems to go a bit more easily. It’s definitely nicer now than it was after the first few races but I think it’s still a long season. Right now it’s looking good but everything can change again at the next race. We just keep pushing.

Question: Different tyre choices; you were really challenging Lewis in the opening stint on the softer tyre. Very often people complain about graining when they’re very close behind another car. Did you have that?

Kimi: No, nothing. Not at all, not even on the second set. The tyres worked very well today, also the last set, the hard one, was very good at the end, but I didn’t need to push at all so even just driving slowly it seemed to give you a good lap time. I think both sets were very good today.

Question: On lap 14 you got very close to Lewis in the Complex.

Kimi: Yeah, I know. He was slowing down a bit so we tried to put some pressure on him and then I got very close to him. I had a little chance to overtake but I think it would have been a bit too close. There would have been a little bit of touching so it was better to wait than take the risk. Then we were expecting to stop a little bit later, so we were able to pull out a big enough gap.

Question: And did you just ease off at the end, because the margin was just coming down and down and down?

Kimi: I don’t think we pushed at all for the last ten laps. We just kept the gap to Alonso and then just backed off.

Question: Kimi do you now have a better feeling going into the second part of the season compared with 2005 when you were chasing Fernando?

Kimi: No, I think it is a different story completely. A different kind of year, different kind of rules and everything. I have a good feeling but like I said every race can be completely different so I’m not too much thinking that. If we can repeat our times from today then for sure we have a good chance every weekend as long as we get everything working well.

Question: Kimi, did the better car or the better strategy win the race?

Kimi: I don’t know really. It doesn’t make any difference any more. We were first, they were second. We had a good speed but I think to look in qualifying Fernando was a very similar speed so if you put the two cars on the same fuel loads it could have been very close.

Question: Kimi, did you shout in the radio after all?

Kimi: Still no. It is not what I do.

Question: How would you judge the first half of the season?

Kimi: For sure we would like to be in a better position in the championship but we expected to have a few difficult times and we have so far. But at least it is going in the right direction. So maybe we can have a strong end of the year.

Question: Kimi, you are now in front of your teammate in an important period in the championship. How do you analyse it? Is it easy for you?

Kimi: We want to be ahead of everybody so if a guy I race against is in my team ok, but if not I race against all the rest. I am not looking for him [Felipe Massa] really. I’m looking at how we can improve and how we can analyse. If you only race against your teammate it is not probably the right thing to do. Like I said this is a perfect result, this is what we aim for and if we repeat this we will be ahead of everybody.

Question: Kimi, you were quite critical on yourself when mentioning the mistake of yesterday in qualifying. How angry were you after that happened?

Kimi: I wasn’t happy because I know that this can damage our race. I expected that we would be quick in the race. I really thought we should have started in pole position, so after my mistake I was not happy at all. But luckily enough we could recover from it and still win the race. But for sure I made life much more difficult today than it should have been.