© FIA

Kimi talked about his difficult race in the FIA press conference after the Japanese Grand Prix in Fuji.

Question: Kimi, a brilliant drive from you too from the back of the field, sadly – tell us about that decision off the line to be on the Bridgestone wet instead of the extreme wet and having to come in so early in the race?

Kimi: We made a decision to start on intermediates. It started to rain a little bit actually behind the safety car. That wasn’t really the issue – it was more for me to be able to see anything – on the straight I couldn’t see the car in front even if it was 50 metres in front of me. After the race, I heard there were some rules or they forced everybody to start on full wets but the FIA or the race control forgot to tell our team, and we had to pit again under the safety car. So it cost us a lot but there was nothing we could do at that point. All race I couldn’t do much because I couldn’t really see anything. I tried to get past people in the lowest part of the circuit because you could see more. I actually got past Heikki on the last lap but went a bit too fast, and he got me on the exit again. So the biggest problem for me was to see all of the other cars. It was quite a difficult race but at least we got something out of it.

Question: You did – a podium finish, and you’re still alive in the World Championship. What was the car like in terms of the downforce level you had – it appeared you were pretty quick in a straight line but therefore had not a lot of grip in the corners? On that, you seemed to go off quite a lot but not lose a lot of time when you did go off?

Kimi: I aquaplaned off many times but just kept coming back. The car was set up for the dry, so it wasn’t perfect for the wet. I thought that we had a good car but for sure if you are in front and you can see something, it makes it a lot easier. The whole race I tried to get past people. We lost points from Lewis again but we couldn’t do much after the pit stop where we were forced to change the tyres.

Question: Kimi probably knows a fair amount about bad visibility as well, don’t you?

Kimi: Yeah, I didn’t have any visibility really during the race but that’s part of coming from behind.

Question: It must have been really action-packed, coming all the way through from the back.

Kimi: Yeah, but as I said, the most difficult part is to try to see where the people are on the straight. If somebody slows down, there is no way to know. You’re going full throttle, full speed on the straight and hoping nobody is slowing down because, for sure, you would hit him. When you get in low speed corners, it’s much easier when you can see other cars. But it was pretty tricky.

Question: What are your feelings now about the championship?

Kimi: It doesn’t look too good right now but there’s nothing else that we could have done today, really, we did the best that we could. We lost points but there are still two races to go and we’re still trying, we’re still pushing and we’ll see what happens.

Question: Kimi, why was Ferrari the only team to chose to start with intermediate tyres, even if you didn’t read this e-mail from the FIA? Considering the conditions was it not too much of a gamble?

Kimi: I don’t know. It could have gone either way. I didn’t have any problems really behind the safety car. The only problem was that I couldn’t see anything but we didn’t know any e-mails or any new rules that came up and they somehow forgot to tell us but it’s quite an unfair situation to end up with, them forcing you to stop when you don’t really want to but that’s now behind us. We needed to stop because there were so many places but I don’t know if it would have made a difference or not.

Question: Kimi, how were you told to come in and change the tyres and what went through your mind at that moment?

Kimi: The team just told me that I must pit on the fifth lap or whatever it was. They didn’t really know the reason why we were forced to at that point but then I heard after the race that there was some paper or some information given but they forgot to give it to our team.

Question: What did you think at that moment?

Kimi: Ah, nothing. I knew that I was forced to come in, so there was nothing that I could have done. The team didn’t really know the reason, so we just tried to do the best that we could after that.

Question: Kimi, did you have any problems with the fuel because you had two quite short fuel stops at the beginning of the race, and another one which was pretty long in time, considering how long Lewis pitted?

Kimi: No, we didn’t.

Question: How did it feel to be on the podium, two Finns at the same time, and the third one trained by a Finnish guy?

Kimi: Ah, it’s like any other podium really. I would rather be in the middle. Third place doesn’t really give me anything.

Question: Kimi, what about the Ferrari set-up? It looked like you were not as competitive in the wet as McLaren. Was it because you were hoping it would be drier, so that yesterday you were working with more of a dry set-up?

Kimi: It was exactly the same as it was in dry conditions, so we didn’t change anything. We were not sure about the weather conditions today. We were expecting that they probably should have been better than yesterday but it wasn’t, so it probably could have been better but I don’t think that that really cost us anything. The car was pretty nice to drive today and yesterday.

Question: A question for Kimi. How do you explain the last pit stop for Felipe at the end of the race when he was in front of you, was it planned or was it a help for you?

Kimi: You need to ask him.