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Kimi
Räikkönen was very annoyed about the track conditions after the
Qualifying of the Canadian Grand Prix. And he denounced that
prbblem quite clearly in the FIA press conferernce.
Question:
Kimi, quicker of the two Ferrari drivers. You are always in the
points here in Canada but it looked like sector three is always a
difficult one for Ferrari. The top speed is not quite there
relative to McLaren Mercedes.
Kimi:
The car has been good all weekend. Even this morning it was very
good and then going into qualifying it is quite a joke with the
circuit. It is always the same thing, the circuit breaks down and
you miss the corner because there is so much sand. I lost so much
time in corner 10 as I couldn’t get around as the car just went
straight and didn’t give any traction. I am a bit disappointed
on that because we had a car that could fight for pole position
and we will see tomorrow how it is going to be in the race and
whether it is going to be a nightmare when we do 70 laps and it
breaks up after two laps. It is going to be quite interesting.
Question:
it is not the first time we have had problems like this in Canada.
And yesterday was a difficult day to make any sort of judgement
because of the weather. Can you just talk us through this morning
about any signs that were there and precisely how is the track
breaking up. Is it on the apex? Is the biggest problem on the edge
of the racing line?
Kimi:
I have had a very good car all weekend like I said and this
morning also. Then suddenly because the weather heated up a little
bit and the circuit didn’t last. The problem is the black
patches. They have redone it every year and every year at the same
places it breaks down and people go off because of that. Like I
say, it is going to be quite an interesting race, difficult, so I
will just try to stay on the circuit.
Question:
Kimi, you backed off at the end of that last lap; where do you
think you could have ended up?
Kimi:
No, I was slower than the lap before, so there was no point in
pushing any more. I lost all the time in turn ten with these
circuit conditions. I think that we have had a very good car all
weekend, so it’s a bit disappointing to suddenly have it more
dependent on the circuit which is breaking up than it being up to
the cars and drivers. I’m not really surprised that there is a
big difference between the drivers and lap times. If you get it
right, you can easily gain half a second or you lose a second.
It’s a bit of a shame but at least we are in third place and we
will see what we can do tomorrow.
Question:
Is there anything the drivers or teams can do about the track
conditions?
Kimi:
Yes, you are always trying to find the cleanest line and sometimes
you find it, sometimes you don’t. It keeps changing all the
time. For sure, if you get it perfectly right and you don’t hit
the marbles it’s not too bad, but unfortunately I never found
that line in corner ten and it’s not going to be easy tomorrow.
We will see what happens.
Question:
As what sort of threat do you see BMW Sauber now?
Kimi:
We’ve seen it before. In the last races they’ve been fast, so
for sure I don’t see why they shouldn’t also be fast tomorrow.
Hopefully we have a good race car. I think we have had very good
speed until qualifying, so we will see. We will do the best we can
and hopefully we can beat them.
Question:
Kimi, are you happier in third place than in second because of the
dirtier side of the track?
Kimi:
Last year it was quite a disaster to be on the right hand side. We
got a very bad start from there and usually I think it’s been a
similar story in the past, but hopefully it will help us tomorrow.
You also need to make a good start yourself. I think overall I’m
a bit happier to be on that side.
Question:
Do you think the track conditions here in Montreal are worse than
ever and if it could be dangerous? Some drivers say it might be
dangerous tomorrow.
Kimi:
I think it’s the same as it has been for maybe the last three or
four years. It always seems to break up and they always promise to
fix it and the same happens again. I don’t know. Maybe they
should find some other people from somewhere else to fix the
circuit.
Question:
Kimi, do you feel that the gap you have to McLaren is just because
of the problems that you had at the hairpin or is McLaren a little
bit further from you? And what are your chances of trying to win
tomorrow or is going to be a race where you are simply going to
look for a good position?
Kimi:
No, we will definitely to try to win tomorrow, but it depends on
many different things. I don’t see that the difference is one
second in normal conditions. We’ve been very fast, we were
faster than this morning and coming to qualifying the circuit
breaks up straight away. I think we have had a very good car all
weekend and it’s a bit of a shame that we couldn’t really use
it as we wanted but obviously in the race I think we should have
good speed.
Question:
Kimi, you and your team-mate were very fast in T1 but in T3 you
and Massa lost a lot of time in comparison to Lewis. Is there any
reason for that?
Kimi:
Where? In the last sector? For sure maybe they are a bit faster in
a straight line but Lewis has been very fast all weekend in the
last sector. But we lost more time there than before because I
didn’t get corner ten right at all because you end up on the
marbles and just try to wait until the car wants to turn because
it’s like on ice and there’s nothing that you can do. For sure
that had a big effect.
Question:We
keep talking about the track conditions and how it keeps breaking
up. How bad does it have to get before the drivers don’t want to
come back here?
Kimi:
I enjoy it here and it’s nice to come here every year but
unfortunately the circumstances with the circuit always seem to be
the same. Hopefully they can find a solution for next year and
then we will have much better racing and more fun for everybody.
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