Fernando ALONSO

Yeah, I think it was a good weekend overall. We did improve the car a lot and immediately from Friday we felt very competitive. The car behaved very well and all the set-up adjustments worked really well here in Hockenheim. We know that some circuits will be better, some circuits will be worse. In the race as well we were competitive. We performed really well. Some parts of the race we were fighting very close for first position and it was a little bit dangerous but in the end I think it was a little bit more space between all the cars and we finished the laps with no more risky manoeuvres.

Q: It certainly wasn't a risky manoeuvre when you managed to get past Felipe. It looked rather easy from where we were watching.

Alonso: Well, I think I don't know what happened, but at the exit of turn six I saw Felipe a little bit slow and tried to overtake. You have to take every opportunity you have as it is a very difficult circuit to overtake and you only have one chance into turn six. I was never close enough to do an attempt, so at that point I overtook the other car and then it was 15 or 20 laps to the end. Some more cars to lap. That was some risk at some times as it is a very narrow circuit, especially the last sector, so it was not an easy race but very interesting.

Q: We heard in Australia this year you saying to the team 'look I am faster than Felipe, let me pass him'. At any stage were you saying that this afternoon?

Alonso: Well, I think sometimes you are quick, sometime you are slow depending on what stage the tyres are. Sometimes you have a little bit of graining and sometimes you have some other problems. In some parts of the race maybe I was quicker than him. Some other parts of the race Felipe was very quick and pulling away from Sebastian and me, so it is very difficult to judge but it is a very strong result for the team. Top three in qualifying and top two in the race and the best thing as well is that the car keeps improving. It is not a result down to the weather conditions or to anything like that. It is a good performance from the team and hopefully next week in Hungary we can do a good weekend as well and score some strong points for the team.

Q: Felipe, a year to the day since your accident in Hungary. A win would have been the perfect way to mark that anniversary. Did you feel you deserved a win this afternoon?

Felipe MASSA

Well, I think so. The start was just fantastic and also the pace on the soft tyres was really great. Then I was struggling a little bit on the hard, but anyway it was a very good race for us.

Q: You were told by Rob Smedley, your race engineer, that Fernando was the faster car than yourself. A couple of laps later, turn six at the hairpin, talk us through what happened?

Massa: Well, I don't think I need to say anything about that.

Q: Fernando managed to get past you. Did you make a mistake? Was it under braking?

Massa: He passed me.

Q: Then Rob Smedley said 'Good lad, sorry'.

Massa: Yeah.

Q: Did you feel that you weren't allowed to win that race?

Massa: No, the only thing I feel is that we are working for the team and we are doing a very good job for the team and that is the most important thing.

Q: How pleasing is it for you that Ferrari are back up there competing with Red Bull?

Massa: Well, I think it was a great job for the team during the last month I would say. We were pushing hard. This was a very good track for us but anyway I think we did a good job, good working inside the car, so the car became faster and faster race by race and I think that is very important for sure when you get to the track that you see your car is very, very competitive, so the best you can do is to do first and second on the track. This is what's happened today, so I think as a team we achieved the maximum that is possible for this race. Q: Sebastian, another pole that sadly for you, you could not covert into victory. It was the start once again?

Sebastian VETTEL

Yeah, usually we have very good starts. Yesterday I was told Ferrari have good starts but I think up to today we had better ones. Not really sure what happened. I had quite a lot of grip, dumped the first clutch, so I had a big of a bog, so the first five to 10 metres of the acceleration were very poor. I was lucky I didn't stall the engine. I could get going again but lost the momentum, so I knew that it would be very tight with Fernando who was already side-by-side, so there was no way I could stay ahead of him. Then I was a little bit surprised when I saw Felipe come from the left. But still after that I think we had a good race. We knew it would be very tight. The closer you get you start to feel the tyres losing a bit of grip, starting to have a bit of graining but I think the majority of the race the Ferraris were probably just that tenth or two quicker than us, so it was difficult for us to keep up the pace. Towards the end we were able to push again a little bit but it is very tricky. You cannot really do your own rhythm as then you get so many lapped cars and depending on where you find them on the circuit, especially the last sector where it is very narrow, you can drop a lot of time and lose a lot of time but the race is done, so we finished third. I think we can be proud of that. We achieved our maximum today, so congratulations to Ferrari and I am pleased to be on the podium. Very special for me for my home grand prix to see the people here, be on that podium and see everyone cheering. It is very nice and emotional.

Q: Fernando, you needed a win before the summer break to re-ignite your championship challenge. Do you feel you have done that this weekend? You are back in business?

Alonso: I think apart from the win the most important thing is to feel confident with the car again, to feel that we are going in the right direction in terms of developing the car. The new parts on the car we introduced in the last couple of races seemed to work really well, so despite the win the better news for us in the last two or three races is that we are competitive. There were some grands prix that we were not quick enough to fight for pole positions, for wins, for podiums and we had to be conservative and now I think we can push a bit more, be more aggressive and try to score points. There is one race in one week. We did nothing today. I think we cannot go too low when the things were not very good for us and we need to be very calm after this strong result. We are happy, but we did nothing. This is the first step.



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