Q & A with Kimi Raikkonen
By Jonathan Noble Sunday, May 25th 2008, 17:47 GMT
Q. Has it been a bad grand prix for you from the start?
Kimi RaikkonenKimi Raikkonen: Yes. It was not one of the best races, but that is racing - sometimes it goes right and sometimes it goes wrong. I made some mistakes and the team made some mistakes, and we paid the price. But we will go to the next race and hope to do better.
Q. What about the incident with Adrian Sutil?
KR: Basically I just think my brakes were a bit too cold and I locked the rear. I nearly lost the car but unfortunately I hit him ? and it is sad for them because they are not very often in the position to finish in the points. So, I feel a bit sorry for him ? but I could not do anything. I tried to slow down but there was nowhere to go and nowhere to slow down ? and I lost fifth place.
Q. It was a bad race for Ferrari, in terms of finishing positions and the fact that Lewis Hamilton is now leading the championship once again...
KR: Yeah, I mean it has not been a perfect weekend for us, and we are not leading the championship any more. But we have been in much worse situations before and it is not the end of the world. There are so many races to go, and so many things can happen still. I think we have good speed in the car as long as we get everything right ? and today everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It is a shame, but that is racing.
Q. Did you misjudge your braking distance with Adrian?
KR: I don't think so. It was just a racing incident. I just locked the rear brakes on the bump and you cannot really slow the car after that. There was nowhere to go, and not enough space to try and avoid him.
Q. There was also the incident at the beginning of the race with your tyres. What happened there? Was it a late call?
KR: It wasn't a late call. We started to put the tyres on earlier than the others, but unfortunately they had some problems with the wheel nut on one of the rear wheels and they could not get the wheel nut on. By the time they got the new one on it was under three minutes, so from that moment on it started to go wrong. And after that, everything went wrong. It was a shame that we lost four points, because it can make a big difference, but these things happen.
Q. Why was your race pace so far off today?
KR: I just couldn't get the tyres working. After the safety cars, unfortunately we had the drive through and that made it difficult again. It just wasn't a very easy day.
Q. Do you feel sorry for Adrian about what happened?
KR: It is the same in my career. I would also like to have had the four points but as I said, he is not often going to be in that position to score a fourth place and for sure it was more painful for him than it was for me, and I am sorry for it. But for sure if I could have, I would have preferred not to hit him.
Q. Was this one of the worst races of your life?
KR: Well, I don't think it is the worst race. I did good races and others where I didn't finish one lap. So today, many things happened and it went wrong already in the first part ? but unfortunate things happen. I made a mistake and we made a mistake together.
It is not what we wanted, but it is not the end of my life. I am not going to start crying and shouting. This is an early part of the season and so far the season has been pretty good, and at some point you are going to have bad times. But at least we had a little bit of gap to the others so it didn't hurt too much really ? I am only a few points behind Lewis. It is the early season still and last year we were much further away.
Q. If you could say something to Adrian Sutil, what would you say?
KR: I said it already ? I said I am sorry for him and his team because probably they are not going to be often in the position to score a fourth position. Plus it was in Monaco. So it was harder for him than for me, but it was a racing incident and I could not go anywhere. There wasn't much space and I could not slow down.
Q. Have you spoken to Adrian?
KR: No, I haven't seen him but when I see him I will say sorry. So probably a bit hard for him, but it is racing and you learn from it.
Q. Without traction control, how was it out there?
KR: It was difficult in wet conditions, but for me at least it was difficult to get the tyres working in the beginning. But you need to be careful, and unfortunately I made some mistakes.
