Q: Michael, you have a big smile on your face. A two-stop strategy this time compared to the three of most of your closest opposition.
Michael Schumacher: Yeah, obviously I was amazed how the race went. I thought we had a very good strategy for the race but that it would pay out so early, leading the race so early basically after my first stop coming in front ahead of everybody, that was not the plan, honestly. But my car was just going so well in the last laps when I had free track that I was able to close the margin I had on Kimi which he pulled out in his first 11 laps and that was just phenomenal. After that it was just controlling it, lucky obviously with the strategy I had Kimi was behind me and I could control that, it was tight in a couple of areas but not too tight and very interesting obviously.

Q: Of course, what you could not predict was the safety car coming out about 20 laps from the end and then it was gloves off racing to the finish.
MS: Yeah, obviously that sort of took away my comfortable lead I had built up by that stage and I was probably lucky that I had two other drivers between me and Kimi because the warm-up performance of Kimi’s tyres and my tyres was noticeably different. Had he been directly behind me, thanks to the safety car - who was going very, very slow around, didn’t look to put any effort in his drive – I had very cold tyres and that didn’t really help me for the first couple of laps when Kimi came close. We had a nice little fight for a couple of laps and my tyres came back and I was able to open the lead again.

Q: It was pretty close with both you and Rubens. We have been saying all weekend how good your car has been, particularly on fast corners here. Is that where you had the advantage over Kimi towards the end?
MS: Erm, looking at it Kimi seemed to be very good in the infield, in the last sector, in particular. But saying that obviously we were on very different strategies - he was a lot lighter while he was behind me. It is difficult for me to predict how the situation really was but we obviously had the best package for the whole circuit.

Q: Kimi, what a start! Take us through that start and those early laps.
Kimi Raikkonen: It was good. The start was very good, to get the first place, and I just went as quickly as I could and I think after the first lap there was already quite a big gap. I kept pushing all the time but then I was a bit unlucky with the traffic, I got stuck behind the two Minardis after the first pit stop and this cost me way too much time. Every time I came out with new tyres I got stuck behind someone but that is racing and at least we got the second place in the end.

Q: Indeed, your first podium since Suzuka last year. But, from the safety car onwards, you were very close to Michael within a couple of laps of the car going in and then Michael started to pull away again.
KR: Yeah, I think the last set of tyres I had more difficulties with at the rear end than any other set so, like Michael said, I was hoping that I could get past the two lapped cars very quickly so that I could really challenge him with the new tyres. I got close to him but not past him. But for me, the team, Mercedes, for everyone, it is a good result because after a really difficult start to the season we finally got things going the right way and got back on the right track and we got some results. Now it is only the second race for the car so hopefully we can improve it.

Q: Rubens, you maintained your record as the only driver to score points in every race so far this season. There was a lot of racing with Jenson Button there, you got the better of him in the pit stops then you nearly caught Kimi at the end.
Rubens Barrichello: Yeah, I had quite a good race but a tough one. After the start it was quite clear that they had this (tyre) warming up a bit better than us and it was really difficult to follow Kimi for the first three of laps, So we lost a little bit of time and it was difficult to catch him up. I was catching slightly, I opened up on Jenson, but when I came to the first pit stop I went out a little bit heavy in the middle of the traffic and the car wasn’t working very well. That’s the part of the race that really cost me more points really and maybe the victory. After all it was quite clear that Michael, on a two-stop, was doing a superb job and he was going to win, so when I saw the safety car then everything was alive again. But unfortunately, again, I had too many problems on the first two laps warming up again and it cost me.

Q: Did you get close enough to Kimi right at the end to have a go at him?
RB: No, I think the pace was to high to try to have a go. I was thinking the public was thinking I could really do it - because of last week – at the final moment but I had to be a bit faster to try to do anything. I was faster than him on sector one through Becketts and everything but he was faster through sector three in the infield, so it was difficult to make up.

Q: Michael, what a season this is turning out to be. I know there is still a long way to go but can we just reflect a little bit on your thoughts on this victory, how things are just going so well for you, how good the car is. Actually, this is the first time you have won a Formula One race from fourth on the grid, for what that’s worth.
MS: Yeah, it doesn’t mean a lot in a way. We obviously sacrificed qualifying for the race strategy, in a way, and it just paid out. It is unbelievable what has happened to me this year, to the team. I think it just pays back for all the hard work everyone has done in the factory. We never have let off. We learned our lesson from last year when maybe we took it a little bit easy at some stage and we came back just at the right time. And because everyone felt the pain of this nobody really wanted to be back in this pain and everyone kept pushing. The high motivation I see every time I go with the test team, those guys work just flat-out all the time and when you see how hungry the guys are it is just fantastic, each one sort of pushes the other one and it is just an on-going thing. I am so proud to be in the team and be able to live in that phase of Ferrari.