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At long last... the post-race press conference from Interlagos

NEWS STORY
03/11/2008

Felipe, tell us your feelings about the race?
Felipe Massa: It was such difficult weather in the beginning and then the rain came at the end. I am so proud about that race, I am so proud about the team and so proud about the people around who supported me more than ever, more than 100 percent. Much more than I expected. It's really an emotional day for me because you get here and you have almost done everything perfectly even with the championship at the end but then we saw Lewis passing Glock again and that's really mixed a lot of my emotions. But that's racing. The race finishes with the chequered flag. We finished in the front and we have to be very proud about that and unfortunately we missed one point but that's racing. We need to be proud of our job and our race and our championship and that's why I am here. I know how to win and I know how to lose. It is one more day of my life and we are going to learn a lot from this day. That's the way it is but for sure I am very emotional.

Fernando, a great call early on with the terrible conditions and from then on you were always in a strong position.
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, I think the start was difficult for everybody. It was wet obviously but especially turns one, two and three, so there were some problems there and then the safety car. But then when we restarted basically two laps after the restart I pitted for dry tyres. The team saw one BMW with dry tyres already quite quick, so they called me in. It was a very good decision as I was running P6 and suddenly I saw myself P3 with Vettel a little bit shorter than me on fuel load. At that point I think the race was quite good for us. I kept second place and a good fight with Kimi in the last couple of laps at the end. A fantastic result starting P6 and finishing again on the podium is much more than we expected.

We heard one radio transmission saying your race was with Massa. How did you feel at that point?
FA: I was surprised about that comment from the pits, so obviously they tried to motivate me. They tried to push me to the limits and they didn't want me to relax at any part of the race. But I think Massa was a little bit too quick today and I was more concerned about the gap with Kimi and tried to keep the second place. The race victory, I knew that was impossible.

Kimi, talk us through the race from your point of view.
Kimi Raikkonen: I knew what I was supposed to do and it wasn't the best race ever. The car was quite difficult, I don't know why. The tyres felt quite tricky, especially the front tyres on the first set. The second set was a bit difficult at the beginning. It started to be a bit better in the end and I was catching up Fernando but then came the rain and I was right behind him and I got some instruction not to risk anything for Felipe and I decided to stay in third place. For us we won at least the team championship. It was unlucky for Felipe but that was one of our aims. I mean we got that at least and it was what we wanted and we could do it. It was not the easiest year for the team and for both of us but we got good results for the team and we must be happy. It was Stefano's (Domenicali) first year as team boss and it has not been easy all the way through, so I am very happy for him.

Felipe, reflect on the season in your own words given your emotions today?
FM: Well, I think as Kimi said, we did everything perfect today and unfortunately it was not enough. I think we did a great championship, we had some up and downs and we paid for that and we are also paying now a little bit but racing is like that. Sometimes you just have a perfect year with so many victories, a very reliable car, and sometimes you have some ups and downs and that's racing. From one year to the other things change. That was our championship but even if we had some ups and downs I think everybody did a great job. Everybody worked really hard to achieve our goals with the heart and sometimes things don't happen in the way we want. But that's racing. That's the sport, sometimes it is a little bit different than we expect. We need to be happy with our Constructors' championship. It is very important and I am sure our President, everybody inside the team is very, very proud and very happy like me as we need to be. The second thing is we need to congratulate Lewis because he did a great championship and he scored more points than us, so he deserves to be champion. I know how to lose and I know how to win and as I said before it is another day of my life from which I am going to learn a lot. Hopefully we come back here with the title but anyway I think it is part of our experience, part of our life. I am sure everybody here, me, Fernando, Kimi, knows how tough it is to be a driver. Sometimes things are very easy and something happens you don't expect. Sometimes things are very difficult and you win without expecting, so we know a lot about that and that is another day. But as I said I am very happy and I am leaving the track with my head completely up as I think we did everything we could.

Press Conference

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