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Belgian GP: Post Race press conference

NEWS STORY
30/08/2009

Kimi, your fourth victory here in Spa. It has been a difficult season for the team but today you proved a point.
Kimi Raikkonen: Yes, I mean it hasn't been an easy year for us. We were behind straight away in the first race compared to the top teams and we made a big step in Barcelona but it still has not been enough and for sure we have not brought new parts to the car for a few races as we are really putting an effort into next year. I mean getting the win now, it's quite a long time since the last one, so it was perfect. My aim was to win at least one race and try to keep third place in the championship, so this is going to help us a lot but I needed a bit of effort today to get the win. We probably were not the fastest in the lap times but overall we were fastest and we managed to keep everybody behind, so that's enough. It is great for the team and hopefully we can get some good results after this race. I always do well here; we will see what we can do in the last part of the season.

Giancarlo, eight points and Force India's best ever result. But do you feel this is a race you could have won?
Giancarlo Fisichella: Of course, obviously it is great result for us. The important target was to score even a point and to finish second with eight points is a great result. It's a great day, but actually, you know, I was quicker than Kimi. He could overtake just because of KERS at the beginning of the race, at the restart after the safety car, and I am a little bit sad for that because I was quicker than him. I was keeping his pace, even behind his car. We did exactly the same strategy race, so it is great because I finished second just one second from the leader which is a great result for us but actually we could have won the race.

Sebastian, you set the fastest lap and I guess the same question to you: do you feel this is a missed opportunity or do you feel good for having bitten a bit more out of Jenson Button's points lead?
Sebastian Vettel: We got more points than all the rest but if you look at the championship it was a very good result. Obviously it was not an easy position to start from, right in the middle, so I think I had a very good start and then unfortunately in the first lap I was bit too conservative when I saw Nick (Heidfeld) going off the track. Usually the cars very easily tend to come back spinning, so I lost a position to Nico (Rosberg) and had to catch up after the restart. I succeeded and after that, because of how things went, we just lost too much ground in the first stint to the guys ahead and then in the second and third stint I think the car was fantastic. I had no single mistake in the race. I was pushing every single lap like qualifying. It was really in the end, after the chequered flag, a pleasure to drive the car. We had very, very strong pace, quicker than the guys at the front, and also throughout the second stint even though we had more fuel on board. We lost the ground in the beginning but, nevertheless, I think, as I said, a very good result. We took points out of the Brawns for the team and, for me, I scored more points than Jenson (Button) and Rubens (Barrichello) and overall a big thank you for the team. Also compliments to Renault. With all the sh** that we have gone through the last couple of races it is good to finish again and good to prove the engine is strong enough to manage a race. I think with the failures we had we were a little bit unlucky, so we have proven that we are back and it is good to have finished the race again after quite a long time now.

Kimi, the key really was that pass on Giancarlo after the restart on lap five. Talk us through how you lined up Giancarlo and passed him.
KR: I knew that we needed to get past him as more or less we were on the same lap coming in and if I hadn't done after the safety car they had too much speed to get it after that. I just made sure I was close enough after the first corner and then went behind him as close as I could through Eau Rouge. I got quite a lot of understeer and ran a bit wide on top of the hill but then once I used the KERS I was able to get next to him and just in front of him, so it was pretty easy in that way to get in front of him. I knew then as long as we don't make silly mistakes, we should be ok for the race.

Giancarlo, you are sitting alongside Kimi now on the podium. Do you think you will be sitting alongside him as team-mate in Monza after this result?
GF: That's just a rumour. As I told you yesterday I was just concentrated on doing this race which has been a fantastic weekend for me and tomorrow I will start concentrating on Monza. Obviously, with the Force India overall. That's all I can say.

Sebastian, tell us about the championship. How do you see it now? What can you do in the remaining races?
SV: Well, I think it is still open. This championship is a bit crazy to be honest. When I was a little boy and followed the championships in Formula One it was always pretty boring. You knew at the first race more or less who was competitive. As we see now Force India were quick this weekend. Most likely they are going to be quick in Monza. It is a low downforce track, so it is up and down and it shows how important it is to be consistent which was not our strength but nevertheless we are still in reach. I think we took six points out of Jenson, the championship leader, which is a good thing. I don't know what happened to him. I just saw his car in turn five, so I think he had an accident. But this is how we have to do it. It would have been nice to finish first today but after the result yesterday I think it was the best we could do. Everything is possible. We are here to fight.

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