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Singapore GP: Thursday Press Conference

NEWS STORY
24/09/2009

A question to you all. What are your feelings about this circuit, about Singapore? Your feelings about racing at night?
Mark Webber: I think it is great coming here. It is a brilliant change for us to race at night. I think it worked very well last year in terms of the atmosphere. I think it was pretty good whether you were a journalist, photographer, spectator, driver, mechanic. I think it was just a unique one and I think all sporting events at night have a little bit of a different feel to them, an atmosphere. I think they have learned a little bit with the track. They have changed a little bit this year with the bumps here and there, a little bit of kerbing, the pit lane entry and exit, there are a few little tweaks. It was a good event and I like coming to this part of the world. It is not far from home for me, so it is good.

Nico Rosberg: I think it is a fantastic event and it works really well. There is a bit of a question mark if it rains, what the visibility is going to be like then with the floodlights and everything but I guess it should be alright. Although maybe with the spray and everything I don't know. We will have to wait and see. But it looks a bit unlikely that it will rain this weekend for now but we will see.

Lewis Hamilton: Petty much the same. It is a great track and a great show we put on last year and I am sure we can do the same this year.

Kimi Raikkonen: Last year was a nice race. We will see what we can do this year but hopefully for us it should be a little better than last year but we will see how it goes.

Mark, do you still feel the championship is possible?
MW: The drivers' championship is very difficult. I think Jenson has to get four or five points on us and it's all over. I am coming here trying to get the best result for me and looking forward to Suzuka next week as well as we have got a few good tracks hopefully that we can get some good results at. But the championship is much more difficult now.

Last year you had a gearbox problem. How do you feel about reliability this year? Is it a problem at this circuit, particularly with jumping over the kerbs?
MW: I hope that it will be better this year. We have shown this year that we have had a few engine problems but on the chassis side we have been pretty good, so touch wood we will be okay Sunday night and we can get a good chunk of points.

Is it a circuit you feel is more suited to the car?
MW: No, I think we have seen already in Monaco and Valencia that they have not been probably our best circuits of the year compared to some others but it doesn't mean we are going to be out the back massively. We are still going to be in the hunt but we won't have an advantage. The stop-start nature of these tracks is something we will look to improve next year.

Nico, Monza was a bit of a nightmare for you. First time I think you have been out of the points for quite some time. What are your feelings about this place?
NR: I mean both Spa and Monza were very difficult. At Spa we were lucky in the middle sector that we could be competitive, so that helped us in general, but we didn't really deserve points there either. Then Monza was a complete disaster to be honest. I am looking forward to this one as it is back to the car with the aerodynamics that we had used in Valencia where we were running fifth and were very competitive in the race. They have worked on that a lot over the last couple of weeks and we have a good upgrade for this race. I am pretty confident that we are going to be up there again and really battling for some good points which is where I prefer to be obviously.

You were second here last year. You were on the podium and hoping for the same again. Is that possible?
NR: I think the podium is possible this year for sure. We need to be a bit lucky to get there. I think in pure pace we can be in the top six or top five, but if we are a bit lucky we can finish in the top three which would be a great result again for us, similar to last year.

Is it a bit of a frustration that you are knocking on the door of the podium all the time?
NR: A little bit but that's not that important I guess. What counts is your championship position and we are in quite a good position at the moment being sixth. It is not going to be easy to hold on to that to the end of the year but I will do my best. A podium would be nice. It would be great to have one at least this year, maybe even two, we will see in the last few races. I am sure there will be one or two opportunities.

Lewis, you have been saying that you come here with quite a different attitude to how you came here last year when you were in championship contention.
LH: I cannot really remember saying that. I arrive the same as always.

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