On Saturday, you looked unstoppable around the Abu Dhabi circuit, but the race brought the first mechanical retirement of your Formula 1 career - was it a weekend of mixed fortunes?
"Not really. Of course, it's disappointing not to finish a race - particularly when you're at the front leading it - but I have to be realistic: to have got through nearly three seasons of racing and to only now be stopped by a mechanical failure is an incredible statistic.

"You almost take reliability for granted these days, so it was weird to be stood in the garage watching the race rather than being in it. But I think we can all be proud of what we've achieved this year. We started the season with what was the slowest car in the field, but we never gave up, and on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, you could argue that we had the fastest car out there. That's an absolutely incredible achievement - and I can't think of a single team other than Vodafone McLaren Mercedes that could have done that.

"It would have been great to have won the race and sent us into the winter with our heads held high, but it wasn't to be. I loved the circuit - for a new track, it has a good blend of corners and it needs you to be very focused and precise to get the best from the laptime. We'll be back to try and win it next year!"

Let's look back over the season - it's been a years of highs and lows, but what has been your highlight?
"I think there are a few moments that will stay with me from this year. The first was at Silverstone, where I arrived knowing that I wouldn't be able to fight for a win, and where I was just overwhelmed by the amount of support from the people at the circuit. I would never have imagined it would have been such a positive and inspiring weekend for me - even if our results weren't that great.

"I'd had such an amazing race at Silverstone in 2008, and it really meant a lot to me to see that people had kept the faith and were behind me even if I couldn't score a win for them.

"On the track, one of my biggest highlights was in Germany, when we tried the upgrade package for the first time. Before I'd even driven the car, you could see that it was a big step - we'd completely changed the front wing, the top body and the floor, and there was a lot of pressure for it to be right - and it looked good, the car looked fantastic.

"And it only took me a few laps to realise that the car was an incredible improvement. Finally, after months of struggling, I could finally get the car to do what I wanted: I could get it turned in properly, and get hard on the power and just rely on the grip to get me out of a corner. Coming out of the Nurburgring hairpin and heading uphill into the fast esses, I accidentally left my radio switched on, and the whole team could hear me yelling and screaming because the car felt so good!

"I felt a bit embarrassed afterwards, especially when Martin told me he'd played the recording back to the whole team! But I can see now that that was important for everyone's morale.

"The other highlight was winning in Hungary. I'd always said that winning a race this year was going to feel sweeter than anything else we'd achieved, just because it would be such a satisfying conclusion to all our hard work. And the Hungarian Grand Prix was just a dream come true - to be able to measure my pace over the others and to get the car home first was just unbelievable. Total satisfaction…"