20/07/2008
NEWS STORY
Sebastian Vettel: It was a tough race with a lot of fights but it was big fun. The first lap was hard and close. I tried to pass Kimi, but it didn't work out. I took some time to find a rhythm but I had a wonderful car and could run a great pace. I was disappointed when I saw the Safety Car as I was comfortably holding a points position, but we did the best we could in the situation. I fought to the end and although I was quicker than Jarno I could not pass and then he made a mistake, which brought me back to eighth place. Congratulations to everyone in the team. Eighth with no retirements, means we deserved to finish where we did and I am proud of that.
Sebastien Bourdais: I am happy with this result in terms of the pace I could run, but I was a bit unlucky with the Safety Car incident, as I knew it would involve me queuing in the pits behind Sebastian. I was able to keep up with Heidfeld in the first stint and the lap times were decent. The car worked better on the Option tyre. Overall, I had a strong race and kept pushing, hanging on to take twelfth. So now, I need to repeat this sort of performance and hopefully have some good luck to see it move me further up the order.
Franz Tost: Vettel's best race to date. He got a good start passing Webber, running consistent lap times to stay ahead of him. The guys did a fantastic job in the pit stop as it got us ahead of Alonso. He fought very well against Alonso, in an entertaining fight. The Safety Car worked against us, as it meant Piquet got ahead of us, having stopped before it. From then on, Vettel defended his position in a fantastic way and deserved this point in his home race. Bourdais also did a great job. Towards the end, he was closing the gap on Alonso and might even have passed him with a couple more laps. Well done to the whole team for a good day's work.