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Q & A with Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica will arrive at his BMW Sauber' team's home race in Germany having endured a disappointing British Grand Prix, where the Pole suffered his second retirement of the season

The result, however, left Kubica just two points behind the championship leaders, and the BMW Sauber driver admits there is still a long way to go and nothing can be ruled out.

Autosport.com heard from Kubica following the Hockenheim test, as he prepared to fight back following the non-score at Silverstone.

Q. You said after you took the world championship lead in Canada that it was more important you had it at the end. After a disappointing Silverstone, are you still thinking of the championship?

Robert Kubica: I think the situation after Silverstone has not changed a lot. I am still two points behind the leader of the championship.

Q. But you could have had more!

RK: Yes, we could, but I am not. I don't see a big difference. The season is very long, there are nine races to go and a lot of things can happen, especially if you have races like Silverstone where there are variable conditions on the track. So we will see. There is still a long way.

Q. In Canada you said that you hoped the team would give 100 percent support to you - which translated means that they have to push the development to catch up with Ferrari and McLaren.

RK: Looking at the last two races, they were completely different races. In Magny-Cours Ferrari were much quicker than everyone else and in Silverstone they were much slower than everyone was expecting. McLaren were the complete opposite, slow in Magny-Cours and very quick in Silverstone.

I think in qualifying in Silverstone we were more competitive than we expected to be, so we have to see. Silverstone I will not take much into consideration because it was quite a strange weekend, we have to see now in Hockenheim and Hungary how things will develop before the break.

Q. The German Grand Prix is the home race for BMW. Do you consider it a home race for yourself as well?

RK: No. I think it is a special one for the team because we are racing in Germany, and a lot of supporters of our team will probably come here. But the next race after Hockenheim is more my home race, in Hungary, because there will be a lot of Polish fans there. So we have two home races coming up - one for BMW and one for myself.

Q. Britain has been taken over by interest for Lewis Hamilton. What's it like for you back home?

RK: I don't know. I am not going quite often to Poland, but for sure the interest in F1 is bigger than ever. That is a normal situation when you have a driver doing good results. I think it has been the same in UK and in Spain with Fernando.

Q. Can you explain the ups and downs for teams this year? It's happened to you, it's happened to Ferrari and it's happened to McLaren?

RK: I think it could be track conditions and the characteristics of the tyres. In Magny-Cours I think we did some mistakes and we did come back at Silverstone, and we were better. But still the performance in qualifying was much better than it was at the test, and even how it had been until qualifying.

The track, it looks like the tyres are very sensitive to what it going on with the track, the temperature, ambient temperature, sun, no sun - so you have to always get it right. And it is not always easy to get it perfectly right. It happened a bit to Ferrari at Silverstone when they were struggling a bit more than anybody else.

Q. But there was even a difference from testing to race weekend performance at Silverstone?

RK: Yeah, I think so. In qualifying I was not expecting to be stronger than Ferrari and until qualifying I was stronger - it was quite surprising. We were expecting to be, after the test at Silverstone, a bit back from them.

Q. What do you think of Hockenheim?

RK: Until now, we have had some very nice testing days - a lot of sunshine and good temperature. We have done a lot of laps and we are just testing some stuff, not necessarily to prepare for the race weekend. So it has been very productive.

Q. What do you think you can do at Hockenheim? The car has not been strong on tracks with high-speed corners, like Barcelona?

RK: That's true but the next two races we don't have really high-speed corners. Hockenheim we have the first corner which is quick but it is quite short, and into the stadium is quite a quick corner. In Hungary you don't have high-speed corners so for the next races there will not be any high-speed corners.

Q. Do you think BMW Sauber are in a win-win situation, because if you hold onto second that is great and if you finish third that is good enough?

RK: I don't know. I can say for myself, I am trying to push as hard as possible to go as much in front as possible, but I cannot say for the team what the situation will be and what will make them happy at the end of the season. Second is better than third, and third is better than fourth.

Q. The team are saying that 2009 will be better. What are your hopes for this season and next?

RK: My hopes are always the same - to be as much on the top as possible, and to score as many points as possible. Then it depends how many points you have in your account in the end, but the aim is always the same.

Q. But when you started the season you surely did not expect to be fighting for the world championship? Does that change your approach?

RK: My approach is very similar to what it was before. In fact, it is exactly the same. I am trying to achieve as many points as possible for each weekend and extract as much as I can from the car. If the maximum can be achieved and it is good enough to win the championship in the last race, then you think about the championship then. But right now, it is a race-by-race approach.

Q. You have achieved your current championship standing not through having the fastest car but from your team not making mistakes. Is that enough to win a title?

RK: It depends. It depends on the others; at Silverstone for example it was a good example. Some teams were struggling more and to be honest I was not expecting to be two tenths off the fastest time in Q2. In Q3 unfortunately I did not have any lap time and had to start from the back, but it was a good opportunity.

It is difficult to say, but all teams are trying to start the season with the right speed and right approach and nine races is a good representative number to see how competitive you can be.

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