Q & A with Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen: There is not much to say. I left (the pits) a bit too early. It was my fault and unfortunately I ran over the guy who was refuelling. We need to look and see what really happened.

Q. Did you feel anything before the engine broke?

KR: No, it was just in the last corner. Unfortunately I don't know what happened, but we need to investigate what was wrong with the engine - but maybe it is similar to what happened to Felipe in the last race.

Q. There was a lot of traffic in the race wasn't there?

KR: Yeah, I knew that already before. We didn't have the qualifying that we wanted, so we started behind people again and then you cannot do much. But whatever we would have done we wouldn't have finished the race, so that is the sad thing. But we know what the issues were and hopefully we can fix them.

Q. How do you feel now?

KR: I am fine. I was not a nice weekend but it is not the first time. We are in a bit of a worse situation in the championship but if we get all the things sorted then I think we still have a chance to come back. We just need to get things as we want and try again.

Q. You seemed to be so optimistic before the weekend though...

KR: It is not great if you don't finish the race, but for sure we didn't have the qualifying as we wanted. When you start behind the people you cannot get past them. The speed in the races is not too bad, but when you are behind there is nothing you can do. I had a problem in the pit stop but in the end we would not have finished the race anyhow. It is not the best weekend but there is nothing we can do.

Q. Do you know why you had the engine problem?

KR: No. We need to see what was wrong, but maybe it was similar what happened to Felipe at the last race. For sure we will know more later.

Q. How do you rate your chances in the championship now?

KR: We need to get things sorted in qualifying. I think we still have a good chance, but we do the best that we can in the next races and then we will see where we are.

Q. It is eight events now since you won a race. Does that worry you with your championship defence?

KR: It wasn't the best weekend. We didn't score any points so we dropped more behind. I am not worried about not winning the race, but losing the points we could have got today is not very good. But hopefully we get the things as we want, and we still can then fight for the championship. There are still many races to go and it can change quickly, but there is no doubt it won't be easy. We need to see what we can do in the next race, for sure we need to start wining again - otherwise there is no chance.

Q. Are you able to explain what the problems are you are having in qualifying?

KR: We know what the issues have been, but unfortunately we haven't been able to sort them out. Hopefully now in the next test we can work a bit and try to find the solution for it. If we get the qualifying right it will help a lot.

Q. Is it a tyre issue, a team issue?

KR: We are one team. I haven't been able to get exactly what I want from the car, so we try to work with it. We were in a very similar situation last year, so hopefully we can find a solution and get back to where we should be.