Q & A with Martin Whitmarsh

Martin Whitmarsh: Well, obviously it was a tough race, a disappointing race. Lewis, at the first corner, was racing - that's what you are meant to do and he was penalised for that. I haven't seen it as many times as the stewards obviously it's a disappointing outcome to be penalised.

Shortly afterwards he was taken out by Massa and that damaged his car, so in reality he had a damaged car and pushed very hard throughout the race, but ultimately with those incidents was unable to score points.

Q. Do you think that he lost his head at the beginning in any way?

MW: It's motor-racing. You drive hard and it was a good start off the line by Kimi and Lewis was there to try and see what he could do. He braked late into that corner - that's what motor-racing is about and unfortunately it didn't work out today for him.

Q. What happened at the start?

MW: The reality is Kimi made a very good reaction off the line and Lewis attacked on the inside. He braked very late, locked up a bit, they ran wide, others got through. It was a fairly normal racing incident but unfortunately he was penalised. In the meantime in any case he was taken out by Massa and damaged his car. That meant that for most of the race he was running with a damaged floor and top body as well.

Q. Was the penalty for Lewis fair?

MW: I've only seen it live and then you're immersed in the race. The stewards came to a decision, I don't understand it at the moment but I'm sure there must have been other things that I didn't see.

Q. What was Lewis like on the radio?

MW: During the race you concentrate on just that. Clearly Lewis did not believe that anything he did warranted a penalty, he was upset by what happened with Massa but we told him to get on and race which is what he did. He was for a lot of the time, fuel-corrected, the quickest car out there. The first stop, that early on, we filled him very heavy to convert to a pseudo one-stop. Of course, it turned into a three stop as it panned out! It was unfortunate.

Q. And ultimately the loss of just two points in the drivers' championship?

MW: It could be worse. We go away from here leading the world championship and we have two races in which we can make sure we secure that title.

Q. And the constructors' championship?

MW: That's still close as well. Obviously not a great day there, very unfortunate. Heikki was doing a great job and he had an engine failure which is very unusual for us so we need to understand that. But that took some solid points away - I'm sure it would have been a podium finish for Heikki as well.

So overall a disappointing day. We leave here with Lewis still leading the drivers' championship by five points and we've got a few points behind Ferrari, but there are 36 points out there to be taken in the last two races.