Mika Hakkinen Q&A

"It was refreshing to score some points, unfortunately the overall result, the position I finished was not very good for me. But if you look at the real situation from last year, I had six points here last year, and Michael had 30 points. So at the moment I have four points, and the leader has 26. [That was the score after Imola last year, but after the fourth race at Silverstone, Michael had 32 and Mika 12]. So you can calculate in your head that everything is an extremely open situation, nobody has disappeared in the championship and is too many points ahead.

"So talking about the race, what was interesting was it was tough to push all the way through. Tactics and the tyre changes went extremely well, and the second thing is you know it's interesting to see that there are plenty of points still to score. I feel that everything is open, everything is extremely exciting and interesting, particularly now when we are heading for the gizmo time, which means all the electronics are coming alive again for the next Grand Prix. So I'm sure it will probably change some things in terms of speed and results. I'm happy to score points here, so that's why I'm pleased. But it would have been nice to win."



"First of all the start was something that really put me and David in a situation where we lost basically a good result. I just didn't have enough grip in the rear tyres, and David didn't have enough grip in the rear tyres, so it gave the opportunity for Ralf to overtake. Michael was attacking, Ralf was attacking, Montoya, just name it! Everybody was there in the first corner. I lost some parts of the front wing in the first corner, and after that obviously it wasn't a very positive thing, the balance of the car."



"I think it was great to finish two cars at this Grand Prix again, and to score points as we did. For me in particular after Brazil it was good to finish a Grand Prix like this and score some points, and also it was great after Brazil to be where we were in qualifying, first and second, which showed that McLaren is definitely stronger than ever again. And we improved again today - if our starts would have happened perfectly on the grid, I believe at the end of the day the result would have been different."



"Yeah, anybody who wins a Grand Prix deserves it to be honest, but what I would say is it's a great result for the team, for Williams generally, the newcomers from BMW - well not newcomers any more so much, but still - and it's great for Ralf. Victory is always very tasteful and gives you more motivation and more confidence for your future career."



"Definitely, yes. I believe that. And the next GP will show a lot of different results, and different drivers will be heading for good positions on the grid, you know. It will change a lot because probably traction control will for the next GP take engine driveability away a little bit, because it's controlled by electronics. So I'm sure there will be a lot of teams in different positions on the grid."