Mika Salo Q & A

"He was a bit too wild! I saw the others so I obviously slowed down not to hit them, and make the corner. My team mate came, wheels locked, half the car on the grass, and hit me straight in the sidepod. It broke my engine cover and sidepod, and I lost 20 points of downforce because of that. They can see in on the data; it's a huge difference. That's why I was so slow in the whole race. So he really messed up both our races. You can't win the race in the first corner, so you should just take it a little bit more easy. It's amazing. It's not the first time - he did it to me two years ago, when I started sixth and he started 13th, and he hit me in the second corner."



"It was only the two McLarens and me. I also hit Trulli with my front wheel, but I don't think that did any damage. It was pretty lucky because I got all the hits on the wheels or in the sidepods, and not in the wrong place, like the wing."



"I thought so, yeah, because both Ferraris were gone. I was sure it would be red-flagged! I was so surprised when I saw the safety car."



"I thought, wow this is easy. I knew I had so much fuel in the car, they couldn't put any more in, I thought all I had to do is hold up everybody and I'll be alright. But as soon as they started racing again, I realised I had something wrong with the car. De la Rosa seemed to be on low fuel, and he passed me. My car was really horrible to drive, I had massive oversteer because of the damage. I was a couple of tenths slower than Barrichello, so I didn't fight with him, and I let him quite easily past, because then I could concentrate on my own driving."



"I came into the pits in fourth. I could have done a couple more laps, but there was no point because I was so slow, just holding everybody up. I thought it would be better with a new set of tyres and a little balance change. We adjusted the front wing because of the massive oversteer. Then soon after the pit stop I lost my clutch, so I started to lock the rear wheels under braking. The gearshift became really bad, and the problem didn't go away, it was just a huge oversteer still. I was struggling all the time, but I managed to get a point."



"Well, yeah. I didn't expect Villeneuve to come by, but he was so much quicker. I still think that if my car was working well, without this hit in the first corner, I probably could have finished quite well up. Pedro was one of the fastest cars in the race, but he was a lap behind."



"It's been good all weekend, except in the race. I think the engine driveability is so much better now, so we can actually control the car. In Magny-Cours and Canada we had a huge problem with it. They've changed the mapping a little bit, so all the power doesn't come out at the same time. I'm really happy with it at the moment. Hopefully it will work on the low downforce circuits."



"We had a test at Monza already, and the car was good on low downforce. Hockenheim should be alright. Hungary is a go-kart track, and it's really all about qualifying, so we'll see."