Post-Race Quotes - France

Nico Rosberg (First): "Yeah, it was great! I had a fantastic start and I pushed like hell, and it was great to get away - it was a lot of fun because the car felt good, and that's when it's fun. That's when the Finnish racing spirit comes out, and no one can stop you then!"

Q. It certainly looked amazing - the car must have been perfect for you.

Rosberg: "Yeah, it was - I remember, and it was probably stupid, but I slowed down in the middle of the race to save the rear tyres, and that's why I went off a little in the last two laps or so and made a few mistakes, because I was really going for it."

Q. Is this the best win of your career?

Rosberg: "No, it's not my best win, but it's the most important one so far!"

Q. You spent the whole race by yourself really - what were you thinking as you went around?

Rosberg: "I was just going for it in the beginning and the end, and just enjoying it."

Q. And it was a bit help for you in the championship.

Rosberg: "Yeah - I made a big step forward this weekend. I think I'm fourth, and Adam is only a few points ahead, so that was very good for me."

Q. I know you were a bit disappointed after yesterday's result - does this make up for it?

Rosberg: "Yeah, for sure! I knew we were quick yesterday, and I knew that we had the car for today, so I got what I was looking for!"

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Q. You've been threatening to get a podium all year and you've finally got it - how does it feel?

Hiroki Yoshimoto (Second): "You know, this is the first time that we didn't have any problems throughout the weekend, and when we didn't have any problems we had a good result, so we showed everyone that when we don't have any problems we can fight for the podium. But still, we were a lot slower than Rosberg, and Kovalainen was a lot faster when he was catching, so they were quick - Rosberg in the start I think was almost one second quicker than me, and that's impossible - there is no way I can do that. So we have to make our car better so we can win the race, because otherwise we can finish on the podium but we're never going to win the race."

Q. But one thing at a time - you needed a podium and now you've got one...

Yoshimoto: "Yeah, yeah - we haven't done many races, so compared to the others we have really no data, and when you look at that I think we are doing good."

Q. Your start seemed quite good - Piccione was slow away and you looked a lot quicker.

Yoshimoto: "With these cars you can't see behind you in the mirrors - the rear wings covers, so if you're behind someone they can't see you, and I knew this - so he made a bad start but if he saw me he could block me, so I decided to hide my car until the last minute. And Jani made a good start but Piccione saw him and he started to block, so I said 'thank you' and went right and past him!"

Q. You had a very strong race, but quite a lonely one really.

Yoshimoto: "Yes, but from the beginning I had middle understeer and no traction so I thought at the end of the race I thought it will fuck up, so from the beginning I was trying to look after my tyres and not damage them, drive very carefully and control it. I thought I can't catch up to Rosberg, so that means I don't have to push so hard but I just need to make a result, and what this means is make a good gap between Jani and me - it doesn't mean I have to make it bigger - all I have to do is control it. I think I went pretty quick and did a good race, and at the end of the race my tyres were pretty fucked, but because I tried not to damage them in the beginning I saved them."

Q. Once Heikki got by Jani your team must have told you he was quick - were you confident you could control him too?

Yoshimoto: "Yeah."

Q. Do you think you could have held him if the race was longer?

Yoshimoto: "Yeah - it's not the pace that lets him pass me - if I make a mistake he could pass me, but I wasn't going to make a mistake!"

--- Q. An amazing drive today - in a way it was better than yesterday's win.

Heikki Kovalainen (Third): "Yeah. I got a good start again, but into the first corner I had to slow down because Piccione was sort of blocking me a little bit and I was stuck in too high a gear, so Lopez got past me again. But then we had a good balance in the car again, and I managed to close on the other guys quite comfortably and then make clean moves. It's a shame Nico was able to drive on his own because he got away early, and they had the pace all weekend. But I'm really with this weekend - I think it was a really good one."

Q. It's just the way with the reverse grid - he was at the front and could get away, and you were further back and had to find a way past a lot of guys.

Kovalainen: "Yeah - it's just the normal thing on Sunday, and we just needed to finish and get a few points, which is really important, and to get a podium is obviously great."

Q. And from eighth you had a lot of guys to get through, and none of them were making it easy for you.

Kovalainen: "No - everybody tried to defend a little bit - but you know I think I had a little bit more pace and so I managed to make a move on them and then pull away. You can always say if there were a few more laps then maybe I could have pushed a bit more on Yoshimoto, but there wasn't enough laps left and I couldn't catch him."

Q. Was it just a case of running out of time?

Kovalainen: "Really yeah - when you get with half a second to a second it becomes a bit more difficult, and you need a few more laps to challenge him and maybe push him into a mistake. I tried really hard right until the end but it wasn't enough."

Q. And another podium - two this weekend - means another good points haul for you.

Kovalainen: "Yeah - it's good, and the championship is looking better after here than before, but we still have to improve it. So we'll see - we'll still keep working."

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Q. You were looking pretty quick today - Heikki was running ahead of you, but you were overtaking as many guys as he was.

Nicolas Lapierre (Fifth): "Yeah, for sure - it was a good race and a lot of fun! But I had a bad first lap - I was stuck behind Piccione and there was a lot of traffic, and finishing the lap in eleventh was not great. But our tyres stayed constant as everyone else was destroying theirs, and that was good for us."

Q. And you could just keep a constant pace, and pick them off one by one.

Lapierre: "Yeah, yeah - at the beginning of the race we were okay but not so fast, but then everybody was just going down, getting unlucky with their speed, and I think we made a good plan. Now I need to qualify a bit further in front and we'll be alright."

Q. And fifth was probably more than you were hoping for before the race.

Lapierre: "Yeah, for sure - we didn't score any points during the races this year, and we've had some unlucky races, and this weekend everything came more or less alright so we scored some good points, which is really good."

Q. Two points finishes from two races at home - maybe we should race every round in France!

Lapierre: "Yeah, for sure - I'd like that! I hope it's going to be alright next week in England for the Arden home race - it should be alright."

Q. And since the test a few weeks ago it seems as though the car is good and fast.

Lapierre: "Yeah, it's okay, and hopefully we will be here with the pace for the rest of the season, especially in the races."

--- Q. Bit of a tough race for you today - the car looked like a bit of a handful.

Adam Carroll (Sixth): "Yeah, it was really tough work today! We changed a few things from yesterday because it was just slow yesterday, but yesterday was actually an easier slow, if there is such a thing! I think you could kind of see where the car was moving around today, and it was hard work - I tried my best, and I wanted to keep Heikki behind but I just couldn't do anything anyway - if I tried to push, I couldn't. So it was only a matter of time before he passed me, and he pulled a good move, and there you go."

Jose Maria Lopez (DNF): "And how was it with Premat?"

Carroll: "He hit me!"

Q. Since you're both here maybe you can both tell me what happened with Premat, since you both had moments with him.

Lopez: "Honestly I was just doing my normal line and I didn't even try to pass him (Adam), because I moved a little bit and I was a little bit quicker, but it wasn't a problem. And I never saw Premat, because he was so far away, and it was impossible to overtake - he already had a problem, I think."

Carroll: "He'd already spun when he hit me!"

Lopez: "He knew it was difficult to pass there anyway, and he just hit me - I didn't really expect him there and then I felt the impact in my back, and I couldn't get back on the circuit."

Q. How did you see it?

Carroll: "Loads of smoke and two cars going off! And then I looked at the big screen and saw that he was off, and I can't say I was unhappy because you were going to pass me - I was so slow! So it gave me a big breather, and I was just thinking "oh shit, this is going to be tough now" - I was just so slow they could have just easily had me."

Q. And you both had really, really tough races.

Carroll: "Yeah, but I came away with some points for the championship, so ... Obviously Heikki came away with a lot of points, and we had a pretty average weekend, but we'll get back and try and win some races."

Lopez: "For me it was difficult to pass people, and he (Premat) was easily able to stay with me, so that was a big problem."

Carroll: "I just had no grip today, and when Heikki came he was just gone - I tried to give him a bit of hassle back because you never know, he might make a mistake, but after that it was see you later - he was gone."

Q. That was a great move to watch though - the two of you were sliding together all over the track.

Carroll: "Yeah - we were sliding sideways together through the second chicane!"

Q. It was great to watch!

Carroll: "Brilliant!"

Q. And Silverstone next week...

Carroll: "Oh yeah - I'm looking forward to Silverstone. I like the track, it's fun, it's challenging, and hopefully we have a quick car and can crack on and get back to business."

Lopez: "Yeah, I know it really well, and I've done a few races there and was quick. I like the circuit, so I hope we can do well there, can score more points and get closer to Adam. I think Silverstone is going to be a really great race!"

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Q. I guess this weekend was a bit of a disappointment for you, really.

Nelson Piquet Jr (Eighteenth): "At the start my qualifying wasn't too bad, but it wasn't what I wanted - I wanted to be top three or four and I got an eighth - it wasn't too bad for the first race though, because it's a long race. But I had an engine problem and had to stop, so for the second race we decided to get the fastest lap, but we had a few problems with the clutch in the beginning and then they disqualified us, so I didn't even get the two points for the fastest lap, because they said we can't change tyres. I had a small problem and I locked up my tyres, but they said 'you can't change them because you didn't lock up four tyres'. That was terrible."

Q. You went in on the second lap of the race...

Piquet: "Yeah, because I had the clutch problem, and when I stopped I had a vibration, and I thought it was the clutch or the gearbox, but they said 'maybe it's the tyres - put these tyres on' so we did, because the race was fucked anyway. So I put on the tyres and actually it seemed okay, and I could run, run, run, but I locked up because they are the tyres from the last race and are pretty old - it was getting slippery and we were losing time so I said 'let's put the other tyres on' so we put them back on and it was okay, and then it was the end of the race and they disqualified me. I came back the second time because the tyres were finished - completely finished - I put the tyres that I started with back on, and they disqualified me."

Q. Well, you've got Silverstone next week, which at least you know very well.

Piquet: "Yeah - we really need a win there, to cheer up the team and me and everything, because it's starting to go down, down, and it's really difficult."

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Q. Tough weekend for you, and particularly today - started on pole but it really didn't work at all for you.

Clivio Piccione (Nineteenth, from pole): "No, it didn't really work out - we had a lucky one yesterday, but it was hard to keep the car on the track and I had big problems throughout the weekend, and we didn't resolve them. So it was a tough weekend for me, especially today, as you said starting from pole - today we had a problem with the brakes, and I couldn't follow the pace, I was locking up everywhere, I had a flat spot on the tyres, and I was just dropping back."

Q. Your car certainly looked like a handful today...

Piccione: "Yeah - it was hard to even keep it on the track! From the first time with the car on the track it wasn't good, and after a good weekend at the Nurburgring it didn't work out for us here. Hopefully it'll change in Silverstone."

Q. Starting from pole you must have been expecting some good points.

Piccione: "I knew it was going to be hard, actually - the competition was tough and I tried my best but it didn't work out - the car just wasn't good enough today."

Q. Will you have it sorted out for Silverstone?

Piccione: "Yeah, I hope so. Every track is a different story, so we just have to go there and get a different line and start again from the beginning - that's all we can do."