Question: Fernando, bad luck with mechanical trouble on Saturday but you made up for it today with a fantastic drive.
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, fantastic. A first podium of the season and first victory as well and I am extremely happy. I cannot believe it right now, I think I need a couple of days to realise we won a race this year. It seems impossible all through the season to be close to the top guys and here suddenly we have been competitive from Friday. As you said yesterday we were unlucky in qualifying and today very lucky in the race. Obviously we started at the back and the first safety car helped me a lot and I was able to win the race.
Question: The first safety car was caused by your team-mate Nelson Piquet. You came in on lap 12, three laps before the safety car, which really gave you a strong position when everybody else had to pit.
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, as I said unlucky yesterday but very, very lucky today. We chose to do a very aggressive first stint as we knew starting 15 you cannot overtake anyone here. We thought about a one stop strategy but we had some concerns with the brakes, so we said one stop is not possible, so we tried something very different. We tried a very short first stint and tried to make up as many places as possible at the start and on the first lap and then see from there. The start was good but obviously not good enough and then as I said very lucky but the pace was there as afterwards all through the race we were able to pull some distance, some gap, to the guys behind us and this was thanks to the car which was super today.
Question: And the pace was there at the second restart on the Bridgestone primes when you pulled out two or three seconds a lap.
Fernando Alonso: I think I had a little bit of an advantage compared to Nico because of the tyres. I think the prime were a little bit better, so I was with the better tyre in the last stint of the race. I was running with low revs when I was alone and then at the restart I put maximum engine and thanks to the tyres as well I was able to pull away from Nico.
Question: Your thoughts on this amazing night in Singapore and how you enjoyed racing at night. Lots of new things at this circuit and you winning again.
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, it was a great weekend for all of us. A great weekend for everyone in Formula One, the first night race. We all had a new challenge in front of us and we will be part of history, the first night race in Formula One. There will be many more to come as I think the experience was great. We had no problems and I think the people will enjoy more this type of races. It will not all be night races but some of them can be at night as the spirit was good. For us, ING Renault, we have had a tough, tough 2008 championship but now we are fighting for fourth place in the Constructors’. This victory is well deserved as the guys worked extremely hard all through the season. We start far behind, maybe one second behind BMW, now we are the same pace as them or even better and this is thanks to a great job. We will keep on pushing. Three more races to go and next year more.
Question: What do you think this means to yourself and the team after such a tough season?
| 
|