Brawn GP
Rubens Barrichello (1st):
“Monza has always been a great track for me and it feels just wonderful to win here again. We made some great decisions this weekend and the work that we achieved on Friday was the key to setting up the result today. We had to think strategically in qualifying because of the KERS cars and our one-stop strategy really paid off. I had a great start to get ahead of Heikki and from there I had the pace that we needed to beat the two-stopping cars who started ahead of us. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone at the factory, here at the track and at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth for designing, building and developing such a great car and engine. I’m driving a fantastic car with a fantastic Mercedes-Benz engine and the team is doing a fantastic job! It’s going to be a good and healthy fight for the championship over the next few races and I’m really looking forward to that. Two wins in three races is pretty good going and I’ll be giving it my all. And finally I would like to dedicate this win to my two sons Eduardo and Fernando who both had their birthdays this month.”
Jenson Button (2nd):
“I had a really good race today and it’s a fantastic feeling to be up on the podium again. The team and Rubens did a great job this weekend and congratulations to Rubens for his second win of the season. The car worked very well all weekend and the balance was good throughout the race which meant I could set consistently quick lap times when it really mattered. The strategy that we chose on Saturday for qualifying was the perfect one for us and I was able to get ahead of Heikki on the first lap which was absolutely crucial for my race. Lewis was pushing hard behind me for the final part of the race but I was confident that I had him covered and it’s a very difficult circuit to overtake here even with KERS. We have shown that the Brawn-Mercedes is a very good car and credit to the team for the efforts that have gone into improving it over the past couple of months. It’s going to be a very exciting end of the season and a challenge that we are all looking forward to.”
Kimi Raikkonen (3rd):
“I am happy to have made it to the podium once again, even if this time I needed a heavy dose of luck. It’s a nice result, for the championship, for us and for our fans here at Monza. I got a great start and I almost managed to also get past Hamilton, but even if I’d managed it, the result would have been the same in the end. I’m disappointed I couldn’t fight for the win, but we did not have enough speed. All in all, the strategy we chose prior to the race was the best one for us. In my battle with Sutil, I was never really in difficulty: I knew I only had to avoid making any mistakes and drive in such a way as to get the best out of the car. The tyres? The softer ones suited us better, as we struggled a bit on the harder ones, especially at the start of the stint. In the upcoming races, we will try and do our best: maybe in some of them we could even try and fight for the win.”
Adrian Sutil (4th):
“It was a great race and the car was performing really well. At the start we knew it would be really difficult to defend our position against Kimi and his KERS button and then I was stuck behind him the whole race. I was really quick but I just couldn’t find a way past him as the KERS had such a big effect on the circuit. Going into my second stop we had a chance to overtake him in the pit lane and I was pushing really hard but I was a bit late on the brakes into the box. I think I have to say sorry to the mechanics for going a bit wide! But still they did a great job there. The race pace overall was very good but finally the one-stop strategy worked better than the two stop. All the same we scored a lot of points and I am really, really happy for myself and all of the team at the track and back in the factory and wind tunnel.”
Fernando Alonso (5th):
“I’m very happy with the result today, although at the start the KERS did not meet my expectations. In the race I had good pace, the car behaved perfectly and our strategy worked well. Finishing in fifth position is a good result, but the objective for the rest of the season is a podium or even a victory.”
Heikki Kovalainen (6th):
“I’m rather disappointed with today. My race began with a difficult start and that cost me several places on the first lap. Then I couldn’t really push hard in the first stint because my prime tyres didn’t have the grip to allow me to attack. Things were better in the second stint on the options, but, by then, it was too late to regain the time I’d lost in the first stint.”
Nick Heidfeld (7th):
“I’m totally happy, as for me it was a great race. Coming seventh may not sound fantastic, but from 15th on the grid that really was the best I could do today. The start itself wasn’t good at all, I almost lost positions. But then in the first corner I managed to overtake one car on the outside and then in the chicane I went to the inside to overtake Jarno Trulli. On lap three I overtook Giancarlo Fisichella, which I thought would be impossible because he has KERS on his car. Then when I was behind Sebastian Vettel I started to save fuel. After our pit stops he was behind me, and I was eighth before Lewis Hamilton crashed on the last lap and I benefited by scoring one more point.”
Sebastian Vettel (8th):
“I think we had a good start and a good first lap, but then I was struggling to stay with the cars in front. The biggest issue today was the first five to ten laps when I was struggling with low grip, I was sliding a lot and lost a lot of time. Overall, we didn’t have the speed and perhaps this wasn’t the best track for our car. For the next race we will put more downforce in again and maybe we’ll be better, we will see. The championship isn’t over - our target is to do our best, we’re here to win races and the championship, so we have to focus on that, all the rest is out of our hands.”
