Q: Michael, that was a dramatic race, a dramatic first corner, obviously the dramatic accident with your brother. What are your thoughts at the moment?
Michael Schumacher: The biggest concern I had was seeing Ralf sitting for so long in the car as soon as I saw and I was aware that Montoya was in position whatever and there was a safety car and so on and I saw a (Williams) BMW parked there. The worst thing was seeing him for so long there. They kept telling me that they were informed that things weren't too bad, everything was looking alright, but still, I mean, I have heard this many times in the past and it turned out differently but as far as my information is concerned Ralf is well and that is all that matters.
Q: Indeed. You took the lead at the first restart. Can you talk about that and also how you managed to maintain the lead after the safety car after you made your pit stop?
MS: Well, taking the lead after the safety car was purely that here the nature of the circuit is that the safety car switches off its light in the last sector and then you don't have much time in sort of preparing yourself to get your set-up right. Except having a long straight and having a car right behind and slipstreaming like I was able to do with Rubens allowed me to pass. I don't know exactly what happened during the safety car phase, obviously, I slowed down enough to get in the slipstream right for the situation but I wasn't aware of what was going on behind me at the time.
Q: Well, with the pit stop behind you the two BAR-Hondas had no pit stops and that was a very impressive performance. Rubens, how was that from your point of view? Talk about that pit-stop situation.
Rubens Barrichello: Well, yeah, it was a bit confusing because at that time I was right behind Michael and I was focussed just to get past because unfortunately on the re-start I had a lot of wheel spin and I am sure that allowed Michael to just take the slipstream and get past. I even got a difficult turn 13 on the banking, it was difficult to keep flat-out, to be honest with you, because the car was bottoming with the pressures so low so I didn't have any chance to actually close the door or anything like that. Then we were running very close by and we had the information of the safety car and they told me 'come in, come in', so I was slowing down enough when I came in actually it worked okay because Michael was just leaving so I didn't lose much time. Of course, it is a pit stop and I lost all those positions so I lost the race pretty much there.
Q: But you recovered well and it was a good race at the end there.
RB: Yeah, it is very unfortunate in a way. It is good to have a one-two again and we must be part of our team and everything but I am just disappointed because really, more than Canada, more than ever, I thought I had the win in my hands. I had a quick car and I was driving well and I was pushing like hell in all those laps. Unfortunately there was something on the racing track, I don't know what, a piece of white stuff, when I got out of turn four that affected my lap. I lost more than a second and a half at that stage and it was two laps to come to the pits and I didn't know whether the car was behaving or not because it was a big shunt on the wheel. That is probably the second that Michael won back.
Q: Takuma, a podium for Lucky Strike BAR-Honda. It was a great drive and an interesting first corner. Fernando Alonso was very aggressive there as well.
Takuma Sato: Yes, this is a really great result for the team, not from a personal point of view but also for the team. The mechanics are working so hard and also the Honda engineers in Japan, everyone working to solve the problem that we had. And I am so happy for the team to bring some result here. Obviously in turn one I was really surprised when the Renault came out to the right side and I lost the position and the restart was just okay but with the Ralf situation it was obviously very, very concerning, him sitting for a long time. Under the new regulations, you cannot push hard under the safety car so the team came on the radio and said 'keep on the fuel and slow it down'. When I came onto the front straight there was so much debris and you had to avoid all the debris and obviously Ralf was in the middle of the track so I had to nearly stop and that is why I let Michael join as the leader under the safety car situation, so we will have to look into that one. Nevertheless, third place for me is just fantastic.
Q: And how was the car in the remainder of the race?
TS: The car was beautiful, to be honest. It was working so well, having had a bit of luck with the pace in Canada we struggled under the consistency for the long runs. But today the car was so consistent and I was able to push so hard to battle and getting back my position. It was so close at the end it was really great.
Q: Michael it was a confusing race, can we just have your closing thoughts on how it went for you in terms of your strategy, tyre wear and performance of the car relative to the opposition.
MS: Obviously, I don't really have that picture relative to the opposition - I was at that stage looking after Rubens. There was obviously the option before the last pit stop to go for another pit stop or to call it the last pit stop and it was a bit difficult because I didn't really have a very good second stint, my tyres were completely gone at that stage and I couldn't really push very hard. Then putting in a lot of fuel, not knowing how much I could push, knowing Rubens was going fast as he was, it was very difficult just to manage the situation. And luckily there was this board (debris) which put it into my favour and it was a very close fight.
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