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Singapore GP: Thursday Press Conference

NEWS STORY
25/09/2008

To all of you. Give us your first impressions of Singapore and the circuit.
Mark Webber: It looks awesome, actually. I think they have done a really god job with it. Obviously I was here last year having a quick look but that was very early days. I was a little bit concerned about how bumpy it would be in places as there is some reclaimed land if you like. Trying to get that consistent could have been a challenge for them but hopefully it will drive as well as it looks in terms of its surface. I think the grip level will be reasonable from the start and it looks like they have done a really good job.

David Coulthard: The same as Mark really. The track looks well groomed. I look forward to seeing how much it actually flows, certain parts look sort of Melbourne-esque in that it is a street track but there is some reasonable run off. Was it Phoenix or Detroit, the American tracks, where you had a 90 degree right, a 90 degree left, the end of the lap looks very much like that. It is going to be an interesting combination of the two types of track. It doesn't look like a big traction circuit. It looks more like it is a front end type track, so it will be interesting to see how the tyres get on and whether there will be any graining or not. I am just looking forward to getting out there.

Is this an overtaking circuit, Lewis?
Lewis Hamilton: My guess is as good as yours. It is very wide, so I am sure there is a bit more room to do so but whether or not you can close enough to people, we will find out.

And your feelings about the circuit? Have you had a look?
LH: Not really, no. I drove to the track this morning and got off the motorway or wherever we were and I saw some of the circuit. But I haven't yet gone round the circuit. I'll do so later tonight.

Heikki?
Heikki Kovalainen: I think it looks great. I ran it on Tuesday night, as soon as I arrived here, and I think it should be an exciting race. It looks like there is room to overtake but as we saw in Valencia it is still not very easy, so it is difficult to comment whether we will see a good race here or not but it should be a spectacular evening and at least it is something different to what we are normally used to.

From a personal point of view, how have you all prepared for the difference in time zone and the fact that it is a night race? Even the weather forecast and the sponsorship duties you might have. What preparations have you made?
MW: I think the sleep pattern is the most important thing, everything else is very similar. We can't control the weather, so no point worrying about that, whatever will happen, will happen. Dealing with the night race. I think the visibility is going to be very good by the looks of it, so I don't expect anything dissimilar there as I know how much effort has gone into it. You don't go to all this trouble and not have it correct. It is just moving your sleep round a little bit which hasn't been too much of a challenge as Red Bull do loads of parties every night, so it has been easy.

DC: The same sort of thing. In terms of getting used to the timing of the schedule, I have an appearance tonight at midnight which you would never have in your schedule if you were back in Europe. But of course it is all in line with the schedule we are running. I expected the city to be a bit more adapted to our time as when I was trying to get dinner last night at 3 o'clock in the morning I could only find one place open other than room service and you don't want to do a week of room service. That surprised me but apparently this area of Singapore is in lock down, so there isn't too much happening and you have to go a bit further afield to pick up some action.

LH: It is the same for me. I am living off room service and fortunately the people in the Conrad Hotel are really helping us out, so Heikki and I are able to eat at whatever time we want, so maybe you should come and stay in our hotel, David.

Heikki, any concerns about the night race?
HK: First of all for myself I have really stayed in the European time and all the things have been scheduled according to a normal grand prix weekend. I haven't been keeping an eye on the time over here. I have just been looking at my own watch and going to sleep at the normal time and I wake up at the normal time. All the appearances are at the normal time, so nothing really had changed. About the weather, I didn't see as I was sleeping but the one morning, yesterday morning, it was raining very heavily. Of course it is a bit of an unknown. It can rain here, but we have seen many times this year there have been unstable conditions in many of the races. We will just have to try and adapt to them as much as possible, so for us as team it is no particular concern. We just need to be flexible when it rains.

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