Singapore GP: Thursday Press Conference

20/09/2012

Timo, obviously you finished second here in 2009. Is that one of the reasons why you say this is your favourite race?
Timo Glock: No, in general it's just the event here, the show. The first time we were here in 2008 I just the track and the event and for sure being on the podium was a great experience and good to be back to it and enjoy the time here.

So what is it about the track itself?
TG: The European races have enough run-off areas and here it's a bit different, the same like Monaco. If you do a mistake you end up in the wall and that's the challenging part here.

I believe you only arrived this morning however. Are you a little bit worried about getting acclimatised?
TG: No. I do that every year because we stay on European time. I just arrived this morning, went to the hotel and slept until 1pm or 1.30pm and I'm in the rhythm, so no problem. I'm not the only one who arrived so late.

Nico, great potential in Monza but less so here. They're very different circuits. How do you feel about this track?
Nico Hulkenberg: To be honest, quite positive. I think If anything this kind of circuit should suit us a bit more - quite a lot of slow-speed corners. There's not really one high-speed corner here. That is in our favour a little bit more than at Spa and Monza, the two last races, so I think we should be all right. As usual I think we'll be around the top 10 and hopefully inside.

But also one of the toughest races as well.
NH: It is. It is for everybody, you know. Always a race which touches the two-hour mark. It's pretty hot and humid. We know the circuit is physically demanding, a lot of nasty bumps and kerbs and if you get them wrong they'll launch you into the wall. It's a physical race, it's tough, but we're fit and up for it.

Lots of talk about your future. Is the contract with Force India done yet?
NH: Well, there's a good chance I'll be with Force India next year but as you know nothing has been announced yet.

Bruno, you feel that this circuit should suit your car. Is that correct?
Bruno Senna: Yeah, definitely. Our car has been very happy on high downforce tracks and here we're running everything we have so it's good news for us. I think coming from a couple of difficult races where sometimes strategy played a bit of a part in our results we're hoping to come back and score some solid points for the team.

Looking at qualifying in comparison to your team-mate, it's heavily weighed in his favour. What's your problem in qualifying?
BS: It's not an easy situation. I think Pastor has a driving style that is better suited to the tyres. Last year I had a better run in qualifying than this year, which is abnormal, but the tyres have changed and so far it hasn't come down to my side too much. Last race the qualifying was close enough but I think there is always something to learn. My race pace has been very good and my consistency in the race has been good, so if I get qualifying right I know that I can score some big points for the team and that's the aim.

Well you're just behind your team-mate and he's had a win. Can you be a winner as well?
BS: I'm sure we can. We've seen a few weekends where we've seen someone has just suddenly jumped to the front and won the race and had a dominant weekend. If you get everything in the right window, with the way the cars work and the way the cars work then we are more than capable of having a good result.

Kimi, we've been talking about you being a winner this season for quite a long time now, so what chances here? Do you compare this circuit with Valencia perhaps, you're the lap record holder here as well?
Kimi Raikkonen: We'll try. It's not going to be easy. We have to see if we are in a better position than we have been in the last few races but it's a different place than Valencia and we have to wait and see.

What sort of circuit at you looking at, though. Is it the sort place that could favour you?
KR: I don't know. I haven't been here with the team before. We don't now. I think last year they had a very difficult time but then it's a completely different story now. We will know much more tomorrow, usually it's been pretty OK this kind of circuit, so hopefully that's the case, but like I said the last two races haven't been easy for us but that was at different layouts than here so you never know.

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