Q. What happened with the accident on the first lap?
SV: The start was quite good, I was quite happy then a bit early on the KERS and didn't get it until Turn 1, side by side with Mark and he squeezed me so angle gets worse and worse. If you are stubborn and aim for the apex, everyone turns in and you could lose your front wing.
I had to back off, down to first gear and everyone around the outside used momentum and I lost those positions. I got hit in Turn 4 for no reasons, I think someone, Bruno, was probably fighting someone, it was drizzling since the start of formation lap, it was slippery and maybe he forgot. It was the same thing as I said on Turn 1, the angle gets narrower and I was car he used to stop himself, it didn't help us.
Q. Was this your hardest title, and does that make it more rewarding?
SV: I think it is always difficult because in the end you compare to something that happened in the past and it is not as present in our heads as this one. Nevertheless it was a very tough season for us, on track, off track. A season with ups and downs for everyone, but as I mentioned before we remained ourselves and kept doing it our way and that made the difference.
I think for us and me, it is being happy with what you see in the mirror and you are happy with yourself, why try and fake being someone else, being someone else you know if you're cheating and cheating yourself.
It was tough as people tried everything inside the lines, outside the lines to beat us, the amount of questions we had to deal with, stuff we had to deal with during the season - the key was to remain ourselves and that made the difference.
I am not holy, I have made mistakes like everyone else but the way I was brought up was to be honest if you do something wrong. In Q3 I was pushing too hard and overstepped the mark so that wasn't perfect and I have no problem to admit that. I was brought up that way and I also believe that is the reason why we succeeded in the end.
Q. Is the next challenge winning a title with another team?
SV: I want to enjoy now. I tried to explain to you that for the whole team the most important thing is the present, I don't want to get carried away with next year or next years, I want to have a good time tonight and let's see how long... Sometimes at some stage you have to charge your batteries, come back in shape next season.
I am with the team, I have a contract until the end of 2014, I am very happy with what we have achieved so far and this story isn't over yet. I am very happy and extremely committed to give everything I have in the next years and at the moment I don't see any point about seeing another team or something else.
I am extremely happy in the position I am and it is incredible what we have achieved...Christian [Horner] came on radio and mentioned names who have achieved similar and he forgot Prost. I didn't have radio so couldn't tell him! He mentioned all of them except Prost, he said they forgot Prost and he had four!
It has been a tough season, seven different winners in seven different races, ups and downs for everyone. Back then I knew every place, every point will matter. In the end it was closer than we hoped for but at some stage people were not mentioning us when they talked about championship.
It was important we kept believing and since the start of season we were fighting with our car, a car that wasn't similar to last year. I couldn't use my tricks or my style to make it work and manipulate it, I didn't have enough rear stability to work with the brakes and get car to corner/apex - we tried everything and I think at some stage we did a step that was big enough and in the right direction that allowed me to do more that I like.
And it came naturally in our direction, we picked up the pace, more competitive and in better position. It was tough some races, not a piece of cake - obviously everyone lost a lot of downforce and stability.
We were always up against it, we focused on every single step, we tried to work on the car, sometimes made steps in wrong direction, we paid the price and maybe learned not to confuse ourselves too much. You make mistakes and you learn from them and cars get better.
Q. Was this the hardest race of your career?
SV: I said it on the radio but you didn't hear it - I said for sure it was the toughest race. Not just being in a situation of fighting for the championship means you are not on holiday - look at stuff that went wrong: it's hard enough if you lose radio, any circumstances you need to talk, then we got turned around and car damaged, on lap one we were dead last and we came back, changeable conditions all the time, we did a stop for nothing, which cost us 20-22 seconds and we had to come in when it started to rain a lap after.
Still we finished sixth so it was still a very good result. Some races we would have been happy to have finished sixth, we can be very happy with that and it happened to be last race and championship decider and it went in our favour so there's not much more to say.