Q. Sebastian, it's your first win here at Spa. According to great champions, winning here and at tracks like Suzuka is memorable. How do you feel about that today?
SV: Yeah, definitely. I'm very proud. I think all drivers love coming here, it's a fantastic circuit and as I said, even driving on your own it is fun. Racing each other it's even more fun and I think it was a very exciting race for us. Obviously you had to manage the tires, going into the race wasn't easy, but then it turned out the pace was very good and we went through some people, so it was crucial and a fun race, so I think it was one of the best we have had this year. I definitely enjoyed every single lap and obviously, in the end, we found ourselves in quite a comfortable position, not needing to push a hundred percent every lap any more, so all in all, it was a great race for us.
Q. Mark, you were saying this was a great team effort. Obviously you spent most of the race on the medium tire which is not what one would have thought, going into the weekend. How much were you feeding the information back, because it's basically a research exercise for both of you during the course of the race?
MW: First of all, I think the reason the communication was probably higher than it needed to be at other venues was because there was no running on Friday, obviously, so we were in a new situation in this Grand Prix putting the tires on the limit for lap after lap after lap which we didn't get to do on Friday. When I was sitting behind the safety car I was really pissed off, I was on the wrong tire and out of position. I thought that the options were going to be much much stronger. I still don't think they were a disaster but the prime, the medium worked very well. All I could do was give the information, keep pushing, for sure those tires weren't going to go anywhere for me and that's generally the case when we make a pit stop, one's tires are pretty tired. So, as you say, it was a bit on an experiment, more so than at most grands prix this year because it's pretty rare you get such limited running into the grand prix, so that was the case why there was a lot of nerves going in on many fronts.
Q. Sebastian, you'd had two stops by lap 15 already, you were obviously trying to save a stop with that third set, why did it behave so differently do you think?
SV: We obviously decided to pit for the second time when the safety car came out. I think at that stage there was a bit of science going on. Obviously we were all very keen to find out the shape of the tires, even after only a couple of laps, so we decided to pit. At that stage, I think the safety car didn't necessarily help us, but it gave us a window to pit but as I said, earlier, we were in the lead by six or seven seconds so I lost that but got another idea about the tires and then it was clear that... in an ideal world, we split the rest of the race more or less in two. The soft tire was the quicker tire so we tried to get as many laps as we could out of it, before we changed to a medium. From there onwards, we just controlled the pace and brought the car to the chequered flag, but that was the reason why we did so many laps on the third set of tires.
Q. Sebastian and Mark, is the fantastic performance of your car here related to the nature of the track, which probably suits your car, or the upgrade you did during the break, that you faced McLaren and Ferrari again in the same conditions?
SV: Difficult question. I think in the past we were always quick here in sector two where there are no straights and a lot of corners. The thing that stands out this year is that we were quite competitive in sector one and sector three, where we have more straights. Also in the race, I think our straightline speed was quite good and made it possible to attack and overtake people easier than in previous years. Obviously we tried to improve the car race by race, as much as we can. Now we've had a bit of a break, which I think was good for us to go through a couple of things. Generally this weekend I think it was considerably cooler than at the beginning of the season, so all in all, it seems that we made a good step and we were very competitive here which I think is mostly down to the fact that we were competitive in sector one and sector three, unlike the previous years.
MW: Seb's completely right but there was a bit of nerves for us coming here, to be honest, because of like you say, a little bit of history and also on the tracks where we were very strong in previous years we were not as comfortable this year: Silverstone, for example and maybe a little bit of Budapest and places like that. The guys have been working incredibly hard over the break when they could, understood the car very well and brought a lot of upgrades. As you know in this game, talk is cheap and results are better, so we've done a good job. The team keeps pushing very, very hard. We have brilliant rivals and that's why we have to respond all the time. It's why I said it's a pretty special result for our team today considering what we went through, and also the venue we're at.
Q. Sebastian, is it possible that the safety car helped you in a way because you could bring in the tire a little bit smoother and by doing so could delay the blistering process and then how was it to drive with blisters? Is there anything you can do about it, can you ease up the life of the tire?
SV: I think that in that regard it helped us as much as it helped other people - Fernando, who was in the lead to give his tires a break, which allowed him to make his set last longer. I think it was the same, in a way. Obviously I was able to conserve the peak of the tire and use it a bit longer afterwards but as I say, others gained some advantage and could cool down the tires a bit as well. Yes, pretty scary to go around with blistering issues. Obviously, after a while... in qualifying we couldn't really see it from the inside of the car but in the race we definitely could. It's not very comfortable, especially on the way down to Eau Rouge and then through Blanchimont, when you really look at the tire and it doesn't look like being in great shape. You feel quite a lot of vibrations. If you ask anybody on the grid, we all suffered the same kind of problems. As I said, I followed Nico at some stage at the end of his first stint and he had the same problem on the front left. Science, but it's not really the idea, because it's driving into the unknown and it's not comfortable for us, because in the end we sit in the car. That's one of the main things we were thinking about before going into the race.
Q. Sebastian, I imagine that you will answer that there is still a long way to go and there are still a lot of races, but, nevertheless...
SV: Then don't ask!
Q. Because that's the answer? At this stage, are you more confident of taking the title or not?
SV: I've got more points than after the last race, as Jenson just said. Of course I'm very happy with today's result and I know that it's very important to finish ahead of those guys and anybody else, so it brought us closer to our final target, but it's still a long way and if you just look at last year, yes, by this time it might have been looking different but if you look at how quickly things can change, if you are out in two races and someone else is having a good couple of races, it could change so all we do is try to get the optimum every time, like today. It was tricky race, as I said, for tire management but when the chance is there to win, we go for it. When I was driving around, passing people around the outside here and there, then I don't think about the Championship. If I think there's room to overtake, I go for it. If the risk is too high, then naturally I think you shouldn't do it. I think I've done it in the past when it didn't work, as Jenson can tell you, so it's not necessary to take that risk.
Q. Sebastian, you have now won on all the world's greatest circuits; which win is the most rewarding after the checkered flag, and which one was the most difficult to achieve?
SV: It's difficult to say. I think Germany is still missing. Every year I go there and we are quite confident, but so far it hasn't worked, so we will see in the next couple of years. For now, I'm very proud of the races I have won. Obviously this one is a very important one. I also remember from a Finnish point of view this one meant a lot to Kimi in the past. It's nice to join those guys and it's one of the nicest tracks we have, with some of the best corners, alongside Suzuka which I like a lot. Yeah, it's hard to say, but I think I'm very happy I got a nice trophy today and a good chunk of points, so I can't complain.