Still a good race - Alonso
Fernando Alonso was disappointed not to take a win for Renault on home soil – but he was still happy with a strong result today. The World Champion finished 2nd behind Michael Schumacher. Felipe Massa was 3rd. Here follows the interview with Fernando Alonso
"Long… and tiring!"
Things were close at the start…"Yes, it was tight! I did everything I could to get past Massa at that moment, even with two wheels in the grass, but I didn’t manage to do it. So I had to rely on the strategy to work for me."
It was a pretty surprising strategy: a short first stint, longer second one and even longer at the end…! Why?"We had two options. When we realised the Ferraris were three-stopping, we knew it would be almost impossible to pass on track. So we took a different option and tried to get the most from the tyres’ consistency."
How was the car handling?"Well. We put a lot of fuel in the car at each stop and I was pushing from the start, so the tyres were quite old by the end of each stint, but the balance was good. We were two or three tenths too slow at the start of the weekend compared to Michael, and we knew it. Given where I started on the grid, it’s an excellent result to finish second."
Were you surprised by how strong the Ferraris were?"No. Indianapolis was a difficult race from a tyre point of view, and we were probably too cautious there. Here, we were close. Like at Imola and the Nürburgring, Ferrari took the win. But a few months ago, everybody expected Michael to start winning all the races – and we took four wins in a row. So maybe it will be our turn to be on top in Hockenheim."
So you’re not too disappointed?"I would have liked to win of course, but it wasn’t possible today. But I have only lost two points to Michael and we have 7 races to go. So we did a good job even so."
