“I am not particularly happy about my first experience of racing in Singapore this evening,” said former champion Michael Schumacher of Mercedes GP, who finished 13th. “I had two encounters with other cars which were racing incidents and meant that I had to make my stops at times which were not ideal and consequently my race was heavily compromised. I suffered with the rear tyres on my first set of options which made me slide rather than drive through corners which was tough, so I would probably say that I only enjoyed the second part of the race.” (Photo 16 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
“A very good result overall and I have achieved my target for Singapore. We opted to pit during the first safety car period but we were very unlucky with the second, which made us lose a lot of time in the race,” said Lucas di Grassi of Virgin who finished 15th. “After that I just focused on getting to the finish. The car was feeling better and better and I was improving my lap time, so overall I’m happy with my performance today.” (Photo 17 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
“That was not quite how I thought my race would end! Until the fire, I was having a really strong run and the car had felt good throughout,” said Heikki Kovalainen of Lotus who finished 16th. “We were looking good for 15th, but then I had a coming together with Buemi towards the end of the race. I spun the car to get back onto the track which I think cracked the fuel tank pressure release valve and it looks like that caused an air box fire. I didn’t want to come into the pits as it definitely wasn’t safe enough to do so, and pulled over on the main straight. A couple of guys from Williams gave me an extinguisher, so I put the fire out on my own – I told (team principal) Tony (Fernandes) and (technical director) Mike (Gascoyne) that they maybe need to pay me more as I’m now a fireman as well ….” (Photo 18 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
“I got a reasonably good start to the race but both Lotus cars were able to overtake me. I was then able to retake Trulli at Turn Seven and it was quite good putting pressure on Kovalainen,” said Timo Glock of Virgin who did not finish (DNF). “At the first safety car we tried to stay out, which worked out okay and I was running as high as P10. I stayed in front of all the other guys for a few laps but when Sutil overtook me there was no chance to keep the others in the pack behind me. When he passed I couldn’t recover quick enough because the tyres were dirty as a result of having to go offline. We were just unlucky with the second safety car. I had to come in for tyres and we just ended up behind. Then a few laps from the end we had a problem with the hydraulics and our race was over.” (Photo 19 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
“Of course I would have hoped for a better result and wanted to finish the race. But, in my view, Michael (Schumacher) was braking a bit too late and knocked me out of the race,” said Nick Heidfeld of BMW Sauber who did not finish (DNF) because of a crash with Schumacher. “My race was compromised soon after the start anyway. Vitantonio Liuzzi wanted to pass me from a long way off on the outside in corner four. Then I believe he braked early and unfortunately I crashed into him. The car wasn’t easy to drive with the missing rear wing endplate and, anyway, the set-up had not been ideal because you are not allowed to change anything after qualifying. However, having said that, the lap times were not too bad for a while in the race. I’m now looking forward to my favourite circuit, Suzuka.“ (Photo 20 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
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