The worst of moments.
What have I said before? Everything can happen in motorsports. That is the reason why I have never been too keen to say too much before the races.
We went to Japan in quite a difficult situation with the points. Now we have to deal with what happened there and, for sure, now it looks much worse. But there's nothing we can change about it.
Obviously, we just have a little hope for the championship. But it is better to have a slight hope rather than no hope at all. We will not give up. No way. We are fighters and we will prove it again. Now we'll just do our very best to win these last two races. It is up to the others how we finish in the championship.
I still believe we had the speed to win the Japanese Grand Prix. It was not the rainy weather that stopped us winning. We did not get a chance to, because all of a sudden there was this new rule where you are only able to use the full wet tyres for the start. If we had known about it, then obviously, we would have changed the tyres before the start.
When you make this kind of important decision, you must make sure all the teams know about it early enough. We got the information of this rule while we were already in the race.
Of course, it was a big risk to start with intermediate tyres, but hey, we had to gamble. While the McLarens were infront of us, to be able to fight for the championship we had to try to overtake them both. To really try to win, you just have to try something different compared to your competitors. If you're in the front and leading the championship however, then you just play it safe and try not to lose too many points.
It was a terrible moment, as I was told I had to come in and change the tyres or we will be black-flagged. While coming in, I knew that our race looked nothing but good. Or otherwise, you could have gone home knowing we did not fight for this win anymore.
I was asked was it the most difficult race I have ever had. I do not know. Everytime it rains, it's as difficult as it was in Fuji. If you are behind a car, you are not able to see anything behind that water wall. If you're coming through behind the others, you just have to hope no one slows down too much in the racing line.
We managed to climb to 3rd position after being last. But every single overtaking move took ages. I managed to catch Heikki before the finish and I also passed him, but then he took his place back in the exit of that corner.
It was a great result for my friend Heikki and for his future, but for me finishing second would have been almost the same as finishing in third place. We should have finished first. Only that result would have helped us.
It looks like Hamilton has wrapped it up, but we will not give up. We will at least try to make it difficult for them by winning the last two races.
Now we are heading to China. I have never won in Shanghai but I have finished second and third there. It is quite a normal circuit. Shanghai suits us as well as any other place. Let's just wait and see, how it starts to go over there. We push hard until the very finish and on Sunday evening we hope to have the best feelings again.
What have I said before? Everything can happen in motorsports. That is the reason why I have never been too keen to say too much before the races.
We went to Japan in quite a difficult situation with the points. Now we have to deal with what happened there and, for sure, now it looks much worse. But there's nothing we can change about it.
Obviously, we just have a little hope for the championship. But it is better to have a slight hope rather than no hope at all. We will not give up. No way. We are fighters and we will prove it again. Now we'll just do our very best to win these last two races. It is up to the others how we finish in the championship.
I still believe we had the speed to win the Japanese Grand Prix. It was not the rainy weather that stopped us winning. We did not get a chance to, because all of a sudden there was this new rule where you are only able to use the full wet tyres for the start. If we had known about it, then obviously, we would have changed the tyres before the start.
When you make this kind of important decision, you must make sure all the teams know about it early enough. We got the information of this rule while we were already in the race.
Of course, it was a big risk to start with intermediate tyres, but hey, we had to gamble. While the McLarens were infront of us, to be able to fight for the championship we had to try to overtake them both. To really try to win, you just have to try something different compared to your competitors. If you're in the front and leading the championship however, then you just play it safe and try not to lose too many points.
It was a terrible moment, as I was told I had to come in and change the tyres or we will be black-flagged. While coming in, I knew that our race looked nothing but good. Or otherwise, you could have gone home knowing we did not fight for this win anymore.
I was asked was it the most difficult race I have ever had. I do not know. Everytime it rains, it's as difficult as it was in Fuji. If you are behind a car, you are not able to see anything behind that water wall. If you're coming through behind the others, you just have to hope no one slows down too much in the racing line.
We managed to climb to 3rd position after being last. But every single overtaking move took ages. I managed to catch Heikki before the finish and I also passed him, but then he took his place back in the exit of that corner.
It was a great result for my friend Heikki and for his future, but for me finishing second would have been almost the same as finishing in third place. We should have finished first. Only that result would have helped us.
It looks like Hamilton has wrapped it up, but we will not give up. We will at least try to make it difficult for them by winning the last two races.
Now we are heading to China. I have never won in Shanghai but I have finished second and third there. It is quite a normal circuit. Shanghai suits us as well as any other place. Let's just wait and see, how it starts to go over there. We push hard until the very finish and on Sunday evening we hope to have the best feelings again.
