F1: Belgian GP winners' press conference 


Q  Michael, congratulations on your second Ferrari win and
   your 21st career win. You must be delighted today? 


MS Yeah, it's going to be difficult to find words for that.
   1.2 seconds behind in qualifying and then in dry
   circumstances to do what we have done today I wouldn't
   have bet, again like in Spain, one penny on it that it
   would happen, especially in the middle of the race while
   I was behind Mika. I was pushing quite hard going hard
   over the curbs and I bent my steering and had a big play
   in the steering. That was quite funny through Eau Rouge
   and I was close to stop the race because I was a little
   bit frightened through this high speed corner and may
   lose my steering. Then I spoke to the pits and they said
   it's going to be all right and all of that together, to
   win this race, it's just a Hollywood life I would say. 


Q  You made a good start and you managed to overtake Damon.
   Had you expected to do that at the beginning?


MS With us it's obviously not so sure whether we are going
   to do good starts or not because the system sometimes
   works quite well, the system actually is fine, it's the
   clutch. We have some variation in the clutch which the
   last two races we have had good clutches but it's a
   matter of luck to be honest to have this or not. It
   worked perfect today. I wasn't expecting that but I knew
   obviously Damon had some difficulties through the last
   races in starting and knew Jacques didn't. Well I almost
   caught Jacques as well but obviously on the outside it's
   difficult to pass by in the first corner so I had to pull
   back.


Q  When the safety car came out you, were very clever and
   made a pit stop immediately. What was the decision behind
   that, did you hear from the pits or was it your decision
   to go?


MS No, to be honest it was the decision of the fuel tank
   because I would have been empty if I would have continued
   for one other lap. It was our strategy to come anyway at
   that lap and it just worked perfect.


Q  And any problems from your accident on Friday, did your
   knee give you any problem at all?


MS No, we did some good therapy through the weekend and the
   swollen bit went almost back completely. I'm just not
   able to run properly, otherwise in the car it is no
   problem.


Q  Jacques, you must be pleased with a 2nd position because
   Damon's lead now goes down to 13 points. Do you think you
   could have won today? 


JV Well our car was slightly quicker than Michael's but when
   the yellow came out we were trying to communicate through
   the radio to come in the pits but we didn't understand
   each other so I stayed out and that was a big factor in
   the race today but then it was close all the way to the
   end with Michael. 


Q  How did you feel when you came out of the pits after your
   second stop and saw Michael shooting by, did you think
   that's it or did you think you could get back?


JV Well on the second set of tyres the car was very good for
   two or three laps and then it started to push like a pig
   and it actually did that with every set of tyres, so I
   pushed really hard on the first laps and it was good with
   Michael but then I just lost my front end and I just
   couldn't turn the corners any more.


Q  Towards the end we saw you slowing down a little bit. Was
   that for that reason or were you just being careful to
   make sure you got the points at the end there? 


JV I was hearing some noise in the engine anyway so I prefer
   to just lay back a little bit. 


Q  Mika, we last saw you in Silverstone when you were 3rd
   and you were 2nd here in 1994, you seemed to have a good
   hard race today.


MH Yeah, I don't want this to become a habit to be 3rd but
   I'm very pleased indeed. It went really well. At the end
   of the day starting from 6th and coming 3rd was
   absolutely more than I expected to be honest. 


Q  You had quite a hard fight in the middle of the race with
   Mika Salo, how did that go?


MH Yeah, it was a bit strange because he didn't really give
   me the room even. It was pretty clear I was quicker than
   him, but I guess he didn't see me and things like that
   happen in a race.


Q  Are you feeling more confident now with the car towards
   the end of the season, can we expect some more good
   results from you?


MH Yeah definitely, definitely. We can expect more for the
   last three races. 






   After the race Tony Jardine of the BBC interviewed Damon
   Hill and David Coulthard...




DH We should have done a lot better than we did in the race
   but the pit stop was the crucial thing. I came up the pit
   lane and there was a safety car on the track and I got
   the signal to come in and then I got the signal to stay
   out, so I had to stay out which put me behind Berger and
   the other guy. Basically I haven't had chance to talk to
   the team yet so I can't get the full story but it
   probably cost me a few places there.


TJ We went in to speak to your technical people in the
   garage and they said that you complained of severe
   understeer and then we saw you adjusting your wing in the
   pit stop.


DH Yeah, on my first run I had very bad understeer in the
   car but I was in traffic so that tends to affect the car
   quite a lot. The car was much better on the last stint
   but the next guy was 18 seconds up the road by then.


TJ The points situation now is 13, it was 17 before, it
   could have been worse.


DH I think that's my view, it could have been a lot worse
   than it was. I'm still pushing and I'm still hanging in
   there fighting and it's going to be an exciting last
   three races now.






DC I came out after the pit stop and straight away I was
   running two seconds a lap slower even with new tyres and
   the car felt very strange at the back end. Maybe when the
   car was coming up or something during the pit stop
   something happened, I'm not sure but certainly it was a
   different car and eventually it just caught me out and
   off I went.


TJ Because that safety car came out, did strategy change
   then because the two McLarens were out front?


DC Yeah, I think ideally it would have been best to come in
   under the pace car but the strategy we were running
   wouldn't allow us to have got all the fuel on board. We
   would have to have made another pit stop so that was the
   problem, we had to stay out. 


-- 
David Goodwin
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