Belgian GP winners' press conference

Q Well congratulations Michael, an extraordinary race and a brilliant result from you. From 16th on the grid, did you really believe you could win this one?

MS Not really I have to say. I knew it's going to be possible to drive certainly in the points and even probably on the rostrum but to be 1st? No, I didn't believe this, particularly in the way it happened with the advantage I got in the end. No I wasn't really thinking of that at all.

Q The race was really won by you staying out on slicks at half distance. How difficult a decision was that to make?

MS Bloody difficult I tell you because you didn't know is going to rain heavier or is it going to rain or is it going to stop and to drive in the circumstance with slicks it was bloody difficult just to keep the car on the straight. On the circuit a couple of times it snapped a bit and it was pretty difficult but it was my choice to stay out on slicks, to make up my disadvantage I had up to that time and it paid out. After that, the team has done a very good strategy again, to put me in when the pace car was out, to change tyres, to change the right tyres. It was a great effort of all of us I think.

Q Well Damon, you salvaged 2nd place from a race which promised so much during which you seemed to face every concievable difficulty.

DH Yeah, I had this stupid pit lane speed 10 second penalty. It would have been a great race, I was behind Michael, he had something like 14 laps to go and then I had to come in for a 10 second penalty so it's a bloody shame really but I think that the conditions were very, very tricky. Michael drove a stupendous race to come from where he was on the grid. I'm just sorry that I wasn't able to be there at the end to give him a race. As you probably saw we had some pretty hairy moments there. I must say I'm not satisfied with being driven into. I didn't think that was acceptable but other than that I thought we had a great race.

Q And Martin, a timely result for you?

MB It was good, yes, a good result for the team and we all started a long way back on the grid, maybe that's the secret of racing at Spa. We had a great strategy, a one stop strategy, the only downside was I was running a long time on the wets. The wets that I finished on were absolutely destroyed so I was really struggling to defend 2nd position but we gave it a good try and I'm reasonably satisfied with the day.

Q Well congratulations to all of you. One final thought Michael from you your 16th race win?

MS Yeah, starting from 16th position having a 16th win so it's a bit of a double. No, I mean, as I said we had difficulties in Hungary after I stopped in that race, some stupid comments came out whether the team would stop me purposely and stuff like this. It's completely bullshit. I never believed this and at this stage it's a good point to prove that.

Q Well congratulations to all three of you. Well done, thank you.

-- David Goodwin