“It’s been a phenomenal weekend – and this result is a near-perfect way to finish it. I’m so happy: considering how far behind we were in practice, we really didn’t expect to be this far up today. I’m very proud of the team and the effort they put in, as always.
“At the start, I was able to jump Fernando [Alonso] and take a step forward. After that I chased Mark [Webber] for the whole race, but the Red Bull was about four or five tenths a lap faster than our car, so it was very difficult to stay close to him. Still, the most important thing is that we scored a lot of world championship points once again, so this is another great race result for us.
“It’s been the biggest turnout I’ve ever seen here. And the support from all the fans has been incredible, I couldn’t ask for more. You can’t hear them cheering their support in the car, but you can feel it; and I carry every single one of them with me in the car. They give me a huge boost of confidence on every lap.
“We’ve got two weeks to work on our upgrades before the next grand prix. I won the last race at Hockenheim, in 2008, and if we can get the new floor there, we should be looking pretty strong.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing: this world championship is still all to play for.”
