Nico's Silverstone Blog: Sunday

Posted on Sunday 21 Jun 2009 and tagged with nico, blog.

If I’d been able to run the whole of today’s British Grand Prix in clear air, I could have pressured Rubens Barrichello for third place. As it was I had a lot of traffic in my middle stint, which allowed Felipe Massa to catch me up and then get ahead when he went longer at the second pitstop.

But we shouldn’t be disappointed with fifth place. We scored more valuable points, which resulted in us passing McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship, and we improved the pace of the FW31 throughout the weekend. The guys in the factory are doing an amazing job at the moment because we had a sizeable upgrade in Turkey and we then had an even bigger step here. They are working incredibly hard and I’m extremely thankful for their efforts.

I put in an appearance at the Grand Prix party after the race. There was a tribute band to the Rolling Stones playing and there must have been at least 30,000 people in the crowd. There was a great atmosphere and I received a fantastic welcome when I came on-stage, which really hammered the message home: there has to be a British Grand Prix next year. The British fans really love the sport and deserve to have a race, almost more than any other country.

There’s a three-week break before the next race at the Nurburgring. I’m heading to Ibiza for a short holiday and to do some hot-weather training. That’s the thing about the ’Ring: it’ll either be raining or scorching hot, so you have to prepare for both conditions.