Race Performance Quotes

... the lead is now 6.9 seconds. In fact it's just under 7 seconds

I think we'll be in pretty good shape. We've got the same car we ran in all the speedway races since 2001, and it's been a real good car for us. It's led every race we've been in.

I think I've explained earlier on in the year that I kind of underestimated how important experience was in this series, especially when you're up against such good quality drivers.

My first race was in October 2001 in Kapsabet, Kenya. It was a 10km road race. I was excited and I was happy to know I am good in running.

We estimate, and this isn't an estimation, that Greta Waitz is 80 seconds behind

I was skiing fast in training, but that really doesn't count for anything until you actually do it in a race. So to finally get to prove how fast you are skiing is an added bonus that goes along with winning the first race of the year. Any race win is a good win. I don't really care where it is. I've been on the podium a bunch of times here, but it's always good for your confidence to start off the year with a victory.

More than the time, it's about how you feel - you want to be strong throughout the race.

Once the races begin it's more difficult and there is never that much time for testing.

Realistically, we could aim for the top three in the constructors championship. Realistically, we could look at winning more races. Three race wins would be very satisfying.

Breaking composure, confidence, and speed in the water makes you lose the race, not the goggles that fell off your head when you dove in.

My approach to the races hasn't changed in my 20-year career. If I have the chance to attack and to pass, I do it, trying to get the best possible result.

I always learn something from every race.

That was a frustrating race for me. I pushed as hard as possible at the start on the medium tyres whilst everyone around me was on the grippier soft compound rubber. Once I moved to the soft tyres I was able to set the race's then fastest lap so things looked good with our strategy. Unfortunately the engine anti-kill triggered when I came in to make my final pit stop which cost me a lot of time. It's frustrating as we should have finished strongly. My focus is now Barcelona where I've delivered very strongly in the past.

Winter testing is essential but there comes a point where you have had enough of all the rehearsals and the pretend racing. You just want to get down to the real action.

I don't run anybody else's race. When the gun goes off, I must evaluate with my own body and see. Then, as the race develops, I run accordingly. So you can say that I do not have a set tactic for any race.

Perhaps the single most important element in mastering the techniques and tactics of racing is experience. But once you have the fundamentals, acquiring the experience is a matter of time.

I think with racing, you never stop improving. If you want to improve, you will.

When you win sprints, you're a great sprinter, but when you win a great one-day race, you've proved you're a great rider.

I always work the same way, starting from the beginning of the weekend, so I know at the beginning of the race, from all that I have analysed during the practice, whether I will win the race or not.

Every race is not perfect; there are obviously a lot of things I can improve on at the end of the race.

Races always are good to show where you are reaching in your training as well as to keep you sharpened. Every race, in my program, I put it in a special way like a ladder, climbing up slowly and slowly to the next one. I see where my training is, and that is like a test.

The start is crucial, really, but the entire race is crucial. There is not any room for error. If there is one bad stroke, you regularly lose the race.

That strategy of racing for the top five and racing for the win is where everybody wants to be.

I'd like to have some good races and score points.

I don't drive by the seat of my pants and happen to win races. I work very hard to interpret the data and drive a certain way. My engineers have confidence in me, and more often than not, when I tell them what I need or what I am feeling with the car, it's right.