Category: 2013 Season

“I like the rhythm of this place,” Mark says, “It’s quite a challenging layout, it’s quite quick and it has a little bit of undulation.”

“Even after my first pitstop I thought I was on two-stop strategy,” says Mark. “That was the plan before the race and the team then called me up to say I should switch to a three-stopper.”

“The sport has a long heritage in the country and Suzuka is a fabulous place to drive an F1 car. It’s one of the tracks that every driver looks forward to driving because it’s so challenging and it punishes mistakes,” says Mark as the cars prepare for the opening session of practice this morning.

“The pace of the car was good and I thought I could pick up a podium at this stage of the race,” says Mark. “I always enjoy dicing with Fernando, but it was difficult to do too much proper racing due to the tyres.”

“Overtaking is normally possible around here,” says Mark, “especially if you’re out of position – as I will be. But I enter every race weekend wanting a top result and it’s always easier to achieve that if you start at the front.”

“This is a very physical race, so it was very disappointing to put in all that effort only for it to come to nothing so close to the chequered flag,” said Mark after his race ended a lap short of full distance.

Mark scored his best result at Monza in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. He came home third, less than one second behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, and got to stand on one of the noisiest podiums on the Formula One calendar.

“I’ve always enjoyed being in Italy, ever since my Minardi days, and I look forward to racing there. I’d like to get my best result at Monza on Sunday.”

“Once the car was up and running, it performed pretty well,” explained Mark after another clutch problem ruined his chances of a podium finish.

“To drive an F1 car around here is a real privilege and it’s something that I’ll probably miss. It’s one of the races that every driver wants to win and it would mean a lot to achieve that on my final visit.”