- You nearly got Heinz-Harald Frentzen for third didn’t you?

Yeah, but I couldn’t get close enough to Frentzen down the straight. One lap I got close to him, but then I braked too late.

- How tough was Frentzen?

Well, he was tough because he was very quick down the straights. Even in his tow, I couldn’t get a run on him. It’s a good result for British American Racing. It means we have the same points as Jordan, so it’s good for the constructors’ championship.

- Almost a triumphant return to Indianapolis. You nearly stole that podium place?

I tried hard. I made a couple of mistakes today - put wheels in the grass in the hairpin and spun earlier on. I don’t think it would have had an effect because we would still have been blocked by Frentzen in the rest of the race. We just weren’t quick enough down the straight today.

- A heart-stopping moment when you went too deep into Turn 1?

Well, the thing is, I really was wanting to get him because he was a lot quicker on the straight and I didn’t think I would get another chance like that. The problem is, when I went next to him, I lost track of where I was, so I just braked whenever and it was way too late.

- How does the track compare with racing on the big oval here?

The race was more fun than the qualifying. The problem is there’s not one place on the track where you get an adrenaline rush because all the corners are quite slow. The driving is very intricate; it’s very difficult to get a good lap. You have to drive very precisely, you’re always braking while you’re turning, so loading the car one way or another. So it’s very difficult to do a good lap around this track, but you still need a couple of ‘man’ corners.

- Catching Frentzen was one thing, passing him another?

We were running more downforce today and just couldn’t get a tow. Even in his tow, somehow I wasn’t going forward, so that was annoying. The problem was, even in his tow, I wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t gain anything from the tow. That’s something we found out this year. We seem to have a hard time to get tows when we’re close. The engine seems to lose power when we’re too close to a car, so we have to work on maybe the air intake or something.

- How were you able to get close enough for that move on Frentzen, then?

He made a mistake in the hairpins and then the last corner. I wasn’t close enough, but I just decided that because there was no sandtrap or tyre wall, it was just worth it to brake too late and hopefully stay on the track. But the problem was, when I got on the inside, I had no idea where I was an I lost track completely of where the corner was.

- Did you think you had him?

No, because I didn’t think I was going to stop. As soon as I hit the brakes, I knew I’d braked too late because I saw him brake. If I’d braked a few metres earlier, I would still have overtaken him.

- How was the car after you went onto the (wet) grass?

It cooled the tyres down, so the car was actually quicker afterwards.