“I was quite emotional when I finished my lap, but had to wait for other drivers to cross the line to hear whether I’d actually done it.”

As a driver, your target is always to be with the most competitive team possible.

You’re traveling all over the world but to be home is something special.

Of course, you always give 100 percent, but at a home race you’re always more motivated, simply because you feel at home.

I have always watched the Race of Champions on TV every year and dreamed about participating one day.

We have reason to feel good, but it’s also a threat to feel too good and I will pay attention that that doesn’t happen.

There are a few things that make me angry. Mostly things not going my way.

I come from an ordinary family – my dad is a carpenter, a roof-maker – and we’ve always loved racing together.

We always kept believing in ourselves and our team and the car.

Qualifying is all about putting everything that you have and that the car has in one lap. It’s like a rush, I really enjoy that.

It’s a tricky place, especially the last sector. I wasn’t happy in practice. I wasn’t happy with the car and I wasn’t happy with myself. But I always thought there was more in the car.

I didn’t know Dan Wheldon, but he was big in motorsport, and then this year I got to know Marco Simoncelli, so our thoughts are with them at the moment.

All these nice people saying I’m going to be world champion won’t make me any faster, you have to believe it yourself.

The bottom line is what we do might not be the safest so there is always some risk but we are ready to take that into account because we love racing and we love motor sports and it is dangerous.

At the end of your life, it’s friendships, emotions and thoughts that you take with you, rather than what’s in your bank account.

Simply racing a Formula 1 car is an achievement.

Teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes are going to be very, very motivated to go for the titles.

I look at the newspapers, and I cannot believe most of the stories I read. Bernie Madoff, who actually screwed millions of people for billions of dollars.

[You have to be] willing to be changed by the person you’re listening to, where you’re not just waiting for a pause so you can say your thing, but you’re actually letting them have an effect on you if they can.

Migrants come up and no longer seek to evade the Border Patrol, but are actually left at the border by their smugglers.

That somehow distances us from actually taking part fully with the reality we do have, and that creates suffering.

I read a lot. I spend of lot time thinking. It actually looks like I’m doing nothing, but… hanging out with clever and interesting people is a must if you’re writing comedy, like hanging out with a good bass player when you’re a drummer.

We often lose our tempers not with those who are actually to blame; just with those who love us enough to forgive us our foul moods.

I try to pick songs that I actually like because I realize that I have to live with these songs for a long time, from when I’m working on them in the studio to possibly playing them onstage for the rest of my life.

I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actually be an excuse for not living.