Le Mans was the first time you did not finish in the points, after 24 races. Was this a blow to you?
“You’re always disappointed when you don’t have a good race, but you can’t be more disappointed just because it’s your home race, because you don’t get more points there than at other Grands Prix. When you’re thinking about the championship, you realise that every race is important, whether you’re riding in your home country or not. The only thing that changes is that you have the support of the fans and pressure from journalists, which you can handle well or badly. However, it was of course disappointing. Always being on the limit is very hard physically …