Length: 5.141 km
Number of Laps: 60 (308.355 Km)
Best Lap: M. Schumacher - 1'18''731 (2004, Ferrari)
Record Pole: K. .Raikkonen - 1'18''233 (2004, Mclaren)
2005 Pole: F. Alonso - 1'19''905 (Renault)
2005 Podium: JP. Montoya - F. Alonso - K. Raikkonen

Q: Bridgestone and Michelin seem to be relatively evenly matched here, but very difficult conditions, track conditions in terms of grip level and of course the wind changes.
MS: We haven’t been here testing so we don’t know what it was like at the test but according to the lap times they were doing at the test, something is different here, it’s significantly slower. Nevertheless, it’s the same conditions for everybody. It is a little bit tricky to adapt the car to the circumstances, no doubt. It was very tricky yesterday, today we managed reasonably. We will have to see what it means for tomorrow.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Michael, are you a bit disappointed? Third fastest time and you were fastest this morning.
MS: Yeah. Naturally, you’d rather be on pole position, as I’ve said before, it’s much easier to win the race if you have the right strategy, and we’ll see how it works out for us tomorrow.

Q: Big changes after yesterday. You had a few moments yesterday?
MS: The conditions were very difficult, and we had to do it from that position, as we think we could have done, but we have not been here testing, so we don’t have that experience, although, by the sound of it, it sounds like completely different conditions from the test so I don’t know how much it was worth

Q: Actually you became more competitive from Q1 to Q2 to Q3.
MS: Yeah, but you have to see the conditions. I was on old tyres in Q1 for example, so you have to compare the lap.

Q: So how do you feel about tomorrow?
MS: Good, I mean, there’s no reason not to believe that we have a package that could win the race, but then, if we can manage really to maximise our performance. As I said., strategy is an important factor, we don’t know how much fuel is on board all the cars, but we’ll see that tomorrow, and then we’ll know what the purpose of this qualifying was meant to be and we will see the long-run performance in terms of how the tyres behave over long runs and how competitive we are.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Michael, you are obviously disappointed. Is it more because you are not on the pole or because of the gap you have to Fernando or is it a general expectation after the great testing in Barcelona?
MS: I mean, don’t read too much into the disappointment because it is very much the strategy. I know what strategy I run. Naturally, no matter what strategy you run, you wish to be on pole anyway.

Q: (Scott Piecha – The People) Michael, were you more desperate for pole because of what happened in Monaco? Did you want to banish that?
MS: No. That is normal.

Q: (Bob Bull – BBC Three Counties Radio) Michael, you have your team-mate alongside you. Does this mean that Ferrari have a better strategy for the race than Renault?
MS: We hope so. We’ll find out tomorrow.

Q: (Mike Doodson) Michael, I noticed you’ve been looking out of the window during the questions. There are a couple of banners out in the crowd in support of you. I wonder how much contact you have with your British fans. Do you feel there is a lot of support for you here?
MS: Honestly I’ve always felt support for me here at Silverstone, but that was not the reason I was looking out. It was the Formula 3000 people, sorry, the GP2 people getting ready.