Q: What were your thoughts after pre-qualifying – you were midfield there and you gained 0.7 seconds on that qualifying lap.
MS: Yeah, obviously, as usual, I am the first one out, which I shouldn’t complain about because there is a good reason for it, but being circuit sweeper and not knowing exactly the grip so you cannot always put it onto the edge until you find out in the first couple of corners where you are, it didn’t really then work out. But we were still reasonable and being in the midfield starting the second session wasn’t too much of a problem for me because the circuit seemed to have settled in after a while and then didn’t pick up any more.

Q: How was the lap, you looked very, very good on sectors two and three.
MS: Yeah, sectors two and three I just got perfectly together, sector one probably was not 100 percent but I think all of us can say we lost here and there a little bit of time.

Q: Michael, how do you see the race going? It looks to be very close now.
MS: First of all, I guess it is going to be nice and warm tomorrow, quite high temperatures and nice and sunny so it is going to be good for the spectators to have a nice afternoon and hopefully we can put the show on for them to enjoy it.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Michael, after practice, the last two days, it might be a bit surprising to see you at the top of the timesheets because you have not been quickest in all that many sessions so far. Is it a surprise for you?
MS: No, not really. It is a surprise to be up by that much but I wasn’t too surprised in the end because we worked the car very well. We just got it to the point in the final run in free practice, when I couldn’t put a time in. I was pretty confident we had a chance.

Q: How much did the conditions change from pre-qualifying to qualifying itself?
MS: It is difficult to really judge, but the point is the circuit…you always know it is a bit less grippy so you have to be a bit more careful. There was another reason why it didn’t work out perfectly well as well, but usually you say half a second to one second, sometimes the circuit does pick up, but I don’t know exactly.

Q: You said there was another reason why it didn’t work out perfectly well; why was that?
MS: Yeah, we didn’t have… or maybe probably myself, I didn’t approach things properly.

Q: It must be very difficult to see who your rivals are, because they’re just coming at you from all directions at the moment.
MS: Yeah, but it has been (that way) all year long, it has always changed in these respects. I take it the way it comes.

Q: Finally, what about your own personal health because you had a flu.
MS: It’s OK. It’s getting much better. Tomorrow I will be (OK).

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Salvatore Zanca - Maxsport) Michael, you just said you didn’t approach things properly? What did you mean by that? Mechanically? Mentally? Physically?
MS: Just leave it at that.