Q: Kimi, what a fantastic opening weekend for you with Ferrari!
Kimi RAIKKONEN: Yeah, it has been good. OK, yesterday wasn’t perfect but I think the weather was the issue yesterday and today has been pretty good. We found a good set-up for the car. Unfortunately we didn’t have as good a result as we wanted as a team – Felipe had some problems – but hopefully we can sort out those problems and have a good race. Q: It looked to be a well-paced qualifying session; not brilliantly quick in Q2 but fast when you needed to be in Q3.
KR: Yeah, I think in second qualifying the main thing is to get through and not really do anything silly. It was good in the last qualifying. I’m not really exactly happy with the car but it was quick enough and we need to do some work for tomorrow.
Q: How does it feel to be a Ferrari driver?
KR: It feels good. We have a very good team, everything works well, it’s a good atmosphere and I enjoy it a lot, so I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Q: Kimi, back to you; how do you see the race itself and the challenge from your old team?
KR: I think we have a good race package. I think we are more confident for the race than we were for qualifying. As long as everything works well and we don’t have any problems, I think we should be OK but you never know. So many things can happen. Usually the race here is quite a funny one, but we will do the best that we can and hopefully we can win. For sure the others will try and beat us which is a pretty normal situation. It is going to be close but we will do the best that we can.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Kimi, it couldn’t be a better start to the season could it?
KR: Not for me, but for the team it could have been, but hopefully we can find out what is the problem and then we don’t have the same problem anymore.
Q: Did you have anything similar?
KR: No
Q: Absolutely, no problems at all?
KR: No
Q: You suggested that there is a little fine-tuning (needed) to make the car better. What can you do?
KR: I think so, for one lap, it is still not ideal. Not for me at least, but this is quick enough. I think that for the race we are much more comfortable. I think it is going to be more easy in the race, but you never know. Anything can happen so we need to work hard and do the best we can, but I am sure the qualifying will be more difficult (in the future).
Q: Is it an advantage knowing the team that starts beside you on the grid?
KR: No, I don’t think it is going to make any difference really. I don’t know what they are doing this year. Last year was last year. We are just going to do our own thing and hopefully it is good enough.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) What is the difference between the two compounds for the race?
KR: I don’t know it is not easy to say really. Yesterday it could have been a bigger difference than today. I think in a long run it could make quite a big difference, but who knows what will happen tomorrow.
Q: (Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Kimi, did you expect a tougher battle for pole and could you have gone faster?
KR: I did not mean it was easy. They are never easy. We expect to have a stronger car for the race than for qualifying, compared to the others so we did the best we could do today and it was enough so that’s the main thing and everything worked very well so we see what happens tomorrow.
Q: (Ottavio Daviddi - Tuttosport) Kimi do you think you will sleep well tonight or you will be nervous ahead of your first race?
KR: No. I am ok. It is not my first race – only my first race this year. So it is not going to change anything.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi it looked like Massa had a gearbox problem in the morning and in the afternoon – so are you worried about reliability?
KR: I don’t know what happened exactly, but hopefully it was just a one-off problem and we don’t have it tomorrow, but you never know so we have to try and do the best we can whatever happens. Of course it is a concern, but hopefully we will be good enough.
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