Q: Felipe it is beginning to be a habit for you?
Felipe MASSA: Definitely. It is very nice, you know, three pole positions in a row this year, so with a really quick and great car and I am really happy to see the job of the team. For sure we are very competitive with McLaren during the whole weekend. They were a little bit quicker than us sometimes and really happy to be first on the qualifying and looking forward to have definitely a very important and a good race. So, really looking forward and really happy and really proud for the job done today.
Q: And a pressure-filled brilliantly-timed last qualifying run there, very, very close, three-hundredths of a second in fact…
FM: Yeah, saw the results now. It was very, very tight. So I just managed to make a good lap, without mistakes, my first try was a disaster (as) I made so many mistakes, I had some cars in front, so and then the last try I really managed to put the lap together.
Q: Kimi, third on the grid again, that’s becoming a habit too, although not one you will like too much.
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: No, but I think it’s better than nothing. I was happier today definitely with the grip of the car and I think we had good speed in the first two sectors but I always lost it in the last sector. The car was difficult to drive in the last sector and I basically lost too much time there. I think we need to find something for tomorrow and hopefully we can get it right there. But I don’t think we are in such a bad position and we will see what happens.
Q: The last sector, of course, includes those new corners, and many drivers are talking about how the track is changing here very rapidly. Can you talk a bit about that and the third sector?
KR: It’s quite a tricky sector, it’s slow corners and you can win or lose a lot of time on those. It’s different asphalt in the last part and it’s making it quite difficult to get right, but it’s the same for everybody and unfortunately we didn’t get it as good as the rest.
Q: Felipe, every dry Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona has been won by a driver on the front row of the grid; your thoughts for the race.
FM: Well, I will let you know tomorrow after the race if it was the right thing or the wrong thing. Anyway, I’m really happy to be here. Tomorrow will be a very, very difficult and tight race, for all the Spanish people and everybody who will be watching the race, and hopefully we can have some good luck and some good pace tomorrow.
Q: Lots of red in the crowd, not necessarily there for Ferrari, however.
FM: Yeah, yeah, that’s true. Fernando is a little bit on the better side in this way but I’m sure that they also like Latin-American people.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Well done, Felipe, a lot of pressure you on there, or did you feel quite relaxed?
FM: Well, I think everybody was under pressure. If you look at the qualifying, how tight it was, I think everybody was under pressure, me as well. Fortunately we managed to do a good lap. The first attempt was not very good, I just made some mistakes and there were some cars in front of me, and I couldn’t manage to do a good lap but then on the last set of tyres, I just managed to put everything together so it was good.
Q: Fernando said on Thursday that you would have a better idea, once you’d seen Q1 and Q2, as to how competitive everyone now is. How do you feel about the competition?
FM: If you look at how the sessions ran out – the practice sessions and then the first and second qualifying sessions – I think the idea is that everyone is very very close, so Ferrari and McLaren are really on a similar pace and that’s the most realistic idea that we saw today. For sure we made a good improvement in the car from the last race to this race, but McLaren did as well, so that’s the way it is and we still need to work hard to improve the car even more, but the idea is that everybody is very close.
Q: Kimi, a little bit of a margin between you and the two ahead but you explained that from the third sector; is that right?
KR: Yeah, well I know that we lost a little bit in the third sector just because we lost the rear end of the car a bit. But apart from that I don’t think it was too bad. I quite like the car but unfortunately if you’re not strong in one sector it’s not enough. But I think we still have a good chance.
Q: Was it a mistake in that sector or was that happening every lap?
KR: It was pretty much on all of the tyres, so it wasn’t just one but there’s not much you can do once you start qualifying, so it would be easier to change something, but the rules are as they are, so anyhow, I think we can work on something for tomorrow, so hopefully in the race it’s a bit different.
Q: Can you make alterations for the race?
KR: Little bit on the details, not changing anything but there’s stuff that we do with the computers and it’s the same for everybody, so I think we can play around with those things.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ottavio Daviddi – Tuttosport) Kimi, do you think you have improved your feeling with the car after the recent test or is the situation more or less the same?
KR: I think it is definitely better. I am happier with the car now than I was, so there is a gap still but we work on it and hopefully we get it right.
Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Kimi, after the last race in Bahrain you said that if you don’t get to the top in qualifying it is very hard to get there in the race and your position now is the same as there and is the position like it used to be or are you more confident now?
KR: I don’t know, hopefully we can gain some places – it is never easy – especially, I think, as in Bahrain where everybody thought it was easier to overtake than here, but not much overtaking was going on there, so it’s not easy but we do the best we can.
Q: (Louis Fernando Ramos - Racing Magazine) Felipe, you seem very confident the whole weekend. I want to ask you if you feel as confident as ever in your career and if this confidence is helping you to get this extra thing to get three poles in very close competition…
FM: Well, I was confident for sure, but we didn’t know exactly what McLaren was doing, so we always confident but we’re waiting a little bit to see when it counts, so I am very confident in the way I am working with the team and the way the team are working with me and the way we are improving things and the way we are developing parts on the way. When I had some problems the team supported me 100 per cent like in the first two races and I think that is really good and makes me for sure motivated and I try everything I can at every moment. I am not saying I was not trying in the past, but I think when you have things working together in every area it is much better for everybody.
Q: (Jessie Chen – F1 Express) How do you feel about the final corner changes? Do you like it or not?
FM: I think in terms of if we like or not, in my opinion, I don’t like it. It is very tight and very…. It is not a really nice corner like the drivers like it, but in terms of show it can be a good idea but we don’t know, we have to wait and see if it was a good change or not, but in terms of driving it is not a good change. We see if it is better at least for the spectators.
Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Felipe, how happy were you with the balance of your car today and especially did you have any problems in the last sector?
FM: Well, I was particularly happy with the balance. For sure the last sector is quite tricky. I also had some problems in the last sector especially on the previous set and I had a lot of over-steer as well on the last sector but I managed to put it together, so it is not very easy to find the right balance in the last sector especially as it is so different to the other parts of the track, so it is very difficult to set up the car, to find a compromise for every sector, so, I mean, I am not 100 per cent happy on the balance, because it is quite difficult to drive, but I am particularly happy with the balance we have found, looking at the test last week and this race weekend.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Felipe, which one is pushing you more to these pole performances - Kimi or McLaren?
FM: I think everybody. Everybody is doing a very tough job, pushing very hard as I am pushing as well. So I think when you have a competition so high between these four drivers together you cannot say which one is the more dangerous. Everyone is really pushing harder and everyone is really talented, and everyone is doing a really good job and we need to be aware of all of them.
Q: (Stéphane Barbé – L’Equipe) Felipe, you said the new corner, the new chicane, is perhaps better for the show … so does that mean it makes it more difficult at the end of the straight during the race to keep your position?
FM: I hope it is the same in terms of overtaking and then maybe I can still keep myself at the front, anyway, we’ll see…
Q: (Stéphane Barbé – L’Equipe) Did you have the opportunity to do it in the test?
FM: No, I never tried to go past any car here on the chicane.
Q: (Marco Evangelisti – Corriere dello Sport) Felipe, three poles in a row, can your qualifying skill be the key factor for the world championship this year?
FM: Well, 100 per cent key factor it is difficult to say, but it is a very important fact to be in the front and we saw in the last races that the guy who made the first corner in the front was the guy who won, so it is quite important and hopefully it will be the same.
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