Q: What are your feelings being on pole again?
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: It is a nice feeling. I have been trying to get it. It should give us a better chance for tomorrow. It is only qualifying but it is a good place to be.
Q: You are on the clean side of the track. But it has been a difficult weekend for you and the other drivers with the wind. Can you talk about that?
KR: Actually I have been happier with the car than I have in previous races. We changed a bit with the starting point and it seems to be working quite well. Of course in places it is a little bit trickier here, but it is a nice circuit and they have changed the outside of the circuit, so if you run wide it makes it more difficult. But apart from that it has been a good weekend so far.
Q: What do you mean when you say you have changed the starting point? Does the car feel different to what it did in Bahrain?
KR: No. We just changed the set-up quite a bit. It seems to work. We wanted to try something in a test. We had a rainy day and we tried something on the car. It gave me a good feeling, so we decided to keep it. It seems to be working so far.
Q: Felipe, third today but the look on your face suggests you are perhaps a little bit disappointed?
Felipe MASSA: No, I just couldn’t put a lap together on the last try. On the first try I put a lap together but it’s not there to be honest. In competition like today, in all the sessions we saw that if you lose a tenth you can lose one or two positions. I put a lap together at the wrong moment but we have a good car.
Q: What actually happened on the third sector?
FM: I just lost a little bit which maybe cost me the fight for pole.
Q: It looked like a little bit of wheel spin on television?
FM: I had a little bit of wheel spin in turn seven and also in the slow corners. That’s the way it is. When you have big competition like that you can lose or gain positions very easily.
Q: And the track conditions here in Barcelona?
FM: It is okay. It is quite hot and we also had a lot of rubber down. I think it is okay.
Q: Kimi, the last seven pole winners have won the Spanish Grand Prix. I don’t want to tempt fate but none the less you are in good shape. It appears the McLaren Mercedes challenge here has not been quite the same as in other races.
KR: I don’t even know where they ended up. The qualifying is one part but tomorrow is when we get the points. Last year we couldn’t finish the race, but for sure we should have good speed in the race as long as we get a clean start. We are confident in ourselves and the team. We need a good clean first few corners and then try to maximise our position and do the best job we can. But this is the best place for sure to try and win the race.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Kimi, it’s quite strange to say that despite the fact that you’re leading the World Championship this is your first pole of the year.
KR: For sure even last year qualifying wasn’t our strongest part, so it is nice to be at the front. It always makes your life a bit easier. It’s the best place to try and win, so I am very happy. The car seems to be working well.
Q: Interesting tactics out there. You were actually slower from Q1 to Q2.
KR: For sure we always try to go faster, but sometimes you do not find the perfect place and if you are too close (to another car) you always lose time. In the end the main thing is to be in the top ten in the second one. That was enough, so there was nothing to worry about.
Q: You have not done much testing because of the weather, so did you find a different car?
KR: Maybe it was a good thing because when the test was here there was a lot of rubber on the circuit and it was very fast. Maybe it was more like it is here now. Everybody has been here a lot, so we know the circuit and we know the set-up. It is not a big advantage.
Q: But did the car feel very different?
KR: From the test?
Q: From the previous version.
KR: It is always difficult to say because we are at a different circuit. It feels good for sure because at the last race I never got it right. In that way it is a huge difference. But it is not so much in the car but the set-up. For sure the new parts have improved the car.
Q: Felipe, the third sector seems to have been the problem since yesterday.
FM: I don’t think so. I think in a qualifying like that you can see the difference in the lap times. If you don’t put exactly every sector together you can lose two positions in a very easy way. If you look I did my best lap at my first attempt when I did a perfect lap, but then on the second try, I couldn’t put the lap together, so then I stayed with my lap time from the first attempt, but I was heavier on fuel, for sure. The tendency is to improve the lap time, so I couldn’t do a perfect lap at the second attempt and I lost two positions. In a way I was even lucky, because I was very very close to the guys behind, so I could easily have been fifth. So you can see, if you don’t put the lap together you can lose positions, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy with the car. I’m quite happy and I think we can have a good race tomorrow.
Q: And much quicker from Q1 to Q2 as well.
FM: Yeah. Q2 is when you have soft tyres, we have hard tyres in Q1. You just go out after a big break, so it’s normal to be quicker in Q2.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Kimi, two questions: how optimum was your last lap, and secondly was it difficult today to get a performance lap, because at your first attempt, it would have given you a place around 16th in first qualifying?
KR: I don’t know how you compare the last qualifying and the first qualifying. It’s always difficult to get it right but the car has been pretty good this weekend. It gives you more and more confidence and that gives you better results. I would say that the tyres went away a bit in the first one but then we changed the way a little bit on the second try and also the traffic was quite difficult, so it makes a big difference if you cannot use your out lap as you want or you are too close to the cars in front, so we managed to get a good gap and a good lap. The lap was good, as I said, but for sure, if you get ten sets of tyres you are always going to go quicker on one of them. Probably you would never get a perfect lap.
Q: (Laurentzi Garmendia - Berria) To both Ferrari drivers: do you see Fernando Alonso as a threat for victory for tomorrow?
KR: It’s very difficult to say. I think we will see tomorrow after the start, at the first pit stop and how much fuel everybody has, but it’s too early to say. There are many things that can happen to us. He’s on the front row, so they have a good chance to win it, and to challenge us, and for sure they are in a strong position.
FM: I think Fernando knows better than us how much his car improves, so if he has a good car in his hands he can fight for victory. He knows better than us.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, is pole position here as important as it is in Monaco?
KR: I think so. Even if you’re not on pole position it doesn’t change much. If you stay there at the start, any target if you’re on the front row is hard. It should give you a better chance at least, so you cannot get better than first place in qualifying, so I’m very happy with that.
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