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1. Juan Pablo MONTOYA (McLaren), 1m46.391s
2. Kimi
RÄIKKÖNEN (McLaren), 1m46.440s
3. Giancarlo FISICHELLA (Renault), 1m46.497s
TV UNILATERALS
Q. Juan Pablo, heading McLaren's first one-two in qualifying since Imola
2001 with your first pole for the team (note, JPM was handed pole in Italy
due to KR engine change penalty) and what a place to do it.
Juan Pablo Montoya: Yeah, in the last race I was lucky to get on pole
because Kimi had a penalty but it was nice to get the first proper pole this
year. It is good. The car worked well. Yesterday we had a problem and I
couldn't do any running, the second session was washed out and the first we
had to change the engine, but it was lucky enough that they decided to
change the engine before we even started the practice so I lost the practice
but it didn't cost us much and I think it was quite good. I am pretty
pleased. The car behaved well and I think it behaved a little better than
expected so that was good.
Q. It looked a beautifully smooth lap.
JPM: It was a clean lap. I had a reference to my practice time and before I
got into the chicane I had a bit more than I needed.
Q. A few umbrellas coming up towards the end there. Were there any doubts or
problems with the weather in your mind as you went out?
JPM: Well, it was quite funny. I went to put my helmet on to get into the
car and as I was doing that it started to drop as Trulli was starting his
lap and I thought ‘oh, typical, we finally get a good qualifying spot and it
is going to vanish'. But the weather held out pretty surprisingly to be
honest.
Q. Kimi, in terms of your championship position and what you need to do this
weekend to win, it looks very strong for your team.
Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah, it is good for the team. It was a bit difficult this
weekend to find the perfect set-up but it was better than in the morning.
The car in the morning I went off on new tyres and I didn't want to do it
again, so it was okay. Second place is a good place to start and we will try
to work from there.
Q. There were surprisingly close lap times here if you look at Toyota and
Renault they are very close to you. KR: Yeah, but lets wait and see what
happens in the race. It could turn out to be not as close as it looks.
Q. Giancarlo, sadly you will get a ten place drop on the grid because of
that engine change before qualifying.
Giancarlo Fisichella: Yeah, unfortunately we did an engine change just
before the qualifying session. There was some possibility to keep the same
engine but unfortunately at the end they decided to change it. I am a bit
disappointed for that especially considering that for my qualifying lap I am
pretty happy because I did a good lap, the car was better than this morning.
I have a good potential to recover some positions tomorrow, I have a good
speed and I think it would be nice to get on the podium again. I will try
all my best because the last race was good for me.
Q. Where do you see the Renault and McLaren pace comparing tomorrow?
GF: Well, considering in the last few races McLaren were stronger than us
then obviously I think we have a different strategy maybe, but you never
know. The car looks alright here. We had expected to be much slower than
McLaren and we are quite close, so I think tomorrow is going to be a very
interesting race.
Q. Juan, as we have seen it is very unpredictable weather here in the
Ardennes mountains. It could rain tomorrow, what are your thoughts on a wet
race?
JPM: I wouldn't mind, especially we are starting for the front. If you had a
bad qualifying, for instance if it had rained badly before I went out, it
would have been a disaster because going down into the turn after Eau Rouge,
if you are behind P4 you cannot see anything. It would be quite
entertaining, actually, in the wet.
Press Conference
Q. Juan Pablo, two poles in seven days; all you've seen is the number one…
JPM: Yeah, you know it's kind of interesting. The car behaved well,
surprisingly well and I was very concerned before going into qualifying,
first because of the weather and secondly because the balance wasn't so good
and my pace wasn't that special either, so I was a little bit worried but I
went out to qualify and it behaved quite nicely so I was very glad to be
honest.
Q. But having said that, you weren't actually fastest in any of the sectors.
JPM: No, but I think a lot of people… you look at Giancarlo for example, you
look at his speed, he took all the wing off so he's very quick in the first
sector and some other people did the opposite, some other people put on a
lot of downforce, probably like Trulli and he was very quick in the middle
sector, but he was still slow on the straight so I think McLaren really did
a good job in finding the balance between top speed and grip.
Q. Is it easier or worse having your teammate starting alongside you
tomorrow?
JPM: It is going to be interesting. I think I'm in a position to still help
the team. Kimi's still got a possibility for the championship so if I have a
chance to help him tomorrow I will help him again.
Q. Kimi, Juan Pablo had a problem with the engine and had to change the
engine; does that worry you at all?
KR: No, I think they found the problem that they had in the last race and
they decided to change the engine to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
Q. You were very quick in the final sector; how did you feel about the other
two sectors?
KR: It was okay. I was not really on the limit so second place is fine for
the race. I think we have a good chance to have a good result for the team
and that is what we need now. I need to try to get good results for the
championship, try to have some chance to win it, but this is the best
possible way to go for this race.
Q. Obviously nobody ran on dry tyres yesterday afternoon. How much of a
gamble was the choice of tyres?
KR: I think for us it was quite clear. The only problem was to find a good
set-up for the car and it hasn't been perfectly today, but also for me the
set-up was pretty good in qualifying, so I am very happy with the car now so
we will just have to wait and see what happens in the race.
Q. Giancarlo, same question for you really, because at least they had the
luxury of a third driver yesterday to help with the tyre choice whereas you
didn't. How much of a gamble has your tyre choice been?
GF: It is quite difficult, especially this morning. We did just three laps
of running with the two different compounds and that is not enough to make a
choice for the race. It is really important to have a third driver running
on Friday. Anyway, we haven't got the possibility but I think we made a good
choice and a nice job today.
Q. You were very quick in the first sector as Juan Pablo pointed out,
perhaps a little less wing 0.6s down in the second sector. Is that roughly
the story?
GF: Yeah, my problem… we tried to keep the same engine as Monza until the
last moment to see if it was okay to run with it in the race but
unfortunately it was too damaged inside so just before the qualifying
session we changed the engine. Because of that, we lose ten places straight
away. It's better to go with low downforce to have good speed and have the
possibility tomorrow to overtake some cars because we have a good potential
and I think if everything is going to be alright we can score lots of
points. I would like to get on the podium again.
Q. Even yesterday in the press conference, people were talking about
Fisichella's bad luck. Do you see it as that?
GF: What can I say? It is just that, because the team is pushing on both
cars. Like Kimi is fighting for the championship and he usually has more
problems than Juan Pablo. I think it's just bad luck and I hope to have
better luck tomorrow.
Questions From The Floor
Q. For all of you, the weather forecast seems not good for tomorrow. Did you
work on the car set-up taking that into account?
JPM: In my opinion you cannot really do too much about it. We had dry
qualifying today and the qualifying is probably the most important thing. I
think there is always a balance of how much wing you carry and how much you
don't. It is not 100 percent guarantee that it's going to rain so at the
moment, our best bet was to go full dry and I think that's where we are. But
even like this, when you fit wet tyres the car at the moment behaves quite
well, so I don't worry about it to be honest.
Q. So there is not much difference, Kimi, between the dry and wet settings?
KR: Not really. Of course there are some little things which you can change,
but our car seems to be pretty good. If you just go out on wet tyres it is
working well enough so it's always a gamble to see how the weather is,
especially here. They were expecting to have a bad day today but it has been
brilliant so let's wait and see tomorrow.
Q. Giancarlo, a low downforce setting doesn't sound so good for the wet.
GF: Considering the levels of downforce it is better it is dry because it is
going to be a difficult race for me if it is wet. You know, in wet
conditions I usually feel comfortable. I did my first pole position in wet
conditions; I won in Brazil when it was wet so it's going to be alright even
if it's wet; a bit difficult for me but it's going to be alright.
Q. Kimi, last year you won from tenth on the grid, is it now easier from the
front row with a helpful teammate?
KR: It is never easy to win. We will try to have a good race for the team.
We are in a much stronger position than we were last year. But the race is
very long and so many things can happen: the weather first of all and then
we need to get through the first corners to be able to fight for a win so we
will just try to do the best we can and hopefully everything works well.
Q. (Pascal Dro Auto Plus) Do you expect some very different fuel load
strategies for tomorrow?
JPM: You always see different fuel strategies. It's hard to say. With this
track you use a lot of fuel per lap so it probably won't be so different as
other places but you always see different strategies. It's normal.
Q. Giancarlo?
GF: It is difficult to say. You know, from the middle of the season McLaren
was much stronger than us and they were consistently longer than us in
qualifying and for the first stint in the race. Presumably they are even
heavier than us but our potential is quite good here. The car balance looks
alright and I think we are better than we expected.
Q. (Andrea Cremonesi Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi, you used to do a long
first stint. We saw it in Monza and even when you have to come back from the
other position in France and Silverstone. Do you think we expect something
like this tomorrow?
KR: It really depends what the other teams are doing. We are in a strong
position but it is too early to say really, where we are going to end up
after the first pit stops and how long we are going to run against the
others because nobody knows. |
