Planet-F1

Saturday's FIA press conference

Sunday 11th May 2008

Felipe Massa, Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton attended Saturday's post-qualifying press conference in Turkey.

Q: Felipe, another fantastic pole for you. Very quick as last year in sector three as well. It looked to be a very good qualifying session for you.

Felipe MASSA: For sure, I think I put together a very good lap. I couldn't put together a good lap in Q2. I was a bit on the traffic and I was disturbed a little bit. But then in Q3 I managed to warm up the tyres in the right direction and also not be behind somebody. I even passed Fernando Alonso on the out lap just to be sure that I could have got a clean lap. I have to say I put two very good laps together. On the first lap it was a very good try and on the second lap I just improved a little bit, but it was enough to be on pole. I am just so happy coming the third time here and for the third time being on pole position. It would be fantastic to repeat that tomorrow.

Q: Your team-mate Kimi Räikkönen is starting fourth, but obviously you love this race track.

FM: It is a fantastic track for me. I have a lot of pleasure to drive on a track like that to be honest. You come to turn eight and it is very challenging with so many drivers correcting oversteer there, even these two guys beside me. So many times you are going into oversteer trying to get the maximum of the car and also on the corners which are quite technical and quite a lot of change of direction in the first sector, so I really enjoy coming here and they are always very welcoming here as well, so it is a big pleasure.

Q: You love winning from the pole, that is a great record that you have. Equally every Turkish Grand Prix has been won from the pole as well, so you must be looking forward to tomorrow I guess.

FM: I am looking forward to tomorrow definitely to try and have the best race possible. For sure it won't be easy as we know our competitors are quite strong and quite close and the race will be not so easy, so let's try to do everything right and also put all the tyres on at the right moment and use the car in the right direction as well.

Q: Heikki, what a week for you coming back here and having passed that medical after your big accident in the Spanish Grand Prix and now qualifying on the front row.

Heikki KOVALAINEN: It has been a roller-coaster the last couple of weeks. Obviously I had a big accident in Spain, but I was very lucky to survive without any injuries and my recovery has been fantastic. I have got to say many thanks to the medical people in Spain and then when I got back to Finland I did some medical check-ups there and I did some training as well. Coming here I knew that I would pass the medical because I felt 100 per cent. This week already yesterday I felt very happy with my car and I have been feeling confident all the time. The second lap in Q3 was nice and clean, so it is a pleasure to start from the front row and we should have a god race tomorrow.

Q: Just take us back to Friday, the first lap you drove after that accident, how did it feel from your point of view?

HK: It felt pretty normal. Like I said, I would not have come here if I did not feel I was in 100 per cent fitness. Already at the end of last week I was feeling back to normal and this week I have been able to do normal physical preparation, if anything a bit tougher, just to test the body and to make sure that there are no headaches or no effects from the impacts. It has been all going very well. Still I must say the first few corners on Friday I was feeling a little bit how everything is, but straight away I felt it was okay and after that I just tried to attack the maximum I could.

Q: It was interesting to see you and your team-mate choose different types of Bridgestone tyre going into Q3. Can you talk us through that a little bit.

HK: I think it is a tricky one this weekend. At some point of the weekend and sometime whenever I go out, however the tyre is, they feel good or not good, so it is very difficult to make your mind up. Hopefully at least it looks like I made the right decision in qualifying. But we will see tomorrow, hopefully the trend continues but like Felipe said it is going to be very tricky. It is very easy to make a mistake and if conditions, the temperature or the wind changes a little bit it can mislead you a little bit.

Q: Lewis, you chose the harder of the two Bridgestone tyres and a very nice moment was captured on television when the back-end jumped out going through turn right. We called it nice, but you probably didn't.

Lewis HAMILTON: No, not really. It was a tough qualifying session for me. Obviously at the beginning I had a fantastic lap in Q1. In Q2 I struggled a little bit on the option tyre and therefore I opted for the prime tyre as I thought perhaps it would be a more consistent tyre especially through the lap. I guess I made the wrong decision.

Q: You say you made the wrong decision but to be that near on the prime tyre it was a pretty impressive lap.

LH: It was not too bad. I struggled in my first Q3 lap, it was terrible. I think I was in the 1:29s. The second one for sure was an improvement but still it was not quick enough.

Q: How do you see the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes race pace relative to Ferrari?

LH: I think we have got a good package this weekend and as myself and Heikki have shown we are up there with the Ferraris and I think we should be able to push them hard in the race.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Felipe, three poles, can you make it three wins?

FM: I don't know. I hope so. At least it's the best I could have done today, so it helps a lot for the race tomorrow and for sure it's quite nice and special for me to come here and have the third pole in a row on this track.

Q: You were saying how much you enjoy this circuit, apart from turn eight. Tell us about its attractions.

FM: Well, it's a very nice circuit. Everybody knows that turn eight is very challenging for all the drivers. You need a good car there, for sure, but it's very challenging. But also I like the layout. You have quite a bit of change of direction in the first sector, turn one which is quite tricky because you brake and you never know if you brake in the right place or maybe a little bit too much or too early, because it's a bit downhill and a bit tricky there. And also you have the last sector which is pretty slow. You have everything in one track which is quite nice.

Q: When you set that time in Q1, a high 1m25s, fastest that we've seen all weekend, did you think then you could be on pole?

FM: No, for sure not, because I think Lewis did a fantastic lap time straight away which for us was already a little bit... we were already thinking that we were not as strong as we looked in practice. But at the end, I think it was