Planet-F1

Sat: McLaren, Ferrari, BMW

Saturday 6th September 2008

Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's Belgian GP from pole after outpacing Felipe Massa and Heikki Kovalainen.

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton: I'm really happy about my pole position. We've got a great car and the atmosphere within the team at home in Woking and here at the circuit is fantastic. After Valencia we knew we had to improve and that's what we did. Today's outcome is also a result of this great preparation and I felt very comfortable when we came here. First, I decided to drive with the harder compound, but obviously the option tyre was the better one. Today I gave it my all and so did the team. At the beginning of my first lap, I locked up my right front wheel for a moment, but afterwards I didn't make any mistakes. I'm confident for tomorrow's race."

Heikki Kovalainen: A good weekend so far and we were able to improve throughout. Today's qualifying was fairly straightforward; however, in the end, I didn't quite do enough to make it onto the front row. I didn't make any mistakes on my lap, but obviously I lost a bit of time in the middle sector. Anyway, tomorrow is where it counts and I'm feeling optimistic."

Ferrari
Felipe Massa: I did a great lap, but it was not enough to be on pole position. Today, we lacked a bit of speed compared to our main rivals but the race is very long and, over a distance, we know we can be very competitive and therefore we are capable of fighting for the win. The start? It will be difficult to do a repeat of Budapest, especially as the start-line straight is shorter than at the Hungaroring. Then, we will have to see what the various strategy choices are and obviously, how the weather evolves. If it was to rain, the race could be turned into a lottery."

Kimi Raikkonen: On my second run in Q3 I made a small mistake, running wide at Turn 7. A shame, as it cost me valuable time which would have seen me move slightly higher up the order on the starting grid. All the same, I am reasonably happy with my car, which seems to be behaving the way I like. Of course, I'm a bit disappointed, as I would have liked to have done better: fourth place is far from ideal to go looking for the win, but it doesn't mean I've given up hope. We know we have a good potential, especially in race trim. The weather will however be a key factor and we will have to try and assess it as well as possible."

BMW
Nick Heidfeld: I'm happy with the qualifying result, and for me the weekend has gone well so far. It wasn't bad on Friday, this morning I was quickest and fifth was the best possible result in qualifying. For me it is very important to know the work we have done has paid off. A couple of weeks ago we found solutions to some problems, and for me this meant an improvement, but then came the race in Valencia which was surprisingly bad. Then at last week's Monza test we were able to learn something more. I have the feeling we are a little closer to McLaren and Ferrari here. However, I think in the race it will be very difficult for us to keep up with their pace. Tomorrow the weather conditions will be an important factor and a good start for me will be crucial. I will start from the clean side of the track."

Robert Kubica: Qualifying was difficult for me although the conditions were the best so far over the course of the weekend. The track was completely dry, but I have had problems with the balance of the car all weekend and I am lacking overall grip. This makes driving quite difficult, especially here in Spa where you have a lot of long corners."