It was a very confident looking pole position, does the car feel as competitive here as it does everywhere else?
Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah, I think so. Yesterday was not perfect but really the day yesterday was really only to try to find the right tyre and I think we got a good choice on that and over night we changed the car and straight away from the morning it was good. We did a good lap time before the qualifying so we were quite confident but on a new circuit you never know how it is going to be in qualifying. It was quite tough but I am very happy with the car.

Giancarlo, the first time we have had two Renault drivers in the top three in qualifying since Malaysia. We heard some radio transmission to you just before the start of your lap talking about the condition of the wind, which had changed. Did that help you?
Giancarlo Fisichella: Yes. There was a very strong wind on the start-finish line and quite a lot of strong wind at the end of the back straight and especially in the braking point it was pretty difficult, but it was a clean lap, I was a bit conservative on the first and second parts but on the last sector I did very well and considering even Barrichello was very close it was good. It is encouraging for tomorrow, looking forward, and I want to go for the podium, the target is to win the race.

And what are your thoughts on the circuit design?
GF: Yeah, I agree with Kimi. It is a nice circuit. Already when I walked around on Thursday morning it was really nice and especially the first few laps were very exciting, so it is great, I am happy to be here and I hope to have a great race tomorrow.

Fernando, a good looking lap as well but Giancarlo was slightly quicker in the third sector there.
Fernando Alonso: I think I was a little bit surprised about the wind in the back straight and a little bit in turn 12, maybe I lost half a tenth or something like that, which is enough to be second, but I am happy to be third, it is the clean side of the grid so we should have a better start and hopefully we can go through the first corner, not like Hungary, where we lost the nose. I think we have to finish tomorrow and we are in a perfect position to achieve a good result.

Your championship rival Kimi is on the pole, of course. Talk a little about the dilemma between going for the win and scoring points.
FA: It is not easy to manage, but at the moment we are thinking to beat McLaren and to beat Kimi because I think it is the only way to be right in the championship. Sometimes we can do it, sometimes not, and the times we cannot we have to think and to score points, and I think tomorrow we have a good chance. We have the two Renaults in the top three, which means the car is competitive here, so let’s try tomorrow.

Kimi, just going back to you, a long hot race tomorrow, anti-clockwise, a very fast corner there putting a lot of g-force through the car and the necks of the drivers.
KR: Yeah, it is not going to be easy, also because we had some holiday and when you are not driving for a while it is harder but I don’t mind and let’s see how it goes and it shouldn’t be any problem.

Press Conference

Kimi, having seen quite a few other drivers make mistakes, were you at all careful or was it 100 percent?
KR: I thought that we had a little bit in hand. In the morning on new tyres, I went off in corner eight so I knew that it was going to be a bit tricky. Most of the guys who made a mistake went off there. Maybe (I was) a little bit (cautious) but not really. I tried to drive it as hard as I could.

Just in that one corner then.
KR: Yeah, and at the end of the back straight, coming into the last part. I ran a little bit wide and locked the rear end for some time but I knew that I was quick enough in the first part so it didn’t matter.

Do you think we’re going to see the same sort of incidents during the race itself tomorrow?
KR: Hopefully not for me, at least. But I don’t know, it might be tricky but we will see how it goes.

You talked about changes to the car; were they major changes?
KR: Not really. We only knew the set-up since yesterday. It was not really perfect so we did a few little things that we wanted to try and it was pretty good in the morning already and we were happy so we didn’t change it any more and I think it is a very good race car.

Is there a thought about the set-up of the car between here and turn eight then from turn eight back again, because that’s quite quick?
KR: Of course, you try to compromise. For sure you don’t get it completely right in every corner but you try and make it as good as you can overall and try to put in effort where the car is not perfect so try to work more on those areas.

Giancarlo, you set a very quick final sector time, are you concentrating more on that quick part of the circuit?
GF: Well, I did a good last sector time but I think without Rubens it would have been better. I lost a bit of concentration – I’m not saying I was on pole without him but for sure a few hundredths better was possible. Anyway, it was a good clean lap, a bit conservative at the beginning. The car balance was much better than yesterday and then this morning so I am happy about the performance and looking forward to tomorrow.