Q: Juan Pablo, heading McLaren’s first one-two in qualifying since Imola 2001 with your first pole for the team (NB: JPM was handed pole in Italy due to KR’s 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. In the morning the car 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 let’s 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, I think we have maybe a different strategy, but you never know. The car looks alright here. We 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 as we are starting in 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 look at Giancarlo for example, you look at his speed, he took the entire wing off so he’s very quick in the first sector and other people did the opposite. 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 team-mate 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.