Fifth pole this year, Fernando, but dare I say it, perhaps the most important pole of your career.
Fernando Alonso: Well, I don’t know. I think tomorrow we have to finish the job. I think we’ve had a good weekend so far but this is only the start of tomorrow and we still have 71 laps to go, very important laps for me, obviously for the championship position but at the end, we do our best. Sometimes it will be OK, sometimes not. Hopefully tomorrow will be OK.

There’s a big build-up for this race from Renault: new spec engine, new aero package on the car. Talk about that and how the lap was.
FA: I think the new stuff we have on the car, well, the result is this: Fisico and me are in the top three fighting with the McLarens. Probably in the last couple of races we were not able to be so close. So I think the team did a fantastic job the last part of the championship and we the drivers are really really pleased with the car here in Interlagos and I think tomorrow everything will be OK, because in terms of reliability and things like that, it is still 100 percent sure so I think we are very confident.

And your thoughts during qualifying, first on Juan Pablo’s lap, whether it was beatable, and then secondly of course, your championship rival Kimi Raikkonen.
FA: Yeah, when I saw Juan Pablo’s lap I thought he was really really quick, four tenths better than Fisico, so I thought it was maybe difficult to beat him, but I think the track conditions improved at the end for us, for the last three or four cars, so I was able to beat Juan Pablo and obviously I didn’t see Kimi’s lap because I was in the car, on my in lap, but the engineers already informed me after turn one that it was looking better for me.

Juan Pablo, out very early, seventh out, a great lap that stood for the pole virtually the whole session.
Juan Pablo Montoya: I’m a little bit surprised, you know. I thought we would probably be top four, front two rows. It’s hard, you know, coming out of the last corner I’d been really quick in the last sector which is the fastest sector but I lost a bit of traction coming out of there with the track conditions. I think Fisichella did pretty good, being the first car out as well. I am very happy. We’ve got a very good strategy for the race and we are looking quite strong. Kimi is going to have a tough race tomorrow but I think from where I am standing it would be good to win the race.

What were the track conditions like today? We saw the wind changing direction quite a lot, top speeds affected coming on to that final straight.
JPM: It’s fine. My car has been working really good, very stable. I’m very happy because my set-up was really focused for the race and I had a fair bit of understeer during qualifying so it should be really strong.

And a new helmet this weekend.
JPM: Yeah, it’s nice. I do it here every year as a competition in Colombia and this year, with my Formula (Sondrisa) Foundation, there were about 2000 drawings so it’s really good. Every year it’s getting bigger and the girl that designed is an eight year old from Colombia and she’s here, so it’s really nice.

Giancarlo, out first and here you are, top three in qualifying, a fantastic performance.
Giancarlo Fisichella: Yeah it’s great. I’m really surprised about that. The target was to be in the first three rows but I’m third which is great. At the beginning, the track was not fantastic, it was a bit slippery, more slippery than this morning and it was easy to make a mistake. I think I did a very clean lap, I was pushing but not over the limit and that’s the reason why I am third today, I think. With the new aero package and a new spec engine we are quicker and closer to McLaren which is really important.

It’s going to be fascinating because Juan Pablo being where he is, and Kimi behind you, it’s really going to be Renault versus McLaren.
GF: Yes, as usual. All year it’s been like that and even tomorrow I think we’re going to fight against McLaren. It’s really important to be there at the end with both cars and score a lot of points, even for the Constructors’ championship.

Fernando, lots of permutations in terms of the championship tomorrow, but what is your philosophy going into the race?
FA: I think as usual we have to concentrate not to make a mistake and to finish the race. As Giancarlo said, now I think we need both cars to finish in the race and I think we are in a perfect position, with no really big trouble at the start or anything like that. We have a clean circuit in front of us so hopefully we can pull away a little bit and try to win the podium, but obviously not only in this race, but in all three races the target is to be on the podium but for sure, tomorrow if I finish on the podium it is more important for the championship.

Press Conference

Fernando, was pole a bit unexpected?
FA: No, its okay. I think we did a good job all weekend and now the pole position is obviously great. I was thinking to fight with Kimi because Juan Pablo had a bad track at the beginning and with Kimi’s mistake the pole was much easier for me.