Felipe a fantastic qualifying lap and your first career pole, your feelings and emotions?
Felipe Massa: Yes definitely it's a fantastic moment for me and it's much more important than all the others will be, because when you get your first pole you feel it much more. It's quite a surprise so I'm really, really happy and the team is doing a great job and this is really fantastic for me.

And what a great circuit on which to take that pole, with Turn Eight?
FM: Yes, Turn Eight is a challenge for everyone here and we saw many cars going off and there are a lot of bumps in the corner. It is a very difficult corner, a great challenge and I did a good job this time, I also know the corners well so I was able to put a good lap together and get pole position.

You still have a chance of winning the world championship this year, it's going to be an interesting first corner with Schumacher and Alonso behind you?
FM: Yes for sure, it will be a very tough race and start especially. But it's good to be in front and I'm just looking forward to being very quick and consistent in the race. As of now I have to say we are looking very strong.

Michael, P2, maybe not where you want to be, but we saw you running wide on new tyres at Turn One?
Michael Schumacher: On both types I ran wide you didn't get the ultimate lap and in Turn One in particular. Then we aborted the first run and had an extra lap available for the last run. But we didn't gain anything because the tyres were basically good for one lap. But it's a great job for Felipe in particular, I'm happy for him. It's his first pole position and he's on the front row and that's what counts for us at the moment.

Tell us a bit about qualifying at this circuit and in particular Turn Eight?
MS: It's certainly very different from last year to experience the circuit, because if you have a car that basically slides and doesn't go where you want it to go, it isn't great fun. At this circuit we have a car where you can position it where you want it to go and that makes a difference. Because the circuit is a big challenge and everyone talks about Turn Eight, but there are a lot of corners where you don't see the apex, so technically they are very demanding. There is a very nice combination of Turn Three, Four and Five which is quite technical so there's quite a lot of high and low speed combinations which are a great challenge.

Fernando, you looked very quick in sector one, but fell away in sector two. How do you feel?
Fernando Alonso: Very happy to be honest. We knew that in qualifying the Ferraris would be strong today. And we believe we will have the pace in the race, so to be third just behind them with Fisichella fourth as well was the maximum the team could do today and I think we are very optimistic with our position for tomorrow.

You are leading the championship by ten points, it's very close, how does it feel going into tomorrow's race in terms of pressure?
FA: Well I think there is always pressure in Formula One, it doesn't matter in which part of the championship you are. If you are in a top team, you need to do the maximum every race and it's true that with five races to go it's very important. But we still have to do our own race with no mistakes and if you are P1 it's obviously much better. Tomorrow we have the chance to do it, so why not be optimistic?

Press Conference

Felipe well done, how much does it mean to have this first pole position?
FM: It's just fantastic, the first pole position is always much more important than all the others. It's the first time you can achieve it as a driver. But you are always trying to fight hard throughout all of your career and when you get it, it's just fantastic. It's a fantastic day for me and the team did a fantastic job as well for me, to be able to put the lap together. It's the first pole position of my career so I am really happy.

How good was the car and how much have you changed it over the last couple of days?
FM: Yesterday was an important day for us as we compared the tyres and we had a clear idea which tyre to use today and we did a good job, because the tyre is working quite well, not just on the qualifying but going into the race we think it will be good as well. It was important to find the right set-up and solutions for the race.

Was it quite difficult to make the tyre choice because this morning the track temperature started at 36 degrees C and went up 11 degrees in one session?
FM: This time it was not so difficult for us.

Michael, phenomenal times coming into qualifying, are you disappointed to be second?
MS: It didn't go exactly to plan, honestly. I had a good car and for whatever reason, I couldn't really translate all of our performance. But then I took it a bit cautiously as I had to abort the first run. I wanted to make sure I got a reasonable lap in and we're on the first row, so we shouldn't really complain. If I could have made up the three tenths Felipe made, I'm not sure honestly. He must have done a very good lap in that one but we were very well sorted.