Felipe, you've been in the spotlight since Malaysia. I guess this must be a fantastic feeling for you to bounce back with your second consecutive pole?
Felipe Massa: For sure. We showed good speed last weekend, but things didn't go so well in the race – especially for me, unfortunately. Hopefully we can show more tomorrow. It's very good to be here again and scoring the 100th pole position for Bridgestone is definitely very nice for me. There's nothing more to say, you know. I'm just happy to be here and I'll do my best tomorrow because I really need a good result.

Let's talk about prospects for tomorrow's race. There are lots of changeable conditions, with wind, sand and so on. Talk us through the race from your point of view.
FM: The car is competitive. Today we have shown we have a very quick car, even in qualifying when we know everybody has the same fuel. Yesterday we showed very strong pace on long runs, too. For sure the track is not very easy because it is always a little bit dirty, especially at the beginning of the race, but I think we have shown we have a competitive car. Hopefully, we can put things together.

What have things been like for you, personally, since Malaysia, with the public spotlight shining on you after a difficult race?
FM: For sure I was disappointed, because I started at the front and knew that the car was good – even if the McLaren was very, very quick. They had strong pace in the race, but we were stronger than we showed and for me it was very disappointing to lose positions like that at the start, and to make some mistakes in the middle of the race... It was very disappointing and hopefully this time we can obtain a better result.

Lewis, you're on the front row for the first time in your very young Formula One career...
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, we've had two extremely good races and we're extremely competitive here, with things very close at the front. To go into my third F1 race and get a front row is an amazing feeling.

We heard you on the radio, asking what the difference was between you and Felipe, and talking a little about Sector One. Talk us through that last quick lap of yours...
LH: To be honest it wasn't that great – I definitely had better laps earlier in the session. It was tough. Qualifying is extremely intense and you need to pull out absolutely everything on that last lap. I think I lost a little bit of time in Turn One, but the rest of the lap seemed to go quite well. Turn 13 was little bit hectic and I think the wind here is always changing and coming across in different ways, so you always have a tail wind or a cross wind. It's quite tough to put the car on the limit and anticipate what's going to happen, but still I'm very happy to get second for the team and I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow.

How do you feel about the race and the spotlight that you, too, have been under?
LH: I feel quite relaxed about it. It feels natural. I'm extremely happy to be where I am. I've worked for 13 years to be where I am and finally to be here, and to be performing quite well, I'm really happy with myself and I think the team has made some good steps forward. Going into tomorrow's race, it will be tough. The first corner here is always tricky, because it's so tight, but we'll see what happens.

Kimi, we'll see tomorrow what fuel loads everybody is on, but it looked as though you had a bit of a moment with Giancarlo Fisichella early on in Q3.
Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah, on my first try in third qualifying he was in front of me through Turn One, and then I had big traffic on my second run, so it wasn't the best. But looking back I think it's OK because I wasn't certain I'd be in the top three. We'll see how the race goes. We have a good race car but need to improve a little bit in qualifying. We'll see what happens.

You were quickest yesterday, when you too spoke about how difficult conditions are here in Bahrain.
KR: Yeah, yesterday was more difficult. Conditions today have been quite similar all day. It hasn't been so bad but the wind here can always make a big difference. We know a little bit about the wind from testing, so I think we came here knowing what to do about race set-ups.

You and Felipe both spent a bit of time behind the McLarens in Malaysia. How do you feel the battle will go tomorrow?
KR: I think it will be close, but it depends on a lot of things – including how things work out at the first corner.

Press Conference

Felipe, how similar is this weekend to last weekend?
FM: I hope it's different!

But so far?
FM: The same, it's good to be here on pole, especially after what happened the last weekend when I was quite disappointed with the result at the end of the race. So hopefully this time it's a different outcome and I'm just thinking a lot about the race and bringing more points home. I'm quite happy with my performance in qualifying, not counting Australia when I had a problem with the car. I'm happy about getting everything out of the car; the set-up, how it's working and also the race set-up. But up to now I haven't been able to show 100% what I can do in the race. I'm just very happy to be here on pole again.