Congratulations Lewis, a phenomenal pole position, a phenomenal time on what is a very challenging circuit I think.
Lewis Hamilton: Thank you. Yeah, it is. Especially with the temperatures and everything. That makes it pretty tough but I was really surprised when I came across the line and they said I got pole. I was expecting Sebastian to get it because he had shown some serious pace before. And it didn't even feel that great a lap so that's why I was quite surprised.

When we saw Sebastian's time we thought surely it's not possible to beat him – yet you did so.
LH: As I said, I'm really surprised. I felt maybe he made a mistake or something. But I think as always it's down to the… we bought some upgrades this weekend. The guys have been working incredibly hard to try to catch everyone and they're just doing a phenomenal job. It's a result of all the hard work they've put in.

A tough circuit here. Surely pole position is very, very important because it's so difficult to overtake?
LH: It definitely helps. It's very difficult to follow here. If you can get off the... it's a long way down to Turn One from the start but if you can get into Turn One first, try and hold your position then it's definitely advantageous. But looking after the tyres in these conditions is going to be, as always, trouble. These guys are going to be ridiculously fast so trying to keep ahead of them or hold onto them is going to be the challenge tomorrow.

Sebastian. I have to say we thought you surely had it in the bag with that time. Did you feel the same?
Sebastian Vettel: Well there wasn't much missing so I think Lewis did a good job. I put a strong lap in, I had two sets of new tyres and I was pretty happy with both laps. Maybe on the second try I was losing out a little bit in the middle sector. It's very twisty and a lot of corners in a short amount of time. Maybe I wasn't aggressive enough there. But it's stupid to sit here now and say “we should have done this, we should have done that.” At the end of the day I was pretty happy with my lap but it was just not quick enough. Obviously Mercedes have a very strong pace in qualifying. I think Lewis did an exceptional job today if you look also at the gap to Nico, so you have to be fair and respect that. I'm not arguing with that. Surely I would have loved to be a little bit faster and to be on pole but still I think it puts us in a great place for tomorrow. I think we have a good car and good pace also for the race. Shame that in the other car Mark had an issue. He didn't have KERS and had a problem with the gearbox so had slow upshifts so he was basically not having an attempt for the front and the first couple of positions but still I think we should have a good race tomorrow because the car feels fine. I'm quite confident.

Romain, you were second on the grid here last year, finished third. You're in the first three again this year. It must be a lucky circuit for you, do you feel that?
Romain Grosjean: Well I don't know! I quite like the circuit but it doesn't mean much unfortunately. It has been a good weekend so far, been working pretty hard with the team, trying to get the best out of the car. Our last lap was a pretty good lap, not missing much to get even more ahead but those guys were really quick so I think it's good to be here. The race is very long tomorrow and it's hot so we will see what we can do and what we can get as a best result.