02/07/2005
NEWS STORY
Fernando, what a great place for you to be on the pole yet again…
Fernando Alonso: Yeah. Last year I had the pole here, the only one of the 2004 season. I came here with optimism and very confident about this year's car and the characteristics of the Magny-Cours circuit. The whole weekend has been good for us and the qualifying lap as well, with no mistakes, a very very good balance in the car, so everything went well today.
A very nice looking lap but a lot of pressure of course, half a second covering the top seven drivers.
FA: Yeah, we knew that the times are always very very tight here in Magny-Cours and we knew that every tenth of a second is important for the qualifying lap, so I pushed from the beginning. Straight away I felt the car had good balance in turn three and turn five, so that gave me even extra confidence for the rest of the lap, especially the last sector, so I was extremely happy with the lap.
And perhaps even more support than last year following your success so far this season, lots of blue out there in the stands.
FA: Yeah, a lot. I think along with the Grand Prix at Barcelona, these are the only two tracks where we see more blue than red and obviously for them it is also a good day, and for tomorrow, the grid positions that we are on - because Giancarlo is also one of the top guys - I think we can have a very very strong race in our team.
Jarno, congratulations, your fifth appearance here as a top three driver in qualifying in 2005. It's getting to be a real pattern for you.
Jarno Trulli: Yeah, I couldn't believe at the start of the season that we were performing so high. I keep doing a very good job together with the team and all the engineers and mechanics, so we are extremely happy about our season. We've had some bad luck in the last few races as we couldn't get on the podium but nevertheless we are still here fighting, another good lap today in qualifying, another first row.
And your thoughts on the competitive nature of qualifying and the strategies we're going to see in the race tomorrow - usually a lot of pit stops here.
JT: Yeah, you're right. Normally we do two or three pit stops and we will get a better idea on what fuel everybody has run today. We will definitely see different strategies. Normally the race here is like a game and you play it on the strategy and pit stops.
Kimi, obviously a bitter-sweet moment for you: third quickest but unfortunately that engine problem yesterday, changing engines and having to start effectively 13th on the grid tomorrow.
Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah. I don't think it was the best way to start the weekend yesterday, to blow up the engine, but what can you do? It's going to cost us a lot this weekend. But at least the car is very good and I think we will have a good strong race but unfortunately not where we should start, so we just need to wait and see where the others are stopping and then we can really go.
Well of course, that is the next point: how has that affected your thinking on strategy?
KR: We will see tomorrow if we made the right decision or not but I think I'm pretty confident, the car felt very good in qualifying so we just need to wait and see really, that's the only thing. I still think that we can hopefully get close to the podium at least if not on the podium.
Fernando, this effectively lets your friend Michael Schumacher start third in the Ferrari, and I need to remind you that it's been 22 years since Renault last won the French Grand Prix as a complete team, so a big day for you tomorrow and a big day for the team.
FA: Yeah, of course every race is important but for the team, we know that here in France it is even more important. I think 6000 people are here, invited by the team, from Renault dealers and a lot of big names from the Renault group will come here tomorrow and try to beat Ferrari and McLaren and Toyota tomorrow, I think, is our target and we can do it this weekend, I think, because it has been performing very strongly all weekend.
Press Conference
Well done Fernando, what it does it mean to you to be on pole position here at the French Grand Prix?
FA: It's always a very good feeling to have a pole position, but it really doesn't change too much to me to be here or at another circuit but I know that for the team it's important and that makes me even more happy.
You were quick in all the sectors as well, whereas some of the other drivers were in some sectors and another others. It must be well set-up even on the straight.
FA: I didn't see the sector times but all weekend it has been performing well all weekend and now in qualifying we basically didn't touch the set-up since Friday morning. It has been good, the balance has been good, the tyres have been performing really really well and very constant through the long runs, so for tomorrow I think we are all very very confident.
What was the thinking about going out in the damp this morning, you and Giancarlo did more laps than anyone when it was damp?
FA: Well, I think because we had some miles left from the Indianapolis race we used the engine and the car a little bit more and we had some important tests to do with the electronics and the engine this morning so we used that damp track on which to do it and everything was fine.