Italian GP - Post-qualifying press conference - Pt.1

Drivers: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari).

TV Unilaterals.

Q:
Lewis, the man who you had to beat was your former Formula Three team-mate Adrian Sutil and it was very close.

Lewis Hamilton:
It was, it was. It was a very close qualifying session and I am very happy to see Adrian up here. Since Formula Three it has been a long time since we were in a press conference together and they are incredibly fast and very competitive. The team did a great job this weekend and the car was very good. I was able to put the lap together which is such a great feeling when you can put one single lap together. I think the public and everyone can just try to imagine what it is like. You have got one single shot at it at the end and it is the most exciting, exhilarating thing, so to finally pull it off and get it on pole it is almost like the first time. I am very happy.

Q:
What a great recovery for the team. From the outside looking in, Spa and Monza are both very fast circuits but here a different car from your point of view.

LH:
I guess we have to wait and see what the strategies are for everyone tomorrow. But we feel quite comfortable in the position which we needed to be in. I don't think we anticipated being as quick as we are this weekend, so it is a bonus for everyone in the team. They keep pushing and have done a great job with it.

Q:
Adrian, on the front row. Must be a great feeling. All I can ask you to do is describe your emotions right now with Vitantonio Liuzzi qualifying seventh as well.

Adrian Sutil:
It is a great moment, a great day for me. The whole weekend was a big success already and we did really good work. The car is amazing. It is quick, unbelievable, so it is just so good for the team after a big success in Spa we continue it here. Just being competitive. It is just such a different feeling in the car now as you know you have a chance. The good feeling of being a race driver is back and it is just such a great feeling. I enjoyed every single moment and I am happy to be here next to Lewis and next to Kimi on the first row.

Q:
It looked like you had a big moment at the Lesmos in Q1 and recovered beautifully from that. As a result here you are on the front row.

AS:
The first session was quite difficult for us as I was missing the grip in the rear. The car was really oversteering. But in Q2 it was getting better once the circuit was rubbered in and the car felt really good and finally also in Q3 it was really good. I am quite happy in the end but it was not an easy qualifying. At the beginning it was quite difficult.

Q:
And your former team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella driving for Ferrari and where you are now and where he was two weeks ago. It is an amazing change of fortune.

AS:
He was saying already that maybe he has not that strong a car compared to us. He knew he could have won the last race. It was a very strong race from him but we have to understand an Italian driver's dream is to drive in Formula One with Ferrari. That was there. I think everybody would have done this move. I think he did quite well now. He had a difficult weekend so far but 14th position is not so bad. We replaced the seat quite well with Tonio who did also a really good qualifying and I think he is really happy qualifying for the first time in Q3. I think it was all the right decisions.

Q:
Kimi, it looked to be a reasonable trouble-free qualifying for you. At Parabolica the car seemed to be a bit loose at the front end but you got the lap done in the end.

Kimi Raikkonen:
It is not perfect for sure but it shows us again that once we put the race fuel in the car it seems to be to always be stronger against the others. It is more difficult especially in the second qualifying than the first and last one to make sure that we get through. The car has been good all weekend. We had some issues with it but unfortunately we cannot fix them as well as we want. But, overall, on the race pace and with the race fuel the car is running nicely and I am pretty happy with it. I think it was one of our best qualifying and it was a good time in our home race to do it and hopefully tomorrow it is going to help us get into a stronger position for the race and try to fight for the first three places. But we will see. It is not going to be easy tomorrow but we will give it our best.

Q:
Can you compare how you felt before the race at Spa to how you feel now in terms of how you think it will go on race day?

KR:
In both races we knew that car was going to be stronger in the race than in qualifying. Of course if you start from sixth than third place it is a slightly different story. I think it gives us a better chance to have a strong finish. But it is going to be a long, hard race for the car. We give the best and hopefully we can give a good result for all the Italian fans and for ourselves. That's our biggest aim.

Q:
Lewis, an amazing start here with a very wide track and very high speed braking into the first chicane. A packed field of cars. It is always an interesting first corner at Monza.

LH:
It is. I have been quite fortunate in the two times I have started here in Formula One. It has gone quite well. I am in the best position to get round the first corner in a good spot, in a good condition, and we have just got to make sure we get a good start. We have got KERS which should help us, so as Adrian was just saying we just want to get round the first corner and then enjoy the race. I hope we are able to enjoy it as much as everyone else.

Press conference.

Q:
Lewis, you dominated yesterday morning. Not so quick yesterday afternoon because I think of a heavier fuel load. What sort of changes did you make overnight?

LH:
I did not make any changes overnight. I was very happy and comfortable with the car that I had yesterday. In P2 we were obviously testing our long runs and we didn't drop our fuel load down at all at the end of P2. Therefore P11 we were quite happy with that and I was comfortable there. It is not qualifying, so I guess it is important that we tested the car and made sure we were 100 per cent happy with the tyres and the fuel load.

Q:
So are you feeling pretty confident for tomorrow?

LH:
As confident as you can ever be. I think we are on pole position. We feel comfortable with the performance of the car but clearly we understand that other cars around us are very quick. Adrian and Kimi, even Heikki (Kovalainen) back there. It seems to be very close. I don't know what to expect tomorrow. We don't know what the weather is going to do. All I can hope for is a good clean start and hopefully deal with it from then on. But hopefully we are in a strong position.

Q:
What sort of effect has KERS had during qualifying and what do you expect during the race, particularly at the start, of course?

LH:
It is pretty much the same from qualifying to the race. A little bit more of a gain in qualifying, but I think it makes up for the loss of downforce and perhaps drag that we have compared to others. Adrian is quicker than us down the main straight even though we have KERS boosting us all the way down, so we kind of make up for some of the bits that aren't so great on the car and we are still working to improve the rest of those.

Q:
I think you have mentioned about a four-tenths gain. Would that still be about right?

LH:
That is what they say but I am sure if we took it off we are probably gaining in other areas and could perhaps do the same time. It is obviously more beneficial for the race when you are competing with people. You are then able to get the tow, even though it is such a long straight, I was able to slipstream quite a number of drivers not last year but the year before. But KERS should help us big time, but hopefully I will not need to do that. We will see.

Q:
Can you remember the last time the two of you were on the front row?

LH:
Me and Adrian? Formula 3 at Zandvoort. Probably. I think that is when we finished our title charge together. That was a great era for us. We had great fun then in the same team and congratulations to Adrian. He has done a great job and truly deserves to be up there with us and finally able to show what he is capable of doing.

Q:
Adrian, well done. Just one run in Q3. What was that like?

AS:
It was nice to be in the car in the whole session. At the N?rburgring it was the first time for me in Q3 and I knew how it felt. It is a very difficult one because the first session is always tricky. The grip level is low, so you have a little bit more oversteering in the car and it is more difficult to drive and then it just gets better and better during the next session. That is what happened here as well. I had a difficult first session really but made it through and then the second session was much better and then finally the last one was the best one. As soon as the grip level was there again on the circuit the car felt really good.

Q:
What are your feelings about having the KERS cars behind you at the start?

AS:
Yes, it is not the best feeling really as I know they have a big advantage, especially at the start. We saw it last weekend with what happened to my team-mate. He lost the race just because of the KERS button. It is tricky but that is the situation. Maybe we are a little bit better in the corners because we have no KERS and they have more power. In the end it is equal but it is really hard to get the positions back, so it is going to be a hard fight for my position at the start, that's for sure.

Q:
Tell us about your satisfaction getting this front row of the grid?

AS:
Yes, huge satisfaction. I was waiting for this chance for quite a long time. I would never have thought that we would be able to be on the front row this year, and especially as three or four races ago we were fighting to reach the second qualifying. So suddenly the step has been so big with our last update package and it's working really well, so we are heading in the right direction, I think. I'm ready for it and now it feels really, really good.

Q:
Kimi, tenth and eighth yesterday; you said there was room to improve. What changes did you make overnight?

KR:
We made some changes to try to improve the issues that we had but even when yesterday I wasn't a hundred percent happy, it was still pretty fast. I think it's been a positive surprise how good the car has been all weekend. Today it was even better with high fuel.

Q:
In comparison to Spa when you won but started further back, are you confident for tomorrow?

KR:
Yeah, but OK, we are three places ahead of where we started in Spa, but now there is a McLaren with KERS in front of us. At the start, you cannot expect to jump them. We can jump the Force India but probably not the McLaren. So that's a different story and then we see how the race goes. It's definitely easier to overtake here than in Spa, so if they have the speed on the straight line, as it looks it will be difficult to keep people behind, it will be difficult to pass them. We will see what we can do.

Q:
We've seen a lot of drivers weaving on the back straight; how much of an issue have tyre temperatures been here during qualifying and the race itself?

KR:
For us it hasn't been a big issue. It's more or less the same as at any other circuit but maybe the first lap isn't always the easiest one, not the fastest one. It takes a few laps but I think it's the same for everybody. Some teams can use them on the first lap, straight away, very easily and some not. But they may pay the price later on in the race, the tyres would maybe not last, so it's a bit of a difficult situation.