"I could improve my time quite a lot from the first run, but on my final run I hit some traffic on the out lap and couldn't warm up the tyres in the cool conditions. Unfortunately I locked up into turn one and lost a lot of time there, so even though the rest of the lap was OK it was never going to be quick. It's a shame but we are still very close to the fastest times. Tomorrow's race will be exciting - you never know what the weather will bring, so we'll look to have a good strategy and try to make up places when we can."


Ron Dennis (McLaren-Mercedes - team boss):

"First and third in qualifying is clearly a very satisfying result - and represents a very strong team performance. Lewis's pole lap was awesome in the proper sense of that often-abused adjective - in fact I'd go so far as to say that it was possibly the best lap of his career so far. Heikki's lap was also very impressive and extremely pleasing - because it showcases the strength and depth of our driver line-up and of our whole team. Having said all that, although we'll enjoy our qualifying success this evening, the race is what really matters and all I'll say about that is that we've sacrificed nothing in our efforts to achieve advantageous grid positions and are therefore looking forward to putting in a very competitive performance tomorrow."


Norbert Haug (Mercedes - motorsport director):

"A great lap from Lewis, a great lap from Heikki make pole position and position three for us. This is a perfect line-up for the start tomorrow, but we certainly will not make the mistake and under-estimate our competitors. We should be strong in the long runs of the race as shown on Friday during the practice sessions, but Ferrari will be very quick too, so there will be no room for errors tomorrow. For today, we are perfectly happy - thank you to the team and thanks to Lewis and Heikki. It would be great of course, if we could generate the same feeling inside the team at the same time tomorrow."


Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari - team boss):

"Obviously, we were hoping for a different result, especially given our potential. It's a shame for Felipe who had been quickest in Q2 before suffering with a lack of grip from the tyres in Q3. Kimi did a good job and managed to get back onto the front row. Tomorrow, we can expect to have to fight our way up to the front, especially given the positions of our closest rivals. It will be a long race in which tyre performance, strategy and the overall team work will, as usual play a decisive role in terms of the final outcome as of course will the need for absolute reliability."


Luca Baldisserri (Ferrari – technical director):

"It was a somewhat contradictory session, both in terms of the final result and of the various performance levels through the field. In the first two sessions, Felipe had shown himself to be very quick and to have found the right balance on the car, while Kimi was struggling a bit. In Q3, the situation was pretty much reversed and specifically, Felipe found his sets of tyres producing inconsistent performance, offering less grip than previously. Hence his fifth place on a grid where the time differences are minimal. For his part, Kimi was more comfortable on the heavy fuel load and managed to do a great lap to get onto the front row. Tomorrow we will be up against very strong opposition and we will do our utmost to get both our cars ahead of them."


Pat Symonds (Renault - executive director of engineering):

"Fernando's position on the grid is as high as we could have hoped for and so we are satisfied with our afternoon and hopeful of a strong race tomorrow. Nelson has had an excellent weekend as he showed with his 7th position in Q1, but unfortunately in Q2 things did not really go as we would have wished. Nevertheless, he has been quick and we hope we can have a strong race with him as well tomorrow."


Denis Chevrier (Renault - head of engine track operations):

"Once again, qualifying was very close and the competition to reach Q3 was extremely competitive. There are obviously still lots of unknowns at this stage of the weekend, but we have opted for an appropriate strategy and I think we can hope for a good result tomorrow with Fernando. For Nelson, we will think things over this evening and try and find a strategy that will allow him to do something in the race, but we know we must not underestimate our rivals in the fight for fourth in the championship."


Mario Theissen (BMW Sauber - team boss):

"Qualifying didn't go as we hoped it would. The main reason was we estimated incorrectly how the track conditions would improve, and their influence on the tyres in Q1. We sent both drivers out twice on the harder compound, while others were already changing to the softer tyres. The unexpected big difference between both compounds left us in the situation where Robert just made it into Q2 and Nick didn't. In the remaining qualifying sessions Robert put in the performance we were expecting and was sixth."


Willy Rampf (BMW Sauber - technical director):

"The most difficult part of today was the first session of qualifying, during which we planned to use the harder of the two tyre compounds. We wanted to have enough sets of the softer one for the remainder of qualifying and for the race. This decision cost Nick a place in Q2. It will be difficult to score points from 16th. Robert's performance was strong and he managed to clinch sixth. This was what we realistically expected."


Pascal Vasselon (Toyota - senior general manager chassis):

"This was a clear improvement compared to last year when we failed to get our cars into Q3. Overall the qualifying sessions went very well. In both Q1 and Q2, both drivers were very quick, with Timo the fastest of all in Q1 and Jarno less than three tenths off in Q2. Given that, we are slightly disappointed by the positions we had in Q3, but as usual it's really a matter of where people will stop tomorrow. Considering the situation with tyres we feel that we have the ideal strategy for tomorrow. Both drivers did a good job and we are where we deserved to be. This morning we had the only wet conditions of the weekend - unlike last year - and we saw that even in the case of rain we are competitive. Now we must look to make the most of these positions in tomorrow's race in front of our home fans."


Laurent Mekies (Scuderia Toro Rosso - chief engineer):