I think the car definitely is good. I have not had the easiest weekend but anyhow we are where we should be. I think for the race I am pretty comfortable that my car is going to be quite strong. It wasn't perfect in the last qualifying, a bit too much understeer, but that is not a bad sign looking at how the tyres are working here and it is going to be hard for the tyres in the race. But I think we should be in a strong position for the race and in the end that's where we need to be strong. As long as we are in the front in qualifying it is enough and we will see what we can do tomorrow but not a bad team effort from us.

Q:
You were in Felipe's position this time last year. What sort of advice have you been giving your young team-mate?

KR:
Like I said, I think our only chance is to be first and second and hoping for a little bit of luck from the outside. It's not up to us anymore at that point. But that's our aim and we will see what happens.

Q:
Felipe, what has it been like for you – the pressures, the pleasures, the excitement and the anticipation? Sum it up for us.

FM:
I think everything, you know. I grew up in this area on the other side of the wall on the go-kart track and I think the memory we have around here is so huge, so nice to go back and remember everybody I worked with and everybody who knows your career and saw you growing and going to the other categories and they are here now together praying and supporting me. I think that is a fantastic feeling and for sure I know the track very well and I love to race here. I am always very competitive on this track, so that is always a fantastic feeling.


Press conference

Q:
Felipe, looking at those around you what do you think of the grid?

FM:
Positive. I think when you start on pole it is always positive. It was a great qualifying, a great lap.

Q:
And your championship rival back in fourth place?

FM:
I am not thinking about that, to be honest. I am thinking about winning the race. After that it does not depend just on myself it depends on other circumstances, so it would be stupid to be thinking about that all the time, otherwise you don't drive your car. If you are just thinking about that maybe you have more possibilities to make mistakes, so you just need to concentrate on your job, trying to be the quickest on the track and that's what we did.

Q:
And there was a remarkable margin back to the other drivers.

FM:
I was thinking that maybe the first try was enough to be on pole but you don't see the others. You don't see if everybody had a clean lap and if people can improve on the second try which is normal and I was in front, so I crossed the line before Lewis and before many other cars. To be honest I didn't want to risk it because if you back off and you are not on pole it is really stupid, so that's why. I think we still have a good strategy and we are looking in a good shape for tomorrow.

Q:
The car seems to have been good right from the start of the weekend.

FM:
The car is just perfect. Already from the first lap on Friday things worked very well. We started with great pace, great balance and even on the usage of the tyres I think it was the opposite compared to, for example, the last race and many other races, so here for sure you need to take care of the tyres. It is not the opposite with the tyres, you need to push hard otherwise you do not get the grip, so when it is like that, for sure it is always very good for us.

Q:
Jarno, you mentioned there were some areas to improve after Friday and obviously there were some areas to improve with you after Thursday, so all in all, it seems to be going in the right direction.

JT:
Yeah, overall we've been improving quite a lot. From 39 degrees, I'm pretty much settled down even if I have had a lot of medicine. On the other hand, I think we've also made good progress on the car's set-up, the whole team has done a very good job for me, so I have to thank them for this great result. It shows the good progress that the Toyota team has made during this season. It's very nice to be second here. On Thursday I felt really disappointed because I was waiting for this race. I love this track, it's a very technical, difficult track. I knew that the car could be really strong here but then at one stage I really thought that I couldn't make it because I was feeling really bad. Eventually things improved and now here I am. It's nice to be challenging the top drivers and it will be nice tomorrow to have a good race and hopefully to score big points.

Q:
How do you tackle this race given there's a World Championship going on around you?

JT:
I know that there are people fighting for it, but to be honest, I race for myself and I race for my team. I race for points and racing is all my life. So all I want to do… with all my experience, I know that I don't have to take too many risks. You can bet on me that if I am wheel-to-wheel into the first corner and I am on the inside line, I won't give up – this is pretty sure – but for sure if I am behind, I won't try a crazy attack at the first corner. I will just try to manage and to do my race because in the end it is the final result which is the most important. All I want is to do my race and try to score the best possible result. Felipe will do his race as well, as well as Lewis and then we will see. I don't think we're going to have any problems and honestly, the championship and stuff doesn't do anything to my mind.

Q:
You qualified third in 2006, raced to fourth in 2000 – those are your best positions. Can you better that?

JT:
We will try. I am here to try and I never give up. I love racing so much, I love working with this team and every year, every time, every race we try to do better work as much as possible and I think that during this weekend so far, we have been doing quite a good job. Starting from second is quite a good position, so I just hope to, let's say, score a similar result as in Magny-Cours. It was an all-Italian podium. It doesn't matter where I finish, as long as I finish in the top three, it's good. Obviously it would be amazing to end the season winning a race for Toyota, the first victory, but in racing anything can happen and I will be there to fight tomorrow.

Q: