Kimi Raikkonen:
“I’ve been chasing pole for a while now. For one reason or another it always escaped me, but today I got it. There is no better place to start, so I will try and make the most of that tomorrow. It will be important to get off the line well and get through the first corner without any problems. Then it will be down to exploiting the car’s potential, and that is definitely good.
“The race is what matters, and tomorrow I want to bring home a nice result. Maybe it was not too bad doing so few laps in the dry in last week’s test, as we were able to work on set-up with a different approach. On my first run in Q3 I lost a bit of grip in the final sector, but then on the second set of tyres everything went well. The perfect lap? You can always do better.”
Fernando Alonso:
“The best day for me of the 2008 season, and I hope there are many more like this to come. The team has been doing a tremendous job since Bahrain.
“We have had a difficult and disappointing start to the season, and today is the first step ahead. We expected to be stronger here, and we have an aggressive approach for the races to come in order to return to the level we should be at. It is not the time to relax – instead we are even more motivated to work hard to get where we need to be.”
Felipe Massa:
“I got a good lap with my first set of tyres in Q3, but that was not the case on my second – especially in the final sector of the track – and that meant I could not improve on my time. When qualifying is as close as this, it only takes the smallest of things to lose or gain a few places.
“I think we will be very competitive tomorrow, but we can expect a tough race. Anything can happen and we will have to give it our best shot to bring home the best result possible. We can count on a car that is good over a long run, which has been the case from last week’s test up to and including yesterday.”
Robert Kubica:
“This was a good qualifying. I am very happy as I managed to do a very quick lap in both Q2 and Q3. I am especially happy about the second qualifying session, as I was second-fastest using only one set of tyres. I am looking forward to tomorrow’s race, and I think our pace is good.”
Lewis Hamilton:
“I’m actually quite surprised that we are not higher up the grid, as the car felt very good and I put in some strong laps. Throughout qualifying one and two the car felt extremely well-balanced, but it’s so close which means that it will be an exciting race tomorrow.
