TV unilaterals:
Q:
What a moment for you to score your maiden pole in front of a British crowd and in a country where you spent much of your motor racing life.
Heikki Kovalainen:
Absolutely, it has been going really well all weekend and we managed to put some more pace to the car last week and all week here it has just been carrying on from that. Obviously like you said I have been around this
Silverstone area for many, many years of my life. I know a lot of family and friends around here, so it is great to make the first pole here and tomorrow we will just carry on where we left today.
Q:
It was a very difficult qualifying session with changing conditions. Talk us through qualifying and how you approached it.
HK:
Yeah, it was quite difficult conditions especially at the beginning and in the middle of the first session as there was quite a dark sky and it was possible to get some rain. On my first run in Q1 I had a bit of traffic and I didn't manage to do a very good lap at the beginning, so I had to go out and try and do it before the rain came, just to make sure we were not knocked out in the first part of qualifying. Then the second part of qualifying went much better without any problems and in the last part the conditions were again difficult. I think the wind picked up in the last part of qualifying and it was very difficult. The first run I was all over the place but managed to put the second run together much better and I am very happy about it.
Q:
You were devastatingly quick in sector three which means you are very quick now in slow corners where
Ferrari have had an advantage?
HK:
Yeah, that's true. The team has put a lot of effort into sorting put that particular area and I think they have done a brilliant job in sorting out what was wrong there and trying to put changes in place and the team has made a really good step forward with the car. I am very happy about that but of course tomorrow is still a long race and anything can happen but the balance of the car now in high speed and even in low speed is as good as it has been this year.
Q:
Mark, the first ever front row start for
Red Bull Racing. What a day for you.
Mark Webber:
It is a bit of a surprise actually. We have been pretty strong most of the weekend but we didn't realise how strong I suppose until we got into, especially Q2. We were surprised. My 19.7 was pretty competitive but obviously these guys have a different strategy compared to us especially in Q2. In relation to the rest of the guys we are normally competing against, we looked to have a nice margin over them, so obviously Fernando is still there and some of the other guys. It is a credit to the team, they have worked so hard over the last few weeks like all the teams have. But Red Bull live very close to here, just down the road, so the same thing for us, it is a bit of a home grand prix for all the Red Bull racing guys, so it's a proud moment for them obviously. But five per cent of the job is done. We have got to race tomorrow and it could be wet as well. There is a long way to go but we did our job today. I felt very comfortable in the car and I could push it to the limit and as Heikki said the last part of qualifying when I went out in Q3 with the fuel in I thought the guys must have put double the fuel in than expected because the car was all over the place. I saw people on the big screen running wide and obviously everybody was having trouble on that first run. On the second run I got a lot better lap. My engineer told me I was P1 at Becketts but I knew that was going to continue and Heikki got the pole and I am happy for him. We got second but I was still surprised that we hung in there. I can't wait for tomorrow now, I wish the race was now.
Q:
Silverstone obviously means a lot to you as well as you started your F3 career with a team based not far from here.
MW:
Absolutely, Alan Docking Racing was very close to here for me and this is the first track I drove on in Europe away from Australia, so having won here in Formula Ford, got pole in F3 and won in Formula 3000 and sportscars and now front row in
F1, so it's been a good place for me and a happy hunting ground, so it's good.
