Questions from the floor:
Q: (Heikki Kulta -
Turun Sanomat)
Heikki, congratulations on your pole. How great does it feel after all the bad luck you have had and how was the lap? Was it a perfect lap?
Heikki Kovalainen:
First of all, I don't feel that I've had such bad luck. We've had many opportunities, we haven't been able to take them to the various incidents. Everybody gets these in
Formula One in the long run and obviously it's not ideal to have so many of these happening in one season but nevertheless, everything is still possible. Now we just need to keep the focus one hundred percent as we've done all the time and the results will eventually come, and today is a good step in that direction. I don't think it was a perfect lap. It was very difficult conditions and it was so easy to make a mistake because of the wind and because of the grip level but compared to the first run in the last part of qualifying it was a lap without any big mistakes, it was quite tidy and I think that was the key today, to take pole position.
Q: (Juha Päätalo -
Financial Times Germany)
Heikki, you look quite calm now. Can you talk about your feelings when the team told you on the radio that you are P1 by a mile? Was it like 'OK, finally I got it' or was it more emotional?
HK:
It was more like… of course, I was very happy but the race is tomorrow and the target for this weekend is to win the race, so there's still a long way. We can be happy about today but tomorrow is going to be tough, it's going to be a hard race with the guys around us but I think we have a good opportunity. I think the pace has been strong all week, so the strategy should be competitive as well and I look forward to driving the race tomorrow.
Q: (Ian Parkes -
The Press Association)
Heikki, just saw you having a bit of a laugh with Kimi there. Were you politely asking him not to run into the back of you at the first corner as happened in Turkey when you were last on the front row?
HK:
No, no, not at all. We were talking about completely other things, to be honest!
Q: (Michael Schmidt -
Auto Moto und Sport)
Heikki,
McLaren looks much stronger than they did in Magny-Cours. Is it due to the nature of the circuit or to the latest changes on the aero side?
HK:
I think in France we were not able to show the true potential of the car due to the various incidents, and even there our pace relative to
Ferrari was better than it looked, although they were very strong there. I think also the improvements that the team has made over the last week, at the test and both for the car and the small improvement also for the engine, it has paid off and the car is definitely better than it was in France. I would like to think that this is the key and hopefully we can carry on in this direction to the end of the season.
Q: (Dan Knutson -
National Speed Sport News)
Mark, on a different subject, the Australian Grand Prix contract has been extended. Your thoughts on Australia and Melbourne keeping the race until 2015.
