Qualifying press conference - Malaysian GP.

Drivers: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), Mika Hakkinen (McLaren), David Coulthard (McLaren)

Q:
Michael, many congratulations. Your ninth pole of the season by over half a second, you needed only eight laps. Was it as easy as it looked?

MS:
No, not at all. I mean, the reason for doing only these nine laps was that we didn't have more time available towards the end. And, again, the circuit initially is that little bit more dirty and slower and it simply doesn't make sense [to go out]. You rather simply use three sets [of tyres] instead of going out and wasting one set. That at least was our feeling. So we stayed in and waited and that's the reason for only doing eight laps. One I had to abort because it was slower, or not was not fast enough to really keep going. The car was handling very well. We slowly improved the car over the whole weekend to have a very optimal balance. Not only for the qualifying, but also for the long runs. So we have again a good job with it.

Q:
Were you making a lot of adjustments during the session, or did you just stick with what you had to begin with?

MS:
You make final adjustments. Just the last detail. We were experimenting with a couple of things. But ended up on the way we thought would be the best and made just this little bit of fine adjustment.

Q:
With just a few seconds to go, it looked like you were going to have an all Ferrari front row. Then both these boys [indicates Hakkinen and Coulthard] pipped in. How disappointed are you to lose Rubens down to fourth?

MS:
I feel sorry for him. He has quite a tough 'flu' right now, so he is not very well. And he was struggling a little bit through the weekend. Seeing him second obviously boosted him up. Seeing him drop down suddenly to third and then fourth...naturally he was disappointed with this. But the race is long, we know we have a good car, and let's see what happens.

Q:
Mika, you seemed to be struggling for a lot of that session, but right at the end you got a very fast one. Was that the absolute limit for the car today?

MH:
It was indeed. I wouldn't say it was a very fast one, but it was good enough to give me to take the second position today.

Q:
What is the particular reason for your struggling? Is there some area of the car that you are not happy with?

MH:
This circuit has a characteristic where you need the car to have a very stable entry and a very stable exit, and have a good traction. So these elements, we weren't able to get to the maximum today. And that's why we weren't the quickest today.

Q:
David, I think we probably expected you to be the closest challenger to Michael, given the times during the weekend. Were you disappointed to end up in third? Did it all melt away in the heat of the moment?

DC:
It's incredibly close, so it could just take one exit from one corner, and suddenly that makes the difference. So, I am obviously disappointed to be so far away from Michael's time. I think that we haven't really got the car working 100 per cent around this track, so it's easy to understand or imagine where you could go quicker if you had better balance. The only thing I was a little bit confused with was my second and third run. I struggled a little bit to match what I had done in the first run. So we changed the car back on the last run to as we had it in the first run, and I was able to pull back a little bit on the time, but obviously not enough to maintain a front row position.

Q:
But are you happy with the balance for the race?

DC:
Don't know until you get in the race. It depends so much on the track temperature, conditions, tyre performance. There are so many different factors. We all know that qualifying is only one part of the weekend. It's an important part, but obviously it's the last lap of the race and the chequered flag that counts.

Q:
Talking about the race...it's been quite obvious during the season that the McLaren is the hotter car to be in during an actual session. What precautions or measures are you taking to survive tomorrow's very difficult grand prix?

DC:
I think it's difficult to know exactly who's got the hotter car unless you drive all the cars. We certainly get pretty warm in ours. But a grand prix is a grand prix. We've been doing this for a few years now, so there's nothing in particular that you do here. Just get on with it and deal with it.

Q:
Michael, your cap there says F1 World Champion 2000. How much more fun is it driving just for fun?

MS:
You know, we are racers because we love it - and, in this situation, it's ideal. There's no pressure. We all know the situation and we just race because we just love it. And you just drive freely to the limit as good as you can, without any thinking behind it, and that gives this extra pleasure we are sometimes looking for.