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Hungary GP: Post Qualifying press conference

NEWS STORY
02/08/2008

Lewis, pole position for the second time in a row. Another great weekend for you?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, so far it has been a pretty decent weekend. The team have done a great job in improving the car again, even from the last race and so the pace of our car is great and I think it is a great day to have me and Heikki one two. I think it is about time we did that for the team. I think we have both done a great job. It is very satisfying, you know. We were quickest throughout testing yesterday and then also today. Q2 looked a bit close but I think it was just tyre dependent. We made the right choice at the end, so I am very, very happy.

It looked like quite a difficult tyre choice from your point of view?
LH: In P3 we were quickest on the softer tyre, the super soft. We had planned to use the softer tyre for Q3 but I think the track temperature was up from 37 degrees to 41 or something, so it was having a big effect on the tyres, therefore it was the safer option to use the harder tyre. I think it is a stronger tyre to be able to use and it doesn't seem to grain as much as the softer tyre, so it worked out really well for me. I think there was a little bit of time lost in the second sector of my lap but I was still very, very happy with it.

Talk us through that time lost in the second sector.
LH: Felipe doesn't believe it but that's good for me. I have got a little bit of time to get still. The car was great. Sector one was really good, very strong, and I just got to turn four, the quick left, which was fine but when I got back to turn five I locked up the right front wheel and it pushed me on a little bit, so I lost a little bit of time on the way in. It might be half-a-tenth, it might be tenth, but fortunately I was able to save it and finish the rest of the lap and the rest of the lap was very, very good. I think Heikki was quicker than me in the last sector, so he is pushing me hard, but that's good.

Heikki, celebrating your new contract and a great performance to be on the front row.
Heikki Kovalainen: Yeah, absolutely. The car has been feeling strong the last few races and I think as Lewis said we have been improving since the last test and all the way through the weekend more and more the package, so it was just a matter of nailing it in qualifying. Like he mentioned it was difficult to choose the right tyre. Also myself I was planning to use the softer one with the heavier fuel load in the last part of qualifying but we changed our mind when everyone else went quick with the harder tyre and maybe with the conditions changing the harder tyre was the favourite. But apart from that it is a great effort from everybody and tomorrow should be an interesting race.

How do you see the track evolving? What are the weather conditions going to be like? What is the tyre choice going to be like?
HK: I think the weather prediction is very difficult to say. All we can say is that it is going to be hot. There shouldn't be any rain, maybe a little bit overnight, but tomorrow should be dry. I think we are going to see a circuit evolving towards the end of the race. It is going to get grippier and grippier and the off-line is going to get dirtier, so we just can't put the wheel off the line. That is going to be crucial tomorrow.

Felipe, Ferrari third and sixth. You were quickest in Q2 on the harder tyre but talk us through Q3 first of all.
Felipe Massa: Well, actually I was not 100 per cent happy with my laps in Q3. I went a little bit at the wrong time on the track and there were so many cars around. Most of the people were very, very slow on the out lap and that for sure, especially in my case as I like to go slightly quicker, but I cannot pass them, so that's really tricky for the preparations of the tyres and I couldn't prepare the tyres like I am supposed to and I couldn't do a great lap like I did in Q1 and Q2.

That problem aside, where do you see your team relative to McLaren right now?
FM: I think we are pretty strong. We didn't seem to be pretty strong until this morning, but then looking at the lap times from Q1 and Q2 I think we are there. For sure we are not where we were especially in the race in Hockenheim and Silverstone was a big lottery but I think we are there and I think I can push these guys tomorrow.

You have some very obvious aerodynamical modifications. Does the car feel better now than it was two weeks ago or in the testing building up to this race?
FM: Well, sometimes what you see is not really the reality. Sometimes you put a big piece in the car and it is very visible but maybe sometimes you put a small piece and it makes more downforce and it makes the car more efficient, so it doesn't mean because it is very visible that it is a big modification. It is a little bit better but it is not like if I put this on or off that I am going to improve by half-a-second. It doesn't work like that but for sure we are developing. We are pushing very hard and for sure we will push even harder from this race to the end of the season.

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