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Brazil GP: Post Qualifying press conference

NEWS STORY
01/11/2008

Felipe, I don't know who was the more delighted. The Ferrari garage, you or this amazing crowd at Interlagos.
Felipe Massa: I think it is a good fight between all three but I would say the people around is amazing. It is so nice to be here and making the third pole position in a row in Brazil in front of these fantastic people which have 100 per cent emotion about motor racing and that's great for us. To come here and see that we have so many people who love what we are doing. I think it is difficult to describe in a single word our feeling especially my feeling being Brazilian in front of my people but also racing for a fantastic team which is very emotional as well and which is working very hard. I have a fantastic family and fantastic friends around me and I think that is really a dream come true.

You need to be on pole and you need to win this grand prix, so what a great start to the race weekend.
FM: Yeah, for sure we have 71 laps tomorrow which is pretty long but it is always better to start at the front. I think we have a good car and we proved Friday and this morning that our car is very competitive around here and we showed it also in qualifying, especially in Q3, so it is always a good start to be in front. For sure I will try to do my best tomorrow to win the race and that is the important thing.

McLaren looked to be quite quick on low fuel in Q1 and Q2 but you were very fast in Q3 on both your qualifying laps.
FM: I would say I was very comfortable and I was very quick all around the sessions. But in Q2 I made a small mistake at turn four and went off the kerb and maybe we lost a couple of tenths, so already it would have been a good lap but then I managed to put everything together in Q3 which is even better as it is where it counts, so we showed a great performance.

You did your first lap relatively early on and then there was lots of time for your second lap.
FM: The first try was good enough to be on pole but the problem was that I started pretty early. I was in front of Lewis and some other drivers as well, so if I backed off in the last try and somebody improved it would have been a bit stupid but anyway I think we have a good strategy.

Jarno, the first front row start for Toyota since Japan 2005. And what a weekend to do it as you were laid low with fever and here you are on the front row.
Jarno Trulli: I think this time I really have to admit that for the first time I thought I was not going to make it for Friday as on Thursday I was feeling really bad. But after this result I have to thank the whole team for the job from the mechanics, the engineers up to the doctor as they managed to get me everything I needed to be quick. But to be honest, even before coming here I knew that this was one of those tracks, technical and difficult, where I could be very strong and my car could be very competitive, so I have been preparing for this grand prix and have been waiting for it and now here I am. I played my card during the qualifying, saving tyres and getting ready for Q3 and in the end I put in a very good lap. We have been pretty competitive all the way through, Friday's session, this morning, so I am really, really happy for the Toyota team and for everybody, as it just shows the progress the team has made during this season.

There was a lot of about managing the tyres during the qualifying sessions. Talk us through that.
JT: To be honest the tyres were performing pretty well. The main issue is probably for tomorrow. This comes with the set-up of the car and everything else. We need to handle the cars in a very different way compared to the qualifying. For qualifying it was pretty obvious to use the soft but for the race it could be quite a different situation, so let's wait and see as some people might have problems. Our car in general could be good in these conditions but we needed temperature, we need sun, we need warmer temperatures than what we have had so far, so let's wait and see for tomorrow.

Kimi, an unusual situation for you playing a support role for Felipe. But you have done a great job starting right behind him on the grid and ahead of both McLarens.
Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah, I think I did more or less what I was supposed to do. I am in a good starting place. Actually I prefer to be third rather than second as here it has been pretty a good place to start. Hopefully we will get a good start and I think we have a car to pull away like we did last year and that would be perfect for the team and that is what we are aiming for and after that it is not up to us anymore. We can just finish where we want and see what happens after that.

The Ferrari looks to have been right on the pace since the start of the weekend.
KR: I think the car definitely is good. I have not had the easiest weekend but anyhow we are where we should be. I think for the race I am pretty comfortable that my car is going to be quite strong. It wasn't perfect in the last qualifying, a bit too much understeer, but that is not a bad sign looking at how the tyres are working here and it is going to be hard for the tyres in the race. But I think we should be in a strong position for the race and in the end that's where we need to be strong. As long as we are in the front in qualifying it is enough and we will see what we can do tomorrow but not a bad team effort from us.

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