Daily Update Formula1 News

Ferrari have become the first team to unveil their 2009 car, ahead of the first run of their F60 at Mugello in Italy on Monday.
The car has been named as a way of celebrating the fact that Ferrari are the only team to have competed in each of the 60 years of the Formula One world championship.
Due to the radical change in F1 regulations this year, the look of the new car is dominated by the wide front wing and narrow rear wing - with the central part of the F60 featuring a highly-sculpted 'coke bottle' rear-end from behind the sidepods.
The new car features Ferrari's Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), which has been developed in conjunction with electronics supplier Magneti Marelli. It is mounted on the engine - although the team has not yet confirmed whether the device will be used for the first race.

"As you can see the car is not an evolution of last year's car," said technical director Aldo Costa.
"It's a completely new car, starting from a white piece of paper. Fundamentally the biggest changes come from the new rules from an aerodynamic point of view and the introduction of new technology, which is the KERS system.
"Because of that we had to start work pretty early and to review the main concept of the car, so it was a very very intense and long job."
The F60 features a longitudinally-mounted carbon fibre-cased gearbox and has a new Brembo designed braking system.
Felipe Massa is scheduled to test the car for the first time later today at Mugello, with initial shakedowns having been switched from Fiorano because of freezing temperatures at Ferrari's test track.
ref [AS]
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Felipe Massa took a dominant victory in the first European Grand Prix at Valencia, beating championship leader Lewis Hamilton into second place.

But a question mark is hanging over Massa's win, with the stewards set to carry on a post-race investigation into a controversial pitlane incident that saw the Brazilian nearly collide with Force India's Adrian Sutil as they rejoined after their second stops.

It was one of two dramatic pitlane moments that marred Ferrari's afternoon, as Massa's teammate Kimi Raikkonen pulled away prematurely at his last stop and hit a member of the team's pit crew, who has been taken to the medical centre for further checks.

Behind Massa, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Robert Kubica (BMW) completed the podium ahead of Hamilton's teammate Heikki Kovalainen, with Raikkonen ultimately stopping with an apparent engine failure.

Ferrari's pit dramas aside, Valencia's maiden F1 race was an uneventful one. Massa got cleanly away in the lead from pole position, while his front row partner Hamilton had to work hard to fend off Kubica into the first corner.

The top trio then settle into that order for the rest of the afternoon. Massa was the lightest of the leaders, yet despite pitting two laps earlier than Hamilton, he was able to pull out enough of an advantage not to come under threat.

The Brazilian then took total command of the race in the middle stint, where he was up to 0.7 seconds per lap faster than Hamilton and established a 10-second lead.

But it was placed in jeopardy at the final stops, where Massa was released into the path of Sutil and had to back off abruptly to avoid tangling with the Force India in the narrow pit exit.

The stewards immediately announced that they would investigate the incident, and then declared that this would take place after the race - removing the threat of a drive-through penalty but raising the possibility of Massa's win being retrospectively taken away.

Hamilton had no answer to Massa's pace and had to follow the Ferrari home, while third-placed Kubica was 40 seconds behind by the end, having lost time (but not positions) in the first stint when debris became stuck in the BMW's front wing, affecting the handling.

Kovalainen passed Raikkonen for fourth at the start then pulled away in the first half of the race. The Ferrari driver responded near the end of the second stint and caught right back up to the McLaren, only to then pull away early in his pitstop, delaying Raikkonen and leaving a mechanic injured.

Raikkonen rejoined behind Jarno Trulli in sixth, but had no chance to try and overtake before an engine failure ended his afternoon.

Trulli (Toyota) held on for fifth, having passed Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel in the first stops and then edged away from the young German, who finished a highly creditable sixth.

Toyota got both their cars into the points, as Timo Glock used a good start and a one-stop strategy to rise from 13th on the grid to seventh, ahead of Williams' Nico Rosberg and BMW's Nick Heidfeld. Vettel's teammate Sebastien Bourdais lost places on the opening lap and had to settle for 10th.

There was huge disappointment for the home crowd on the opening lap, when Williams' Kazuki Nakajima ran into the back of local hero Fernando Alonso's Renault and did enough damage to end the former champion's race.

Also in the wars was David Coulthard (Red Bull) - who was pushed into a spin on the first lap and later rotated again after a tangle with Sutil, who would himself eventually crash out in a solo incident.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The European Grand Prix
Valencia, Spain;
57 laps; 310.080km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1h35:32.339
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 5.611
3. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 37.353
4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 39.703
5. Trulli Toyota (B) + 50.684
6. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 52.625
7. Glock Toyota (B) + 1:07.990
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:11.457
9. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 1:22.177
10. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1:29.794
11. Piquet Renault (B) + 1:32.717
12. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap
13. Button Honda (B) + 1 lap
14. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
15. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap
16. Barrichello Honda (B) + 1 lap
17. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:38.708

Not classified/retirements:

Driver Team On lap
Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 46
Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 42
Alonso Renault (B) 1


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Qualifying in Hungary saw Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen wrap up the first all-McLaren front row since Monza 2007, leaving Felipe Massa to take third for Ferrari and team mate Kimi Raikkonen a little breathless on the third row in sixth place.

Massa was the only man to trouble Hamilton throughout qualifying. The Englishman lapped in 1m 19.376s to dominate Q1, but was only third in Q2 where the Brazilian set the pace with 1m 19.068s.

Tyre choice proved crucial. Hamilton used the softer Bridgestone in Q2 and planned to run it in Q3, but Massa’s speed on the harder tyre in that second session prompted McLaren to switch to the prime tyre instead. On that, Hamilton proved dominant again with a lap of 1m 20.899s, which gave McLaren their eighth pole in Hungary, and him his 10th overall.

Kovalainen backed him strongly with 1m 21.140s, the difference in times most likely explained by fuel load. Massa was only fifth with seconds to go, but banged in a lap of 1m 21.191s at the end and is confident that Ferrari have the package to challenge McLaren on Sunday.

So who was between the two red cars? Robert Kubica gave all the visiting Poles something to cheer with fourth place for BMW Sauber in 1m 21.281s, while Timo Glock enjoyed his best-ever qualifying to take fifth for Toyota with 1m 21.326s. Raikkonen was thus left on the inside of row three on 1m 21.516s.

Both Renaults made it through to Q3, with Fernando Alonso seventh on 1m 21.698s and Nelson Piquet 10th on 1m 22.371s. Between them were Mark Webber in eighth for Red Bull on 1m 21.732s, and Jarno Trulli in the other Toyota on 1m 21.767s.

Sebastian Vettel recovered superbly from his lack of track time on Friday to claim 11th for Toro Rosso with 1m 20.144s. Jenson Button was 12th after a strong effort for Honda yielded 1m 20.332s, then came Red Bull’s David Coulthard (1m 20.502s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 20.963s) and Nico Rosberg, who had problems and did not actually run after making it through from Q1.

Button’s late burst speed in Q1 pushed BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld into oblivion, and the German was clearly inferring with a waved hand that he felt he had been impeded through the final corner by a car ahead of him. He had to be content with 1m 21.045s for only 16th place, leaving him a mountain to climb in Sunday’s race.

Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima could not improve on 1m 21.085s for 17th ahead of Honda’s Rubens Barrichello on 1m 21.332s, Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella on 1m 21.670s and team mate Adrian Sutil, the only man not to dip below 1m 22s, on 1m 22.113s.
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.376 1:19.473 1:20.899 12
2. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.945 1:19.480 1:21.140 16
3. Massa Ferrari 1:19.578 1:19.068 1:21.191 16
4. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:20.053 1:19.776 1:21.281 19
5. Glock Toyota 1:19.980 1:19.246 1:21.326 24
6. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:20.006 1:19.546 1:21.516 19
7. Alonso Renault 1:20.229 1:19.816 1:21.698 15
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:20.073 1:20.046 1:21.732 18
9. Trulli Toyota 1:19.942 1:19.486 1:21.767 20
10. Piquet Renault 1:20.583 1:20.131 1:22.371 19
11. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:20.157 1:20.144 17
12. Button Honda 1:20.888 1:20.332 15
13. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:20.505 1:20.502 16
14. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:20.640 1:20.963 16
15. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:20.748 10
16. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:21.045 7
17. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:21.085 9
18. Barrichello Honda 1:21.332 8
19. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:21.670 9
20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:22.113 10

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Kimi Raikkonen claimed Ferrari's 200th Formula One pole in French Grand Prix qualifying, leading teammate Felipe Massa in a front row sweep.

Lewis Hamilton was third fastest for McLaren, but will drop to 13th on the grid due to his penalty for hitting Raikkonen in the Montreal pits.

That will elevate Fernando Alonso (Renault) to third place, with Jarno Trulli joining him on row two after an impressive effort for Toyota.

Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen and championship leader Robert Kubica (BMW) will complete the leading three rows.

Although Massa had dominated Q1 and Q2, it was Raikkonen who took charge in Q3, claiming provisional pole on his first run.

When Massa then failed to improve sufficiently to demote his teammate, Raikkonen chose to abandon his second lap, rightly believing he was assured of pole.

Hamilton's eventual third place was a comparatively successful result after an error at the Nurburgring chicane on his first Q3 run had left him eighth - and facing a potential ninth row start. He managed to vault to third with his second flying lap and minimised the damage.

Behind Alonso, Trulli and Kovalainen, Kubica took sixth place despite struggling in the earlier parts of qualifying.

He went out for two runs in Q1 to be sure of making the cut, and then came close to being eliminated in Q2, only just hanging on to 10th at the end of the session.

The Red Bulls will start seventh and eighth, with Mark Webber ahead despite being slowed on his first Q3 lap when Trulli had a spin in his path at the 180 corner.

Timo Glock was the final Q3 qualifier in the second Toyota, and will start ninth.

Nick Heidfeld's qualifying difficulties continued, despite the BMW driver's pre-event optimism. The German was just 0.063 seconds slower than teammate Kubica in Q2, but that was the crucial difference between 10th and 12th places.

Despite topping final practice, Renault's Nelson Piquet was edged out of the Q3 positions when Coulthard made a last-gasp improvement at the end of Q2. That left Piquet back in 11th, as the Brazilian missed the Q3 cut by a scant 0.047 seconds.

Toro Rosso looked set to produce an upset after Sebastian Vettel's rapid practice times, but in qualifying the German was only able to take 13th, one place and 0.2 seconds better than teammate Sebastien Bourdais, who will start his first ever home GP from his best grid position yet.

Nico Rosberg could only manage 15th place for Williams, and will fall to the back when the penalty for his involvement in the Montreal pitlane crash is applied. His teammate Kazuki Nakajima was knocked out in Q1, where he was just 16th quickest.

The Hondas and Force Indias were slowest of all. Honda's Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello have lacked speed all weekend and will start 16th and 17th once Rosberg's penalty is applied, while the Force India duo trailed the field by some margin, with 19th fastest Giancarlo Fisichella over 0.6 seconds slower even than the struggling Hondas.

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:15.133 1:15.161 1:16.449 16
2. Massa Ferrari 1:15.024 1:15.041 1:16.490 17
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.634 1:15.293 1:16.693 15
4. Alonso Renault 1:15.754 1:15.483 1:16.840 18
5. Trulli Toyota 1:15.521 1:15.362 1:16.920 19
6. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.965 1:15.639 1:16.944 18
7. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:15.687 1:15.723 1:17.037 19
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:16.020 1:15.488 1:17.233 18
9. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:15.802 1:15.654 1:17.426 19
10. Glock Toyota 1:15.727 1:15.558 1:17.596 24
11. Piquet Renault 1:15.848 1:15.770 12
12. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:16.006 1:15.786 14
13. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:15.918 1:15.816 17
14. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.072 1:16.045 17
15. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:16.085 1:16.235 12
16. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:16.243 9
17. Button Honda 1:16.306 9
18. Barrichello Honda 1:16.330 6
19. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:16.971 10
20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:17.053 9


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No wonder that Ferrari’s Felipe Massa loves Istanbul Park. On Sunday afternoon he owned the place, and nobody seriously looked like challenging him as he sped to his hat-trick of victories here to move into joint second in the driver standings.
Sure, Lewis Hamilton pulled what seemed a brilliant passing move on him for the lead on the 24th lap, but it transpired that the Englishman was on a three-stop strategy for McLaren, and soon the way was clear again for Massa as Hamilton stopped to refuel and retain hard tyres on the 32nd lap.
Hamilton had sufficient in hand over Kimi Raikkonen, however, to keep the Finn in third place and to reduce his championship points lead to seven as they sped to the line 3.7s adrift of Massa, and separated by only four-tenths of second. The MP4-23 had been sweet on the harder Bridgestones, but still clearly didn’t like the softer rubber that Hamilton had to don for his final 13-lap stint. After the race the team revealed that tyre durability concerns had in fact prompted the three-stop route.
Into fourth and fifth places came the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, which lacked the sheer pace to play anything other than leading supporting roles this time out.
Fernando Alonso further boosted Renault with a solid sixth place, surviving a minor brush with Raikkonen in the first corner, and seventh fell to Mark Webber after another solid performance by the Australian for Red Bull. Nico Rosberg took the final point with eighth for Williams, and was followed home by David Coulthard in the second Red Bull and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli as the last unlapped runners.
Honda’s Jenson Button was a lapped 11th ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. The Finnish McLaren driver, who started second, was desperately unlucky to have to make an unscheduled stop for fresh rubber after two laps, having picked up a slow rear puncture following minor contact from Raikkonen's front wing - which sustained some minimal damage - at the start.
After that Kovalainen fought back from the rear of the field and had some great dices with Toyota’s Timo Glock, in particular, and Rosberg, before dropping back in his final pit stop. He finished ahead of Glock, who again showed his fighting spirit, Rubens Barrichello, whose 257th GP outing did not produce anything to shout about for Honda, Renault’s Nelson Piquet, Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel.
The latter duo both stopped at the end of the opening lap to have repairs made after Giancarlo Fisichella’s unhappy weekend came to an end as he overtook Kazuki Nakajima - by flying over the top of the Williams. Neither the Italian, who landed his Force India in the gravel, nor the Japanese, who got to the pits minus his rear wing, were able to continue. The other retiree was Sebastien Bourdais, whose Toro Rosso dumped him in the gravel as the result of a technical failure.
The result leaves Raikkonen with a diminished lead in the world championship chase with 35 points, ahead of Massa and Hamilton on 28 and Kubica on 24. Ferrari extend their advantage atop the constructor standings, heading BMW Sauber by 19 points, with McLaren a further two adrift.
Result:
1 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:26:49.451
2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 3.779
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 4.271
4 Robert Kubica BMW 21.945
5 Nick Heidfeld BMW 38.741
6 Fernando Alonso Renault 53.724
7 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:04.229
8 Nico Rosberg Williams 1:11.406
9 David Coulthard Red Bull 1:15.270
10 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:16.344
11 Jenson Button Honda 1 lap
12 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 1 lap
13 Timo Glock Toyota 1 lap
14 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1 lap
15 Nelsinho Piquet Jr Renault 1 lap
16 Adrian Sutil Force India 1 lap
17 Sebastien Vettel Toro Rosso 1 lap
18 Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso (DNF)
19 Kazuki Nakajima Williams (DNF)
20 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India (DNF)
ref[formula1.com]

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Felipe Massa will start from pole position in Turkey for the third successive year after a dominant performance in qualifying at Istanbul Park.
The Ferrari driver, who is also chasing a third straight win at the track, was nearly half a second clear of the rest of the field after his first flying lap in Q3, and although the McLarens closed in, Massa improved on his second lap to claim pole with a 1:27.617.
Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton took second and third for McLaren, but championship leader Kimi Raikkonen could only manage fourth in the second Ferrari.
The McLarens had been over a second off Massa's pace in the first part of Q3, then made major gains on their second runs. Hamilton used the hard tyres to take third, while Kovalainen briefly knocked Massa off the provisional pole before having to settle for the outside front row position.

Robert Kubica completed the top five for BMW, four places ahead of teammate Nick Heidfeld.
Red Bull Racing got both their cars into the top ten for the first time in 2008. Mark Webber and David Coulthard then chose to save fuel and only do one run in Q3, taking sixth and 10th respectively.
Jarno Trulli maintained his record of reaching Q3 for every race so far this year and qualified eighth, while his Toyota teammate Timo Glock languished in 15th position.
Alonso was unable to repeat his astonishing Barcelona qualifying form, but did make it into the top ten again. He will start seventh.
Rubens Barrichello couldn't manage to claim a top ten start for his record-breaking 257th Grand Prix, but he did out-pace teammate Jenson Button, as the Hondas took 12th and 13th places, just behind Nico Rosberg (Williams).
The German squeezed into the top ten in the last seconds of Q2, then got pushed back to row six when Heidfeld recovered from a poor first lap to guarantee a Q3 position with his final run.
The demise of Super Aguri made it tougher for the midfield teams to secure a place in Q2, with only 15 rather than the previous 16 drivers now proceeding to the second qualifying segment under the tweaked format.
Williams' Kazuki Nakajima and Renault's Nelson Piquet were the drivers to lose out, with Nakajima spinning on the exit of Turn 7 on his first Q1 run and then only reaching 16th at the second attempt. He will start one place ahead of Piquet, who briefly got up to 15th then was edged back to 17th as others improved in the final seconds.
Sebastian Vettel impressively reached Q2 in the 2007 Toro Rosso chassis' last qualifying session, but his teammate Sebastien Bourdais was only 18th-fastest in Q1, albeit just 0.179 seconds slower than Vettel, who ultimately qualified 14th.
The Force India cars were slowest of all. Although Giancarlo Fisichella out-qualified teammate Adrian Sutil by half a second, he will start behind the German thanks to his penalty for passing the pit exit red light at the start of Friday practice.
Pos Driver Make Q1 Q2 Q3 laps
1. Massa Ferrari 1:25.994 1:26.192 1:27.617 16
2. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.736 1:26.290 1:27.808 16
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.192 1:26.477 1:27.923 15
4. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:26.457 1:26.050 1:27.936 17
5. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:26.761 1:26.129 1:28.390 17
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:26.773 1:26.466 1:28.417 17
7. Alonso Renault 1:26.836 1:26.522 1:28.422 18
8. Trulli Toyota 1:26.695 1:26.822 1:28.836 20
9. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:27.107 1:26.607 1:28.882 20
10. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:26.939 1:26.520 1:29.959 16
11. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:27.367 1:27.012 13
12. Barrichello Honda 1:27.355 1:27.219 13
13. Button Honda 1:27.428 1:27.298 14
14. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:27.442 1:27.412 15
15. Glock Toyota 1:26.614 1:27.806 15
16. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:27.547 9
17. Piquet Renault 1:27.568 7
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:27.621 8
19. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:27.807 10
20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:28.325 9
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Following his dominant win at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa has spoken about his sense of relief after scoring his first points of 2008 at the Sakhir circuit. Massa, who won from second on the grid on Sunday, had retired from the first two rounds in Australia and Malaysia.

“It was a nice feeling to win, especially after my bad start to the season,” he told Ferrari’s official website. “The win came at just the right time and getting my name on the scoreboard at last. For the team also it was a perfect weekend as Kimi (Raikkonen) came second to give us maximum points.”

Massa also won the Sakhir race in 2007, but unlike last year, on Sunday the 26 year-old did not claim victory from pole. During Saturday’s qualifying, he was soundly beaten by BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, who clinched the top grid slot with an impressive lap. But Massa, it seems, was not worried about Kubica’s pace.

“It was clear that he was running fairly light in terms of fuel, or at least lighter than us,” explained the Ferrari driver. “I knew I would have around five laps more fuel than him. But thanks to a good start, even this wasn't necessary. So I was never really racing Kubica, as I knew we had a better car and a better strategy.”

Despite his confidence in the F2008, Massa is under no illusions about the strength of his rivals. While McLaren didn’t enjoy the best of races, with Heikki Kovalainen finishing in fifth and Lewis Hamilton in 13th, the Brazilian remains on his guard, especially as BMW Sauber now lead the constructors' standings.

“It seems that at the moment McLaren and BMW are at the same level and we will have to watch both of them closely,” he added. “Let's wait and see what happens in the next race. However, our own focus has to be on ourselves and on our car; improving it all the time and that will bring its own rewards.”

Massa is currently enjoying a brief break in Dubai, but will be back in action in Spain next week for the multi-team test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya from Monday.
ref [formual1.com]
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The Brazillian Massa repeat his succes last year in Bahrain, 1 - 2 post place by Scuderia. In 3th place BMW Kubica which show good perform in this season.
1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1h31:06.970
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 3.339
3. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 4.998
4. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 8.409
5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 26.789
6. Trulli Toyota (B) + 41.314
7. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 45.473
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 55.889
9. Glock Toyota (B) + 1:09.500
10. Alonso Renault (B) + 1:17.181
11. Barrichello Honda (B) + 1:17.862
12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
13. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap
14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap
15. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
16. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) + 1 lap
17. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) + 1 lap
18. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) + 2 laps

Out:
Nelson Piquet (Renault)
Jenson Button (Honda)
Sebastian Vettel (Scuderia Torro Rosso)

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Drivers: 1st Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), 1m33.096s; 2nd Felipe Massa (Ferrari), 1m33.123s; 3rd Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1m33.292s.
Q: Congratulations, a fantastic day for you and quick too in Q2, third fastest without fuel on board, so a great day for you.
Robert Kubica: Yeah, I think after yesterday’s good work in free practice two we have developed quite a lot. Qualifying went pretty well: Q1 and Q2 but Q3 I managed to do quite a good lap and got on pole position for the first time.

Q: I’m sure it was more than quite a good lap. Let’s talk about that lap and also your emotions as you heard it was your first pole.
RK: Well, I started the lap pretty well, then in corner nine I locked the front wheels and unfortunately I flat-spotted the tyres, so it was not easy. I had a very big vibration and in the last three corners which are right-handers, it was very difficult but I managed not to make a mistake. The car was pulling to one side under braking but still it was enough for pole and I’m very happy.

Q: How much have you expected this kind of performance this year?
RK: We were all expecting to be strong. Looking at the numbers in the wind tunnel during the winter and simulations of the new car, I was expecting it to be a very strong car but at the beginning of the winter testing we faced some problems but the guys worked very hard and I think this is an example of never giving up, even if there are problems, pushing as hard as possible and we managed to be ready in Australia with what was nearly the full potential of the car but of course there is still work to do. We will try to do our best and improve the car even more.

Q: Last year’s pole man, Felipe Massa, sitting alongside. You’ve been so quick all weekend, you were fastest this morning by over 0.7s, were you a bit disappointed to be second on the grid?
FM: Well, in a way I’m happy with second, looking at how we look in the race, but for sure, I think even in Q3, looking at what we did in Q2, it was really possible to be in front. I was a little bit unlucky with traffic in Q3, I was always behind cars and I couldn’t do very clean laps but it’s good to be second, good to start in the front and I think we can be very strong tomorrow as we have shown all weekend.

Q: What was the tyre choice like? It was interesting in qualifying that most drivers seemed to go out on mediums and then on softs at the end?
FM: Well, for sure soft in qualifying is always the best and for the race we need to analyse tonight the best situation, how the track is going to be, how the grid is going to be, even taking the data from today but I don’t think we have a lot of problems with the tyres here. Both seem pretty reasonable.

Q: Lewis, disappointed to be third after second last year?
LH: No, I wouldn’t say it’s disappointing but for sure we would prefer to be on pole, but I still think we… The team have done a great job to recover from the accident I had yesterday, the team stayed up all night, so a big thank you to them for preparing the car. It was great today. As Robert was saying, we all knew we were going to be very close this weekend. Felipe was extremely quick, but we knew that we would be competing for a top three place for sure and I think these guys both did a great job. I was quite happy with my lap but there are always improvements that you can make but we’re in a good position for the start tomorrow, so I am quite happy.

Q: Both of the Finns including your team-mate behind you, of course.
LH: Yes. What can I say really? It’s good for me and I just need to make sure we get off to a good start tomorrow and we can try and pace ourselves from there.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Panos Seitanidis – Drive Magazine) Question for Robert. First of all, do you think there’s going to be a big party back home in Poland, and secondly, do you think that BMW has the race pace to have the same position tomorrow?
RK: I think that after the second place in Malaysia there were high expectations in Poland and I’m confident about the race as well. Yesterday we did some long runs and they went pretty OK and I think Ferrari was clearly the fastest but in the race anything can happen and we will now try to analyse the data and prepare for tomorrow’s race as much as possible.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Felipe, you had been the fastest all the time in the first sector but it seemed that you lost time in Q3 in the second sector in both outings. Any problem there?
FM: No, no problem. I think on the first attempt I was pretty slow in the second and third sector because I was behind Rosberg during the whole lap, and on the last attempt I passed Fernando just before turn nine, but I don’t think he held me up. I don’t think there was any problem.

Q: (Ottavio Daviddi – Tuttosport) Robert, you undertook a slimming programme before the start of the season. Why did you decide to go on a diet and what kind of diet did you do?
LH: Stop having KFC and everything.
RK: We decided for some technical reasons to reduce the weight as much as possible and I tried to do my best in February and March and it was not easy because in the end, now I think I am weighing much less than normal, even for the average of 1.85m driver but still, it produces quite a good gain in the performance and I think this was in some way also the key to be so strong at the beginning of the season.

Q: (Jerome Bourret – L’Equipe) Question for all of you: is it a big advantage to start on the clean side of the track here?
RK: This year it’s more difficult to get a perfect start because without all the electronic systems there is more benefit to do everything perfectly than from side to side. Even if you are on the clean side, if something goes wrong, you lose much more than someone who is on the dirty side and makes a good start.
FM: Well, it depends what sort of start you can make. For sure, if I need to chose, I always prefer the clean side but if you look at last year, I think you can see a good start as well. He (Lewis) almost passed me in turn one but I think you can also be strong on the dirty side, so let’s wait and see tomorrow.
LH: For me I think last year starting second I got a slightly worse start than Felipe but I think it’s going to be quite equal but I’m happy with being on the clean side, that’s for sure.
ref [formula1.com]
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