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DRIVERS:
1. Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren Mercedes), 1m15.666s
2. Felipe MASSA (Ferrari), 1m15.859s
3. Heikki KOVALAINEN (McLaren Mercedes), 1m16.143s
TV UNILATERALS
Q: Lewis, it was very, very close here to the last second. Talk us
through that final lap.
Lewis HAMILTON: My final lap I was quite happy with to be honest. It
went very smoothly. I think the first Q3 lap I had was looking to be a
good lap but then they put the flags out in turn 12. I think Heikki ran
a bit wide on the exit of turn 12, so I had to be careful as I didn’t
want to get any penalties, so I made a big lift. The time wasn’t great
but I knew I had it in me. I knew that we had the pace. My lap was
really smooth. It was pretty easy going. I was quite comfortable we
could have gone a little bit quicker if we needed to. I felt quite cool.
Q: Everybody is talking about the swirling wind and the changing
track conditions. Tell us what they have been like.
LH: Yeah, it has been very windy here. You notice that down the back
straight. You are trying to hold the steering wheel straight as much as
possible but the wind hits you from the left and from the right. You can
feel it each time that it is moving the car. Then when you get to the
stadium, obviously when you come in, it is a bit blocked up by the
stadium. As you come in there you have reasonably decent downforce, then
at the last corner all of a sudden you get a big gust of wind. You have
to be ready for that every lap but it didn’t cause me any problems, so
I didn’t run wide or anything. As I said it was a great job done by
the team, especially with the car. We have made some great steps forward
over the last few weeks and I am just so grateful to them for all the
hard work they do over the weekend.
Q: How do you quantify the performance of your car against Ferrari
now?
LH: Well, it is very close as you can see. I was actually surprised
to see how close it is between all the guys, all the teams. I think I
saw Vettel up there quite far. Fernando is obviously very quick in the
Renault and Webber as well, so it is very, very tight. I think between
us, between Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Ferrari, I think there is a
tenth here or there maybe but I feel we obviously have the pace. We are
going to keep on pushing, keep on moving forward and hopefully we can
win tomorrow.
Q: Felipe, we don’t know how much fuel everybody has in their cars
at this point. How did you see qualifying from your point of view?
Felipe MASSA: Tough, for sure very tight. For sure the big question
was the first one you just made. We don’t know how much fuel everybody
has. But I think if you look even last week it was very tight in terms
of lap times. This morning as well. I think it is pretty competitive
between Ferrari and McLaren and the race tomorrow will be a very, very
big competition between all four cars maybe. But for sure that is very
exciting. But we need to do everything right, so hopefully we will do
everything right tomorrow in the race.
Q: It was a big recovery for you personally from a bad weekend at
Silverstone. Talk us through that and what it means to be on the front
row here at Hockenheim and quickest in the wet on Friday.
FM: Well I think that is not really a recovery. I know I am quick. I
know in all my career I was quick in the wet. Even in go karts, always
when it rained I won so to be honest I do not believe what people say
that I am not good in the wet. I was always good in the wet. I don’t
forget how to drive in the wet now I am in F1. I just had a very bad
weekend at Silverstone, not just the race the whole weekend was very bad
for me. What we saw today here was not the recovery. It was just what we
are able to do. That’s our target, to be competitive and we are so
it’s just normal.
Q: Heikki, talk us through the bit of a moment you had in your first
qualifying lap in Q3.
Heikki KOVALAINEN: Yeah, first of all I think it is a good effort
from everybody in the team. Like Lewis said, I think our car has been
performing really very well the last four or five weeks. I think we have
made some significant steps forward and we are going to carry on like
this. For myself, in qualifying the car felt the best it’s felt all
weekend so far. Going into Q3 I was very confident that I could be
challenging for pole position but then arriving in turn 12 in my first
lap in Q3 I just lost the rear end and went wide. I don’t know what
happened there, it just suddenly turned in. But I think I maybe just
tried to go too deep into the corner. I think I damaged the bottom of
the car a little bit on the right hand side. I just looked after I
jumped out of the car and saw there was a little damage but I didn’t
feel anything in the car. The second run there was a little bit of rally
cross also on the exit of the last turn. But third place I am very happy
with if you take into account all those rally cross moments today.
Q: McLaren Mercedes now appears to have closed any gap that may have
existed between you and Ferrari, particularly on slow corners.
HK: Yeah, perhaps. I think it is still very close. Like Felipe and
Lewis said, maybe one day they are a little bit ahead and maybe the next
day we are a bit ahead. It depends on how we all nail it at the very
moment. Today Lewis nailed it perfect and everybody else was struggling
with various moments. The important thing for us is to keep the focus
100 per cent, keep pushing forward and try to develop the car and the
package and everything more than the others. That will be the key to
becoming champions at the end of the year.
Q: Lewis, this is nearly your home grand prix in terms of the team
behind you. What’s it like for you driving here in the mornings, the
atmosphere and the feel of the German Grand Prix?
LH: It is quite cool coming here to Germany. I have had some great
races in Germany, not just here but the Nürburgring as well. The
atmosphere has always been great. The fans here, as you can tell, have
always been fantastic. This weekend I have been surprised to see how
many people are here on the Saturday. Coming into the track it is quite
relaxed but when you do get in, especially when you drive into the
stadium, it is like being in a football arena. It is incredible. I very
much appreciate all the support we have for the team and for me. It has
been a good day, as you can see I feel pretty chilled and very happy
with what we have done. But today is not when you win points, tomorrow
is when you win points, so me and Heikki are going to do the best job we
can tomorrow to get a one-two.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, you had problems with a little instability in the car which
you cured. How much did you change from yesterday to today?
LH: Pretty much nothing. We had a couple of small problems but it
was nothing in particular. I think when we changed the brakes, I
think it seemed to cure most of the problem. We had made a change for
this morning but we went back on it because it wasn’t good, so the car
is basically exactly the same as it was yesterday.
Q: Tell us about the importance of pole position here. Even though
it’s your first German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, tell us how important
it is to start from pole and overtaking here?
LH: Well, this is actually quite a good circuit. You can overtake
here. I think I’ve been able to follow reasonably closely through turn
one and not such a bad exit from turn two. You can actually slipstream
down the back straight, so it’s quite an exciting circuit for
overtaking, you can set yourself up. However, going into the last sector
it’s impossible as you can tell. But I think first of all, it’s
great for us to be on pole, for Mercedes Benz and for the rest of the
team. I think we’ve worked extremely hard to… we’ve just been
working for this bit by bit and, as you can see from the pace at the
last race, Heikki did a great job and this weekend we’ve both done a
great job to put the car up there. I think we can really challenge for
front row finishes tomorrow.
Q: How pleased have you been with your performance so far this
weekend?
LH: I’m pretty happy with it. I wouldn’t say that there’s
anything I particularly need to improve on. I think it’s pretty much
been under control all weekend. I hope my team is happy. I’m happy.
Q: Felipe, it was interesting that during Q1 Ferrari and BMW went out
again on harder tyres when you didn’t really need to go out. What did
you learn then?
FM: I think we’ve been doing that for quite a few races. We just
do one run on scrubbed tyres and then we put on the new tyres, that’s
our programme. We don’t need to but we don’t lose anything doing one
more run and learning something else on the car.
Q: Is there much difference between the two types of tyre here?
FM: Between soft and hard? It was very small. You can feel that the
soft can be slightly quicker, you have more grip but it’s not very
easy to put a lap together, so you have a little bit more moving and
sometimes you just miss a braking point a little bit or maybe the
acceleration just loses a little bit which can be enough to lose
positions, for example. On the harder tyres you have slightly less grip
but maybe it’s a little bit easier to drive.
Q: We saw you on both tyres in Q3; which was the better?
FM: In terms of first lap I think the soft was better.
Q: Heikki, obviously slowest after what you called your rally
crossing, how much did it require from you to concentrate on getting
third fastest?
HK: Of course you’ve got only one chance left after that, so it
puts you on the back foot a little bit but the car felt very good.
Already in Q1 and Q2 I felt quite confident that when I put the tyres on
and even when we put fuel in the car I could do a reasonable lap, quite
comfortably. And going into the last lap, I felt that the car was good
again and I felt very confident. But just a little mistake in the last
turn perhaps cost me a little bit of time but sometimes these things
happen. Overall I think the car has felt very strong, and the mistake on
the first run didn’t really affect that much.
Q: We’ve seen a lot of people go off at that last corner, what is
it about it?
HK: I think for myself at least, I had a little mistake there in Q2,
just trying to go too fast through the corner and the car doesn’t want
to stay on the track. It’s as simple as that really.
Q: Conditions for tomorrow; how are you feeling about that?
HK: I haven’t looked at the forecast very carefully yet but I
think that whatever the conditions are, I think we should be in a strong
position. Hopefully the strategy is the right one. I think we’ve been
looking strong all weekend and it’s obviously very close with other
teams, but we felt that we can be up there as well, and I think our
strategy should be strong. I will certainly try to do better than I did
today.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) To Lewis and Felipe: how surprised
are you to see Kimi so far behind?
LH: I don’t even know where he is. Where is he? Sixth?
FM: Well, I was so far behind in the last race as well. I think
sometimes you can have a bad day. Kimi couldn’t put his lap together,
he maybe wasn’t very happy with the car, so these things can happen
sometimes. You don’t find the right set-up and then that can cause a
little bit of time for the qualifying. But you know that he can be
strong tomorrow in the race. You never know what sort of race it will be
and he can be competitive anyway.
Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Lewis, now that
we start the second half of the season, and you’re all on equal
points, how important is it to take that kind of opportunity when Kimi
qualifies further back?
LH: Of course it’s extremely important. Taking points off the
other driver is key for all of us. I think we all aim to do so, but for
me, the more points I can take off everyone the better. I’m just going
to focus on my job. I’m not focusing or worrying about what other
people are doing. I think I’m comfortable and confident in my
abilities, so I’ve just got to keep on trying to be consistent and
hopefully with that more and more points will come.
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, have you felt that
since the Silverstone test the season has just started to turn your way
and that of the team?
LH: Not necessarily. I think I just collected all the little pieces
that were missing, and obviously from the test we have made a step
forward with the car, and so that’s definitely made us more
competitive, but I think for me I’ve just picked up a couple of little
pieces and I think I’ve improved. I think we’ve improved all round
so for sure, it puts us in a stronger position, but I don’t think
it’s turned in my favour. I think we’ve just done a better job.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Lewis, you did a
fantastic sector three and you had a very high speed on the straight as
well. This combination is difficult to achieve, can you explain it for
us?
LH: Yeah, it’s definitely a difficult combination to have. I think
you want a lot of downforce, especially for the last sector but then you
want good top speed on the back straight and I think the team has done a
great job. Obviously the car is in very good shape at the moment, and
again with Mercedes Benz, the engine is very strong. With all the
combination of less drag and all these different things, we’ve been
able to reach that, but for sure, that’s something we’ve been
pushing for a long time because we’ve been trying to catch up these
guys.
Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Heikki, yesterday
you said the balance of the car was a little more nervous than in the
test a week ago? How was it today?
HK: I think for myself that in qualifying the car felt the best that
it’s felt this weekend. To be honest, I’ve nothing to complain about
the balance. I think we’ve modified it very slightly overnight and
perhaps the conditions have come a little bit towards us, the track
conditions maybe improving, maybe helping a little bit as well.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Heikki, would it have been
possible to beat Lewis today?
HK: Yeah, I think it’s always possible but it’s difficult.
He’s a very good driver, he put a very good lap together but he’s
got the same car as I have. I think it would have been possible had I
done a better job.
Q: (Will Buxton – Australasian Motorsport News) Heikki, it’s your
first year with McLaren. Obviously every new team you go to it takes you
time to fit in, time to really learn what you’ve learned. How do you
find you are settling in at McLaren, and how much have you had to change
your mindset to work within the McLaren way?
HK: I think I’m very well settled in the team. I think the
learning period was relatively short. I think already over the winter I
felt I started to learn how they work and of course, to understand all
the little bits and to become competitive every weekend takes a little
time and there have been little ups and downs so far in the season, but
I think the last few races, perhaps starting from France, the pace has
been very strong and we’ve been able to adapt to my requirements: what
I want from the car, what I need and we start to find that last little
bit that it takes to be on pole position and to win races. I think the
relationship will just get stronger and stronger. I feel that the
communication is very strong both ways. The trust between the engineers,
between the designers, between everybody is almost a hundred percent
already and I feel very, very happy in this team and I intend to stay
here a long time.
Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) Lewis, how do you feel when you
see stories linking you to Ferrari? Your father is supposed to have had
a conversation – or did have a conversation – at the Mercedes
‘do’ with Domenicali.
LH: I don’t know what you’re talking about, firstly. I haven’t
read any stories about it. I already told you: I don’t read stories
that are written about me.
Q:
(Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) You don’t get annoyed when you see
stories like that, speculation about you moving to other teams? As I
understand it you have a long term contract with McLaren.
LH: Yeah, I’m comfortable where I am, so there’s no talking
being done anywhere else.
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