Post-qualifying press conference - Bahrain

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: It's as if you now have to patent your Robert Kubica weight-loss diet. You lost six kilos before the season started, how much of a factor is that in your performance this year?

RK: I don't know. It's difficult to say but we have seen that with lighter drivers, if I was lighter, I would go a bit quicker, so I decided with my engineer to make a maximum effort to reduce weight from the car and from myself and I worked hard and this is the kind of result we can get from it. It was maximum effort, very hard for myself, but still I managed it.

Q: Felipe, on the front row of the grid, you've been sensationally quick all weekend, very very fast in Q2, it looks as if you lost a little bit of time towards the end of sector two on your final qualifying run.

Felipe Massa: Yeah, I definitely lost... I did incredible laps during the whole weekend and the car was just perfect all the time, and just in Q3 was the only time that I was behind cars all the time.

The first attempt, when I still set a good lap time, I was behind Nico the whole lap which was a shame because I managed to pull out a good gap and even braking for him to pass me, and then I did the whole lap behind him and it was already enough to maybe be close to pole, and the second try I was also held up by traffic.

Fernando made a small mistake and let me by but it wasn't a perfect lap. It's a shame but in a way I think we have a great car, we've shown great performance and I think we can be very strong tomorrow.

Q: Lewis, a spectacular accident yesterday, we all saw that, but a great recovery today to be third but I guess the Ferrari speed this morning and in Q2 was very impressive from your point of view.

Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, definitely, they seem to have outstanding pace at the moment, but going into qualifying I was quite happy with the balance that I had and I knew that we would be able to challenge at least for the front row. We're third, very very happy with that. I think it was a reasonably decent lap.

For sure, as always, there's time to gain and I think inevitably if it was a perfect lap, we probably could have had pole but I'll go back and I'll study it and look forward to the race but I think we have a good strategy and I think tomorrow will be quite interesting.

Q: Talk us through the effects of an accident like that. You said you're fine and probably there are no effects from your point of view, but what is the impact in terms of actual qualifying performance and indeed the race?

LH: For me, it makes absolutely no difference. I get back in the car and I go faster. I think today I actually went quicker through that corner than I did yesterday, the first lap I did. I think that's important to really knock down that barrier and bounce back. I never have problems with that. I've had plenty of experiences in my career.

Press Conference

Q: Robert, congratulations, it was interesting to see you being congratulated by all the other drivers when you were weighing in downstairs. What does it mean to you to be on pole for the first time?

RK: Well, of course, after missing the opportunity in Australia I'm very happy not to have to wait too long for another one and we've got it here. I think a very important job was done yesterday in free practice developing the set-up. Q1 and Q2 were so-so but Q3 runs were already good.

Already the first run in Q3 was very good but I made a mistake in the last corner and the second run was much better but I had a small flat spot in corner nine, braking into corner ten and there was quite a lot of vibration from the tyre, the car was pulling to one side, and I was not expecting to be on pole after this mistake but of course 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.

Maiden F1 pole for Kubica, BMW in Bahrain

Robert Kubica took his and BMW Sauber's first Formula One pole position with a stunning lap in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Pole beat favourite Felipe Massa (Ferrari), who had dominated Friday practice, by 0.027 seconds.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen will share the second row.

Massa held provisional pole after the first flying laps of Q3, but only by 0.011 seconds over Kubica.

Hamilton then briefly beat both when he lapped in 1:33.292 on his second run, but the McLaren driver did not stay on top for long, as Kubica responded with a 1:33.096.

Although Massa's second lap was sufficient to reclaim the front row position from Hamilton, his time of 1:33.123 was not enough to beat the BMW driver to pole.

World champion Raikkonen could only manage fourth, three tenths of a second slower than teammate Massa. Heikki Kovalainen completed the top five in the second McLaren.

Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld was 0.7 seconds slower than the pole-sitter in sixth place for BMW.

Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Nico Rosberg (Williams) will share the fourth row, Trulli having been second fastest in the first qualifying segment.

Jenson Button got Honda into the top ten for the first time this season, edging up to 10th in the final moments of Q2 and then securing ninth place, just ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso. Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello will start 12th.

Red Bull Racing had a disappointing session. While Mark Webber missed out on a top ten spot by 0.009 seconds and will start 11th, while teammate David Coulthard blamed a straightforward lack of speed for his Q1 elimination after ending up 17th on the grid. He was 0.018 seconds away from making it through to Q2.

Timo Glock (Toyota), Nelson Piquet (Renault) and Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) could not match their respective teammates Trulli, Alonso and Rosberg, and were knocked out in Q2.

While Glock briefly made it up to ninth before other drivers' improvements pushed him back to 13th, Piquet and Nakajima's best efforts were only good enough for 14th and 16th.

Sebastien Bourdais out-qualified Toro Rosso teammate Sebastian Vettel for the first time and also made his first Q2 appearance. The Frenchman will start 15th, with Vettel only managing 19th.

Force India again failed to make it beyond Q1. Giancarlo Fisichella moved up to 18th with a last-gasp effort after abandoning his last flying lap following an error, while teammate Adrian Sutil was 20th.

The Super Aguris will fill the back row, with Anthony Davidson ahead of Takuma Sato for the first time this season.

The Japanese driver caused a brief red flag after spinning on the exit of the final corner, damaging his car's rear wing and suspension on the pit entry barrier.

Pos  Driver       Team                 Q1        Q2        Q3       Laps
1.  Kubica       BMW Sauber           1:32.893  1:31.745  1:33.096  12
2.  Massa        Ferrari              1:31.937  1:31.188  1:33.123  12
3.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes     1:32.750  1:31.922  1:33.292  13
4.  Raikkonen    Ferrari              1:32.652  1:31.933  1:33.418  12
5.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes     1:33.057  1:31.718  1:33.488  12
6.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber           1:33.137  1:31.909  1:33.737  15
7.  Trulli       Toyota               1:32.493  1:32.159  1:33.994  19
8.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota      1:32.903  1:32.185  1:34.015  22
9.  Button       Honda                1:32.793  1:32.362  1:35.057  17
10.  Alonso       Renault              1:32.947  1:32.345  1:35.115  17
11.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault     1:33.194  1:32.371            12
12.  Barrichello  Honda                1:32.944  1:32.508            12
13.  Glock        Toyota               1:32.800  1:32.528            15
14.  Piquet       Renault              1:32.975  1:32.790            15
15.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:33.415  1:32.915            15
16.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota      1:33.386  1:32.943            15
17.  Coulthard    Red Bull-Renault     1:33.433                       7
18.  Fisichella   Force India-Ferrari  1:33.501                       5
19.  Vettel       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:33.562                       9
20.  Sutil        Force India-Ferrari  1:33.845                       6
21.  Davidson     Super Aguri-Honda    1:34.140                       9
22.  Sato         Super Aguri-Honda    1:35.725                       5

Massa: Our championship starts now

Felipe Massa says his 2008 world championship begins on Sunday after he put the dramas of Melbourne behind him by taking pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian became the seventh Ferrari driver to take pole position at Sepang in the last ten years with a lap time nearly half a second faster than that of his teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

"I managed to make a fantastic lap in Q3, said Massa. "I did two great laps, both were without mistakes.

"In Q2 I didn't make a very good lap, I was struggling a little bit with the grip on the tyres and also I didn't do a very good last sector as well. I was just braking a little bit too early at Turn 14, it was just stupid mistakes, just stupid luck... then I managed to put everything together in Q3."

Massa said that an all-Ferrari front row was the perfect way to bounce back from the disasters of Australia, where both cars failed to finish and both drivers had mid-race spins.

"Definitely the championship is starting now because what happened in the last race was incredible, we didn't expect that," said Massa.

"We did a very good job during the winter and coming to the first race we didn't expect the problems we had, but hopefully we now can put that behind us."

Rain was a threat throughout qualifying and began to fall towards the end of the session, but Massa said he was more unconcerned by this.

"To be honest it didn't us effect so much, you just need to be starting the session, to go out straight away and then if its raining at least you can manage to put the lap on the paper," he said. "That was what everybody did. It was okay we had a couple of drops but it did not effect the performance on the track. It was no problem at all."

Lewis Hamilton storms to Chinese GP pole position

Lewis Hamilton put himself in the ideal position to clinch the world championship title by taking pole position at Shanghai.

His McLaren teammate and title rival Fernando Alonso could only manage fourth position, six tenths of a second off the pace.

Kimi Raikkonen - who had dominated the weekend until Q3 - will start second ahead of Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa.

The first two sessions of qualifying suggested that Raikkonen was on course for a commanding pole position.

After suffering a hydraulic leak at the end of final practice, the Finn began Q1 with an installation lap to check his Ferrari before setting the fastest time of the segment by exactly a tenth of a second.

In his wake, Massa, Hamilton and Alonso were all within 0.017 seconds of each other's times.

Raikkonen then proved dominant in Q2. While his three main rivals remaining tightly-bunched, lapping 0.102 seconds apart, the Finn was quickest by a comfortable 0.415 seconds.

But in Q3 it was Massa who emerged fastest by 0.4 seconds after the first flying laps, with Raikkonen second ahead of Hamilton.

The Briton then found another 0.7 seconds on his last run to leap up to pole position, and Raikkonen's response fell short by 0.136 seconds.

Massa failed to improve on his initial flying lap and had to settle for third, with Alonso a further three tenths of a second slower on the outside of the second row.

David Coulthard secured his best qualifying position of the year by taking fifth for Red Bull - two places and half a second clear of teammate Mark Webber.

Ralf Schumacher split the pair, the Toyota driver continuing his strong practice form by securing sixth on the grid. He will start seven places ahead of teammate Jarno Trulli, who did not get beyond Q2.

The BMWs had a less successful qualifying than usual and ended up eighth and ninth, with Jenson Button completing the top ten after a strong run for Honda.

After their dramatic race at Fuji, Toro Rosso produced their best dry qualifying performance yet in China. Vitantonio Liuzzi and Sebastian Vettel will share the sixth row, having comfortably got through Q1, where they had been eighth and ninth fastest.

Several big names were eliminated in the first session as the incredibly close times in the midfield - where just 0.284 seconds covered eighth to 18th places - punished any slightly imperfect laps.

Honda's Rubens Barrichello, Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella and Williams' Alex Wurz were pushed down to 17th, 18th and 19th positions in the final seconds of Q1.

While Barrichello and Wurz had both been knocked out in Q1 on six occasions already this season, this was Fisichella's worst qualifying performance in over three years, although he had only been 0.065 seconds slower than teammate Heikki Kovalainen in the segment.

Kovalainen did not get much further, running wide at the final corner on his last lap in Q2 and ending up 14th, ahead of Anthony Davidson and Nico Rosberg - whose run of five consecutive Q3 appearances ended as he struggled to 16th for Williams.

Takuma Sato could not match his Super Aguri teammate Davidson's performance and was 20th ahead of the two Spykers, who had not been able to replicate their Fuji pace at Shanghai and remained at the back of the field.

Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:35.908
02 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.044
03 F. Massa Ferrari 1:36.221
04 F. Alonso McLaren 1:36.576
05 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:37.619
06 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:38.013
07 M. Webber Red Bull 1:38.153
08 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:38.455
09 R. Kubica BMW 1:38.472
10 J. Button Honda 1:39.285
11 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.862
12 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.891
13 J. Trulli Toyota 1:36.959
14 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:36.991
15 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:37.247
16 N. Rosberg Williams 1:37.483
17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:37.251
18 G. Fisichella Renault 1:37.290
19 A. Wurz Williams 1:37.456
20 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:38.218
21 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:38.668
22 S. Yamamoto Spyker F1 1:39.336

Qualifying Report: A wet pole for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position in the wet at the Fuji Speedway on Saturday as McLaren locked-out the front row of the grid.
The McLaren rookie, who spent much of the session trailing in his team-mate's wake, found the pace in the dying seconds of the session, clocking a 1:25.368.
Alonso, who looked the most likely to take pole position up until his team-mate's last ditch effort, was just 0.070s off the pace.
And given recent tensions at McLaren, the 1-2 off the start-line offers the promise of an intense battle.
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were third and fourth ahead of Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg.
However, the star of qualifying has to be Sebastian Vettel, who brought his Toro Rosso home in ninth place.

Times

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:25.489
02 F. Alonso McLaren 1:25.438
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:25.516
04 F. Massa Ferrari 1:25.765
05 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:26.505
06 N. Rosberg Williams 1:26.728
07 J. Button Honda 1:26.913
08 M. Webber Red Bull 1:26.914
09 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:26.973
10 R. Kubica BMW 1:27.225
11 G. Fisichella Renault 1:26.033
12 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:26.247
13 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:26.247
14 J. Trulli Toyota 1:26.253
15 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:26.948
16 R. Schumacher Toyota no time
17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:27.323
18 A. Wurz Williams 1:27.454
19 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:27.564
20 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1:28.628
21 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:28.792
22 S. Yamamoto Spyker F1 1:29.668

Source - http://www.planetf1.com