Question: Fernando, a tenth-and-a-half behind Sebastian only. But how are you feelings about the race tomorrow?
Fernando Alonso: Well we feel good, we feel confident. I think let’s go step by step. We concentrate in qualifying on Saturday and it is the best result of the year for the team, second and third, and as you said two-tenths or one-and-a-half tenths behind Red Bull which is a much better result than we expect. Or a much better result that in the first six races so extremely happy with today’s performance from the car and the whole weekend has been very smooth for us so looking forward for tomorrow. As Seb said, conditions are likely to change so maybe it is the less important qualifying of the year. Unfortunately we had the first row of the grid but it is always better to start at the front and tomorrow I think all the cards are on the table and I think we will have a chance to win the race for sure.
Question: Fernando, you said yesterday was one of the best Fridays. One of the best Saturdays today?
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, the best. No doubts. I think the car felt competitive from yesterday and today being on the first row of the grid, it is probably Singapore last year that we were on the first row. It is a good feeling. Back to the first positions, fighting with the pole position and for Felipe and me being here in the top three, both Ferraris, is a nice team result and a nice performance so far in this weekend. But the real job is coming tomorrow. It is the race where points are given so we need to maximise what we have tomorrow. We need to maximise this privileged starting position and score as many points as possible.
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Question: What do you think has made the difference? Is it because of the circuit or do you feel you have really made progress with the car as well?
Fernando Alonso: Both. I think the circuit is a huge help for us with no high speed corners so the aerodynamic is less important which is our weakest point at the moment no doubts, I think all the new parts we brought here seem to work okay. Sometimes you bring new parts to the race. You test it on Fridays and there are some parts that are going okay, some parts that are not so good at the moment, so you need to keep developing. This Friday, yesterday, everything seems to work okay. Everything we brought here is in the car now as it was fine so we make a step forward but, as I said, the biggest help is coming from the characteristics of the circuit I think.
Question: Fernando, we have seen this year, apart from Barcelona, that Ferrari has been stronger on race pace than in qualifying. Red Bull here looks a little bit closer. What are you expecting from tomorrow. You said that you are going to go for a win; is that the case?
Fernando Alonso: Let’s wait and see. The forecast so far is for rain tomorrow. We’ve never run all together, in race conditions, all the cars this year. We did a couple of laps in the Barcelona test but not all the teams were there, and we did a couple of laps in China, but some ran on Friday and some waited in the garage, so maybe tomorrow will be the first time that we see all the cars together with the new Pirelli wet tyres, so let’s wait and see what the pace is. We also can’t forget McLaren. I think that in spite of the qualifying position, with the set-up that they have, the speeds that they have, they are probably running with a lot of downforce, so in wet conditions I think they can become very competitive, so it will be a tough competition tomorrow but it will nice for you to watch, maybe more stress for us but that’s OK.
Question: Fernando, you said after two or three races that it’s difficult to predict tyre behaviour, tyre strategies. Do you feel it’s much better, you’re more comfortable with your engineers while choosing the correct strategy and do you maybe have some ideas for tomorrow?
Fernando Alonso: Yeah. After six races we have more experience with tyres. The soft tyre, in particular, we have used so far in the whole championship, all the races, the same soft tyre and the supersoft experience from Monaco as well. Yesterday, we got some information on the long runs, so we should have a much better idea now after a couple of races in the championship, how they behave and how the tyres behave. Anyway, every Sunday is a different strategy or a different possibility, depending on how the first corner goes, which position you are in. So normally you have to react to some other strategy. If someone running in eighth position stops (pits for tyres) and (then) goes very quickly, you need to react, you need to stop again because, if not, he overtakes you. Even if you have a perfect plan or an idea, the strategy this year is always very flexible.
Question: Alonso, one word for the Italian community in Canada who are waiting for this moment to feel Italian?
Fernando Alonso: Well, we feel very proud to drive for Ferrari. We feel very privileged to be in the red cars, so every place we go, every race we go to, we try to do our best, not only for us, not only for our team, also for the whole Italian community and all the tifosi around the world with the Ferrari flags and the red caps in the grandstands. So here is a very special place for Ferrari. I felt last year for the first time when I came here in red and I feel it again this year, despite our results in this campaign. The support for Ferrari is always huge here, so hopefully we can put on a good show for them tomorrow. Both cars on the podium would be a good present.
Question: Let’s suppose that the weather forecast is dry; do you expect a race like last year when you used even harder tyres than this year?
Fernando Alonso: With tyres not much different to last year, I think they were harder but they were degrading a lot here, especially the soft tyres, so we went to two stops and it was a surprise last year because we normally do one stop but I don’t think the tyres will be a problem tomorrow if it’s dry. What, for sure, is a more interesting or chaotic race is if there are safety cars and things like that. We have seen two or three red flags already this weekend. If this happens in the race or if there is a safety car period, then different strategies appear, if you chose to stop, if you chose to stay out. You need to make the right call and be a little bit lucky. Same in wet conditions. If it’s wet, right call, right tyres at the right moment. So the luck factor tomorrow is quite important.
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