Question: Fernando, a thrilling qualifying battle with the lead changing between you and Sebastian sector by sector on that final run but you did it.
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, obviously it was not an easy qualifying. We had very little running in dry conditions as it seemed to remain damp on some parts of the circuit during the weekend, so we arrived to qualifying not completely 100 per cent confident in the car in some of the corners. We build up the confidence in Q1 and Q2 and then in Q3 we tried to push at the limits. Both of my tyres worked really well and both attempts were similar in terms of lap time. Obviously in the car we don’t know what others are doing but I was quite happy with my lap. I did not know if it was enough to be on pole, second or fourth but I think we got 100 per cent out of the car today, so that was the main target for us.
Question: There was an engine concern for your team-mate Felipe Massa. You had to re-map your engine. What was the problem?
Fernando Alonso: Well, we tried to understand Felipe’s problem. Looking at the telemetry until the car is back probably we will not know, so we made some safe changes in the car just to avoid any risk. We were running with some experimental things here and after Felipe’s problem we went back to the standard ones. We had a problem the first time we changed it, so in Q2 we were running with the wrong maps in the car and we were lucky to get into Q3 and then in Q3 with the right maps the car was feeling better.
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Question: Fernando, the momentum is with you and Ferrari. Can you keep it going tomorrow in the race?
FA:Fernando Alonso:anytime during the day probably there will be some parts of the track that remain wet for the whole race, so it is a race to survive in a way as well. As I said, starting on pole is the best thing we can do. We are not too worried about wet or dry. We should be okay in both.
Question: Fernando, your second pole position this year. But tell us about the importance of pole position here.
Fernando Alonso: Well, we know that there are some circuits where pole position is important. This is one. If it is wet tomorrow it doesn’t count too much as it will be very difficult to see on the track. If it rains at anytime in the day it will be wet, so maybe pole means really less in those conditions as you can lose four or five seconds in one lap in those types of corners where they are damp. But it is the best position to start the race. The points are on Sunday afternoon, so in preparation for this Sunday afternoon you need to make a good Saturday and today we did.
Question: What about that first run? A lot of the time seemed to come in the final sector.
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, obviously different characteristics in the car. It seemed to struggle a little bit more in the second sector and being a little bit more comfortable in the third one. Also the behaviour of the tyres and how you prepare the tyres change the picture in terms of level of grip in the three sectors, so we knew that the third sector was giving us some performance there. That is something where we have normally been quick, in the third one, all weekend.
Question: How does that translate into the race itself? What differences does it make for the race?
Fernando Alonso: Nothing different. Obviously the main target is to be on the podium. At the moment Lewis and Mark are in front in the championship, so the target is to finish the race in front of them if we can. If we cannot finish in front we try to finish as close as we can to not lose more points. At the moment the job for tomorrow is to do that. Then when someone else is leading the championship we concentrate on those. But at the moment Lewis and Mark are the two in front.
Question: So a pretty satisfactory day all round?
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, we arrived here knowing that maybe Red Bull was very strong here. We saw yesterday a strong performance from them. This morning as well. Today our pole position is good for us. It is good news. One Red Bull is second, one is fourth here, so this is maybe a surprise for us.
Question: Usually qualifying means 90 per cent of the race result on street circuits. Do you think that’s also the case tomorrow?
Fernando Alonso: Well, hopefully yes. I think it depends on the conditions. I think if it’s dry there is no doubt that it’s difficult to overtake here and like all street circuits, if it’s wet or if it’s half dry, half damp, anything can happen, because you can lose or gain a lot of seconds in two or three corners, so that will change positions very quickly in the first or in the middle of the race or whenever, so I think it will depend on the conditions, it will mean more or less the positions of the grid.
Question: Fernando, how big were the concerns about the engine after Felipe stopped obviously with an engine problem and apparently an electronic problem? Has it anything to do with the underground (railway) which I think might have been the reason for upsetting the electronics in the past?
Fernando Alonso: We don’t know, I don’t know at the moment. When I was in the car they informed me that Felipe had some kind of problems in the car, I think electronic problems but I really don’t know what happened or what is the reason why it happened. In our car, it was running OK. I don’t know, probably the team knows something more now that the car is back.
Question: Fernando, apart from the weather, what are you more worried about for tomorrow? The performance of your opponents or to manage to do everything with the starting system?
Fernando Alonso: There are no big worries for tomorrow. The start is OK, the pace is OK, the car is OK and the weather is OK, both conditions.
Question: Fernando, five years ago you became World Champion on a day like today. Is this a good present or do you want more?
Fernando Alonso: Well, I didn’t know it was today, the exact day. Obviously there’s no need for presents or anything like that but pole position is a good way to start tomorrow’s race and keep fighting for this 2010 Championship that has been up and down, sometimes in the fight, sometimes not, and if we want to be in the fight until Abu Dhabi we need to be consistent and finish the race tomorrow with strong points.
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