© FIA

After the Qualifying of the Belgium Grand Prix in Spa, Kimi Räikkönen spoke in the FIA press conference about his third pole position of the season and his chances for the race on sunday.

Question: First all Ferrari front row, and another first for you, fastest in qualifying, quickest in Q2 for the first time this year.

Kimi: Yeah, it was good, but actually in the last qualifying, after the first run I found the car was not the same any more as it was. I think there is a little problem at the rear of the car but I still decided to try and improve my lap time and I managed to do it, but it doesn’t feel exactly right. But we can check it later. I’m happy to be on the pole, it’s good here, and it was a good result for the team.

Question: Well, a demanding circuit on which to have such a problem, particularly after the incidents at Monza last week. Tell us about the state of your neck at the moment and indeed, your love of this circuit.

Kimi: No, the neck is OK. For sure it’s not 100 percent right but it should be fine. The circuit is very nice. I think most people like it here, it’s a proper circuit for Formula One cars, long corners and it’s very flowing, excellent to drive. I always like it here and it seems to be very good for me.

Question: What a difference a week makes compared with the Ferrari performance at Monza, relative to McLaren-Mercedes. Here at Spa, the car looks great.

Kimi: Yeah, we knew that Monza was going to be a bit tricky for us and this is a bit more (similar) to Turkey, Istanbul, so we expect to be strong again here, but it’s going to be very close tomorrow and we just to need the best that we can. I think we are in a good position with both cars, so we will see what we can do.

Question: Kimi, obviously in a great position, but an interesting first corner at Spa, perhaps the most interesting of the year, that tight right hander.

Kimi: Yeah, it’s always going to be a good challenge, not so much when you’re in front, but in the middle and towards the back, something usually goes wrong there every year, so it will be interesting, but I think we should have a good start and we try to go from there. Hopefully everything goes right.

Question: Kimi, well done, the speeds have been pretty remarkable around here, the lap times.

Kimi: I don’t know. Compared to maybe some past years, but the circuit has been changed, so it’s been pretty difficult to compare.

Question: But the car has been perfect?

Kimi: Not all weekend, but I think today it’s been pretty good. We had some problems on the second attempt. The rear of the car doesn’t feel good, but hopefully we can find the issue and fix it.

Question: It’s a very fast circuit, and if you have a problem with the rear of the car, that surely must affect your confidence.

Kimi: Yeah, but I just decided to try and improve and see what happens. There was nothing that we could do. We tried to look at the data but it wasn’t so easy. Once we get the car back, we will try to find the problem and fix it. I just tried to do my best and it was good but the car wasn’t as good as in the first run.

Question: And you’re pretty confident for tomorrow?

Kimi: Yeah, I think so. We are usually strong in the race, so I am hopeful that we can have a strong race. Anything can happen but we will do the best that we can.

Question: Is it possible to be doing a one stop strategy here?

Kimi: I think it is. Maybe somebody will try, maybe not. I don’t know.

Question: A big difference between the hard and soft tyres?

Kimi: You seem to get a bit more grip from the soft tyre, but I think in race conditions the hard tyres are going to be the better choice. I think in qualifying the tyres were working well.

Question: Kimi, considering the whole season, was this your best qualifying with Ferrari so far?

Kimi: It is difficult to say, it is a different place, I have had some good ones before, so overall maybe yes but only the last one really counts so… it was good.

Question: Kimi, quite often in qualifying you have not been able to get everything out of the car. What made the difference this time, so you could get the maximum out of the car?

Kimi: I think that the balance was very good this morning already. This makes your life a bit easier when you go into qualifying the car should be pretty good. Sometimes we haven’t really been able to do that for one reason or another. It still wasn’t perfect but I was able to try the best I want and it has not been too bad.

Question: Kimi, you said you had some problems in your last try. But still in the first sector you were three-tenths faster than anybody else, so how did the problems affect your driving?

Kimi: The rear didn’t feel as good as it should, it felt too soft really and the first sector is mainly a really straight line. There is really only one corner, so for sure it doesn’t affect there as much as in the middle.

Question: We are having a situation where Ferrari have won the Constructors’ Championship actually and McLaren are out of the Constructors’ Championship. Is it going to affect your racing at all because you are now free of thinking of the Constructors’ Championship?

Kimi: No.