© FIA

Kimi Räikkönen was quite confident in the FIA press conference after the Qualifying to the Malaysian Grand Prix, that he has a competitive car for the race on Sunday.

Question: Kimi, it was a very quick lap in Q2, a 1min34.1secs, the fastest lap of qualifying. Talk us through your Q3 and how you feel in terms of the race tomorrow?

Kimi: I was not sure what happened with Q3. The car is good, but I just couldn’t get the grip. I didn’t get the best out of it, but anyhow I am in second place. It is a good place to start and we should have a strong race car. It is going to be a long hot race tomorrow and we don’t know about the weather. But I think we can look forward quite happily to it.

Question: Once the race began in Melbourne, even from where you started on the grid, you were very quick. How does the car compare here in terms of its feel and grip level with Melbourne?

Kimi: I think this is a more normal circuit, so the car has been quick all weekend. I think we are seeing two completely different circuits but our car should be fast anywhere but when you start from behind it is very difficult to show your speed. Tomorrow should be a bit clearer about who is where and what kind of speed everyone is doing.

Question: Felipe obviously has the clean side of the road off the line. Without traction control now how do you anticipate it is going to be on the dirty side of the grid?

Kimi: I don’t know. It is very difficult to say. Hopefully we will get a good start and it is up to us much more now than it was before. In the last race we had a very good start, so hopefully we can manage to do that also tomorrow.

Question: Also on the front row, Kimi Räikkönen, winner in 2003 here. At least it must be very encouraging to be on the front row after the Australian problems.

Kimi: Yeah, for sure, I think so for the whole team. We’ve been working hard and we’ve got one and two, so it couldn’t have gone better. For sure, I would rather have been in first place but I couldn’t get the tyres working as well as in the second qualifying. I think we still have a strong position for the race, so we will see what we can do.

Question: Who do you prefer to race, your team-mate or someone from another team?

Kimi: It doesn’t really matter. We know, between us, when we are going to stop, so in that way it’s an easier thing, but in the end you need to beat everybody to win the race, that’s our aim, and hopefully we can have a strong race as a team.

Question: Are we going to see a different type of race to Australia, was that a bit of a one-off, all that incident?

Kimi: I don’t know. We will see tomorrow. If it’s raining, it can be very tricky here, so anything can happen in a race. If it’s normal conditions, probably not as many mistakes and people going off. I’m expecting a few more people to finish the race.

Question: Kimi, was that a perfect lap you did in Q2?

Kimi: I think you can always improve if you try again, but it was a good lap, the car felt good. Unfortunately we couldn’t get as good a lap in the last qualifying but that’s life.

Question: A question to Kimi: were you happy with your start last week and do you hold any concerns for tomorrow on the dirty side of the track?

Kimi: No, we were happy. I gained many places on the first lap, so it was good but of course this is a different circuit, definitely, different conditions. I don’t know if it’s going to make a difference not being on the clean side but we will see tomorrow. Hopefully we can have a good start. It’s up to us really, so we will try the best.

Question: Kimi, given the fact that it might rain tomorrow, how much of a relief is it that you can start from the front row?

Kimi: I don’t think it makes much difference if it rains. If it’s dry you would rather be in the front (row) anyway, it’s much easier there, less chance to have accidents and less people to follow, so it should be a bit easier. We will see how the weather is tomorrow. It can be very tricky, it can change very quickly here.