© FIA

Kimi Räikkönen was guest of the FIA press conference after the Qualifying of the French Grand Prix and talked about his supperb performance to catch the pole position and about his prospects for the race.

Question: Kimi, tell us all about your qualifying.

Kimi: Yeah, it is nothing new for me not being so quick in Q1 and Q2. The car is so much different when you have low fuel than when you have more fuel, so we have been working the whole weekend with the normal fuel load, so it is not always exactly how you want it when you take the fuel out. The main thing is to be the fastest at the end and that worked out very well for us.

Question: It was a good lap from what we saw. Talk us through it from what you saw. Was there anyway it could be improved? Was it perfect?

Kimi: I mean I could have done quite a bit faster lap, the lap I came in, as the team told me to box because in the end I was fastest anyhow, so there was no point to waste one lap of fuel. That lap was actually at least two tenths faster but just on the last moment I pulled in when I was supposed to turn into the last chicane, but they told me to box. We have had good speed all weekend and the car has been working well and this has been a great weekend so far but tomorrow is the one we need to finish and hopefully we can win as we need some points.

Question: It is quite a technical circuit here, demanding of the car and the driver. There is a lot of indecision it appears about the Bridgestone tyres here, though, whether to go with the hard or the softer tyre?

Kimi: I don’t think there is much in it on one lap on the softer or harder tyre. Over the race I think the harder is definitely the way to go. For us both tyres have been working well, so in that way also we are in a good position.

Question: Kimi, there was a little bit of a discussion in the drivers’ briefing about the exit of the last corner and how much road can be used on the exit there. Can you just talk a little bit about that and how that affected qualifying and your thoughts on the race tomorrow with the tyres and possible weather changes?

Kimi: I guess in here there is always talk about the white lines and who cuts too much and runs too wide and if you get an advantage or not. If you make a mistake, especially in the last corner, it doesn’t help too much and if you get it right you are fast and still on the circuit. If you hit the kerbs you jump wide sometimes. I don’t think it’s the place where you should complain too much as the next lap you will be very slow because you don’t get any traction, but it’s the same for everybody. Like I said for the race the car this weekend has been working very well. I don’t know how the weather will be. Some people say it is going to be hot, some say there might be some chance of showers. For us, it has been very good. We have the best starting position, so hopefully we can have a strong race for the team.

Question: Kimi, as you were saying just now, this is a fairly crucial race for points, and surely this is the best start you could have had.

Kimi: Yeah, definitely. It’s the best possible chance to win the race from first on the grid. The car has been good all weekend, so hopefully we will get some good points here.

Question: You’ve finished every one of your seven races at this circuit.

Kimi: That’s good! Hopefully we don’t do anything differently tomorrow but it’s going to be a long race. I’m pretty sure we’ve got a good race car, but as we’ve seen before, anything can happen, so hopefully we get good points and we can gain on the others.

Question: You were talking just now about the kerbs, particularly those down here at Lycee. What’s it like hitting those kerbs from a driving point of view, seventy times as it will be tomorrow, and what’s it like from the car point of view? Do you ever worry what it must be doing to it?

Kimi: Not too much really. The cars are pretty strong enough. Of course, if you really hit them hard every lap you might break something but it’s not too bad when you hit it right, but when you get it wrong it’s quite a hard hit and for sure it’s not healthy for the car. You more or less always try to get it right and most of the time it’s not too bad.

Question: Kimi, nice pole and as a bonus you could save some fuel at the end, so would you be disappointed if you didn’t win the race tomorrow?

Kimi: You are always disappointed if you’ve been quick all weekend, if you’re on the first place and cannot win but the most important thing is to get to the finish, get some good points and go from there, but we should definitely have a good chance to win.

Question: What is the biggest difference in car handling from a driver’s point of view, between Q2 and Q3 in regard to a racing amount of fuel because we saw quite a few mistakes in Q3?

Kimi: There’s more fuel, so it makes the car sliding much more, not so quick in changing direction and just heavier, so it’s easier to make mistakes, the tyres are getting a harder time, so that’s probably why people are sliding more and going off more.

Question: Kimi, this is Ferrari’s 200th pole in Formula One, does it mean anything special to you?

Kimi: It’s very nice for the whole team, for Ferrari, but I’m just a small part of it. I’m happy to achieve it, the 200th one, it’s good for the team, for this race and a nice thing, but nothing else really changes.

Question: Fernando Alonso was strong all weekend and he’s right behind you two Ferrari drivers. Do you consider him a threat for tomorrow’s race?

Kimi: They’ve been quite good all weekend but it all depends on how much fuel everybody is running, how fast they’re going to be in the race. We need to be careful with everybody but I think we have a very good race car, very good speed in the race, so as long as we get in front of him at the start it shouldn’t be a problem.