Zoom Lining up at the sharp end of the grid for the race

Kimi Raikkonen claimed his first pole position of the season today in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of local hero Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Here’s what the fastest three had to say...

Q: What are your feelings being on pole again?
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: It is a nice feeling. I have been trying to get it. It should give us a better chance for tomorrow. It is only qualifying but it is a good place to be.

Q: You are on the clean side of the track. But it has been a difficult weekend for you and the other drivers with the wind. Can you talk about that?
KR: Actually I have been happier with the car than I have in previous races. We changed a bit with the starting point and it seems to be working quite well. Of course in places it is a little bit trickier here, but it is a nice circuit and they have changed the outside of the circuit, so if you run wide it makes it more difficult. But apart from that it has been a good weekend so far.

Q: What do you mean when you say you have changed the starting point? Does the car feel different to what it did in Bahrain?
KR: No. We just changed the set-up quite a bit. It seems to work. We wanted to try something in a test. We had a rainy day and we tried something on the car. It gave me a good feeling, so we decided to keep it. It seems to be working so far.

Q: Fernando, congratulations – what a performance from you and the team. You cannot be dissatisfied with being second.
Fernando ALONSO: I was really excited when I crossed the line because I knew the time was good. I knew that only Kimi was running behind. When I crossed the line I knew that it was the first row in the worst case. That is something for sure we didn’t expect at all for this race – maybe even the whole season. I cannot be happier than I am now.

Q: Can you describe how the car feels compared to the first three races?
FA: The car feels better. I am happier with the car. We have made a step forward – no doubt. We have seen a big improvement in the car. I think the whole weekend has been difficult for everybody with the track conditions. We have tried to find a good balance around these conditions. We have a better car than what we had yesterday. The second place of today is more than what we expected for the whole weekend, so the job is nearly done.

Q: Can you just tell us how it feels to have worked so hard and got back to this and this result in front of your home crowd?