Zoom Hamilton on pole for the sixth time this year

Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix from pole position ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen. The top three take questions from the media at Fuji Speedway.

Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Lewis, you get pole but then you get out of the car and you’ve got the bonus of seeing that two people have nipped in ahead and Felipe is back in fifth. Do you think then ‘that’s great, I thought he was going to be right behind?’ What’s the feeling?
LH: To be honest I was just happy to see Heikki pull up alongside. I think it’s great for the team and that’s all I was really thinking of. At the end of my lap I was hoping that Heikki was either beside me or at least behind me, so we could both score as many points for the team.

Q: (Ingo Roersch – Sport Bild) Lewis, were you not surprised that Felipe was only fifth?
LH: You can say you were surprised because he looked very quick through Q1 and Q2, so my thoughts were probably the same as yours but I don’t know the reason for it – maybe he made a mistake, I don’t know, but there’s still no doubt he will have a strong race.

Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Deutschland) Kimi, when you say that the car feels better with a full load than without fuel, can you just describe the difference between those two situations? How much easier is it with the fuel load?
KR: The set-up or the handling is better with the fuel than without quite often for me, so that’s the difference.

Q: (Takeharu Kusuda – Lapita) Lewis, could you give us your impressions of the Fuji circuit under blue skies? And I heard that you like Japanese food, did you eat teppanyaki yesterday?
LH: Are you suggesting that that’s my secret? No, I didn’t have teppanyaki yesterday. I ate with my team here. I really like this circuit. It’s particularly grown on me even more, I think, since I’ve been here. I think yesterday, when we had blue sky and you could see Mount Fuji, I thought it was just quite incredible, when you drove round turn ten you could see it, the mountain there. I think it’s really cool. And the track isn’t that long but it is still a real pleasure to drive in the wet and the dry. I think other circuits aren’t so much fun in the wet but this track has a different surface, so it’s great fun in the wet. Also the facilities, the place is just very calm and we always have good spectators.