McLaren comfortable with outcome of qualifying session at Interlagos

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen will start Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, the final grand prix of the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship, from fourth and fifth on the grid. Lewis set a time of 1m12.830 and was fourth ahead of his team-mate, who posted a 1m12.917.

Lewis Hamilton: "Congratulations to Felipe for achieving pole position in front of his home crowd - he did a great job today. But, tomorrow, I will be focusing on my own race: it will be a tough afternoon but I’m comfortable with the fuel strategy we chose; the guys in front are probably on a different strategy. But we’re in a good position to finish in the same place as we are today - and that’s got to be our aim. We don’t need to do anything spectacular."

Heikki Kovalainen: "I think we had a straightforward qualifying. My car felt good from the beginning of Q1 and the good balance and performance have been demonstrated by my overall fastest time in Q2. For sure, we'd rather be on the front row - however we'll have to see which strategy the competition in front of us will have in the race. We feel confident about our strategy and should have a solid baseline for a good race tomorrow."

Ron Dennis: "We're comfortable with the outcome of today's qualifying session. There may be rain tomorrow - and, if there is, we may well see the deployment of the Safety Car. That being the case, it's possible that aggressive race strategies may be affected by those unpredictable variables. We've therefore opted for a race strategy that ought to allow us to protect against such interventions. Now, our focus is to avoid any trouble at the start, after which both our drivers should be in a position to put in strong, competitive performances."

Norbert Haug: "With Lewis on the second row and Heikki on the third we have a good basis for tomorrow's race. We will probably see different strategies once the race unfolds and I am confident about ours. Our speed is good as we showed in Q1 and Q2 when Heikki was fastest of the day and, if our reliability and performance is there, we will get the job done."