Post-qualifying FIA press conference

After an exciting qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Felipe Massa, who snatched pole, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen took the time to answer the questions of the gathered media during the post-qualifying FIA press conference.

Felipe Massa: "For sure. We showed good speed last weekend, but things didn't go so well in the race - especially for me, unfortunately. Hopefully we can show more tomorrow. It's very good to be here again and scoring the 100th pole position for Bridgestone is definitely very nice for me. There's nothing more to say, you know. I'm just happy to be here and I'll do my best tomorrow because I really need a good result."

FM: "The car is competitive. Today we have shown we have a very quick car, even in qualifying when we know everybody has the same fuel. Yesterday we showed very strong pace on long runs, too. For sure the track is not very easy because it is always a little bit dirty, especially at the beginning of the race, but I think we have shown we have a competitive car. Hopefully, we can put things together."

FM: "For sure I was disappointed, because I started at the front and knew that the car was good – even if the McLaren was very, very quick. They had strong pace in the race, but we were stronger than we showed and for me it was very disappointing to lose positions like that at the start, and to make some mistakes in the middle of the race... It was very disappointing and hopefully this time we can obtain a better result."

Lewis Hamilton: "Yeah, we've had two extremely good races and we're extremely competitive here, with things very close at the front. To go into my third F1 race and get a front row is an amazing feeling."

LH: "To be honest it wasn't that great – I definitely had better laps earlier in the session. It was tough. Qualifying is extremely intense and you need to pull out absolutely everything on that last lap. I think I lost a little bit of time in Turn One, but the rest of the lap seemed to go quite well.

Turn 13 was little bit hectic and I think the wind here is always changing and coming across in different ways, so you always have a tail wind or a cross wind. It's quite tough to put the car on the limit and anticipate what's going to happen, but still I'm very happy to get second for the team and I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow."

LH: "I feel quite relaxed about it. It feels natural. I'm extremely happy to be where I am. I've worked for 13 years to be where I am and finally to be here, and to be performing quite well, I'm really happy with myself and I think the team has made some good steps forward. Going into tomorrow's race, it will be tough. The first corner here is always tricky, because it's so tight, but we'll see what happens."

Kimi Raikkonen: "Yeah, on my first try in third qualifying he was in front of me through Turn One, and then I had big traffic on my second run, so it wasn't the best. But looking back I think it's OK because I wasn't certain I'd be in the top three. We'll see how the race goes. We have a good race car but need to improve a little bit in qualifying. We'll see what happens."

KR: "Yeah, yesterday was more difficult. Conditions today have been quite similar all day. It hasn't been so bad but the wind here can always make a big difference. We know a little bit about the wind from testing, so I think we came here knowing what to do about race set-ups."

KR: "I think it will be close, but it depends on a lot of things – including how things work out at the first corner."

Press Conference

FM: "I hope it's different!"

FM: "The same, it's good to be here on pole, especially after what happened the last weekend when I was quite disappointed with the result at the end of the race. So hopefully this time it's a different outcome and I'm just thinking a lot about the race and bringing more points home.

I'm quite happy with my performance in qualifying, not counting Australia when I had a problem with the car. I'm happy about getting everything out of the car; the set-up, how it's working and also the race set-up. But up to now I haven't been able to show 100% what I can do in the race. I'm just very happy to be here on pole again."

FM: "Well for sure last Sunday was not a very easy day for us. And McLaren showed incredible pace in the race. We didn't show that but we were also blocked behind some other cars and our pace in Malaysia was better than we showed. Today and yesterday at least we were very competitive on old tyres also and I hope we can show much better pace tomorrow and have a much different race to Malaysia."

FM: "Be more aggressive…"

LH: "The car is never perfect but we have definitely made some steps forward in the last race and coming here we seem to be stronger than we were in the test here and have closed the gap to Ferrari. The practice seemed to go well, we seemed to have the pace, I've been here before and am a bit more familiar with the circuit and actually feel a bit more comfortable.

We did a great job and were extremely quick but Felipe was a little bit quicker. Still we can have a strong race tomorrow and it's going to be interesting what happens in the first corner. We need to make sure we get around it, nice and clean."

LH: "I won!"

LH: "I think I was 23rd, but we had two races and I started 11th in the second race."

LH: "It is going to be difficult. That was a different circumstance. I came round on the first lap from 11th and I think I was fourth. I was a bit lucky on that lap but this is a completely different kettle of fish and I will have to make sure we get a good start and for sure try to lead into the first corner. Assuming we can do that we can then think about the tactical approach to the race."

KR: "Not really but it was the best I could do. I had traffic on both my new tyre runs."

KR: "I think today has been okay but yesterday it was changing quite a lot. With the wind it was quite difficult but today was pretty much okay."

KR: "I was a bit surprised actually not to lose more and it was close with Fernando. I am still in a good position for the race which is the main thing."

Questions From The Floor

FM: "No, I think he did good starts but we also gave him space, but this time we know what he can do, so we won't give him the space any more."

LH: "I don't really take much notice of that sort of thing. I'm not Tiger Woods, I'm Lewis Hamilton, I'm completely different. I do think he's a sensational athlete and it's an honour to be compared to someone of such great calibre. But I'm here in Formula One, I'm here to do a job. I hope I can have a similar impact on Formula One as he has had in golf."

FM: "I think you already asked me, no? In the press conference. I think it's worse here than Malaysia. I think Malaysia is more similar (to other places), here I think is the worst."

LH: "I agree. I think in Australia as well it was cleaner on the left side as it's the line that we drive, so the inside line is always going to be dirtier, so I think we've done quite a good job to get off the line (well) in Australia and it's going to be tough here again. There's a long haul down to the first corner. It is going to be dirty on the inside, especially with the sand here, so we just have to do the best job we can."

KR: "No, I think we are now in the position where we want to be and everything is working fine. It was a different story in the last race."

KR: "Not too bad actually but it's just not really quick enough, so we need to do some more work and try to improve it on the first lap."

FM: "It's always a help, it's always good to start in the front, it‘s always good to finish qualifying which is the time when you need to get everything out of the car and it's always good to finish and see your name at the top. That's really motivating, so it's quite nice."

FM: "I think we can all have a bad day, we can all have different strategies, we don't know, but for sure Lewis did a fantastic job compared to Fernando here, and also in practice and qualifying. I think we just need to try and do everything we can to put both red cars in the front.

That's the best we can do to score some points and hopefully Lewis is also putting some pressure on Fernando which can also be good for us. For sure maybe it's not the best for Fernando but we know what he's like, we know that he's a very strong driver and he can be very strong tomorrow, so we just need to be looking at them as well. "