PlanetF1

Sat: Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota

Saturday 22-March-2008 07:27

Felipe Massa clinched pole for the Malaysian GP ahead of his Ferrari team-mate, the McLarens and Toyota's Jarno Trulli.

Ferrari
Felipe Massa: I am very happy! In the final part of qualifying, I managed to put together two really good laps after struggling a bit in Q2. Right at the end there were a few drops of rain, but it had no effect whatsoever on the performance. It is very important to start from the front and I hope I can have a good race. We know our car is very competitive over a long run, but it is also clear we face a long tough race. All the same, we can only be confident about tomorrow."

Kimi Raikkonen: Of course, I would prefer to have taken pole, but second place is definitely not bad and I am happy that the team got the best result possible. In Q3, I was not able to get the tyres to work as well as possible, especially on my second run, after having had a good lap in Q2. The track seemed to be a bit more slippery and I was not able to get everything out of the car. Tomorrow's race will be very tough: I made a good start in Melbourne and I hope I can do the same tomorrow."

McLaren
Heikki Kovalainen: I am pleased to have qualified third for the second consecutive time. Of course, we would have preferred a position on the front row, but Felipe and Kimi have been strong here all weekend and as a result third place is the maximum we could achieve. I have improved step by step throughout all the sessions, and my lap in the third qualifying was really good. Now we have to wait and see how the strategies will unfold in the race. With rain expected tomorrow anything could be possible."

Lewis Hamilton: There didn't seem to be as much grip in the tyres during the final session, and I just struggled a bit. Also it was tough finding a gap in the traffic, which had an effect on my ability to warm up the brakes and manage the tyres. To be honest I didn't do a perfect job today, and I will study the data to see how I can go faster tomorrow. We have to stay positive though as we are still in a good position and anything can happen in the race."

Toyota:
Jarno Trulli: This has been quite a satisfying weekend so far. We have run without problems and the car has performed well and looked competitive. Today's lap time just shows that it's a big improvement compared to last year's car. So we are all very pleased with this result and it is definitely looking good for tomorrow's race. Timo has also done a very good job over the weekend too so I'm pleased for him because this gives a lot of motivation for the whole team to push hard with development work to improve the car. I'm confident for tomorrow because I've always performed well at this track. We just have to make sure that we finish the race without trouble because I believe we can score good points."

Timo Glock: I'm happy to have made Q3 but that was a difficult qualifying for me. In free practice this morning I had a better feeling for the option tyres in a qualifying set-up but this afternoon I struggled to get the most out of them again. It was difficult to find the right set-up for it. In the end I was happy that I had a really good lap and a really good last sector to get into the top ten. Now we have to see how the weather goes but if it's dry it will be hard for me to get the most out of the tyres. This is a really wide circuit and that means there are more possibilities to overtake. But I'm keeping a lid on my expectations. Hopefully we can finish in the top ten or break into the points. That would be a good result."