QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Kimi, as a Ferrari driver in Monza you are the first time in the front row. How much that means personally to you?
KR: I think it's a while that I've been in the front row - eight, ten years probably! But I think, what does it mean, I'm very happy for it obviously, and I'm happy for all the people who are supporting us and our team but, you know, the biggest thing is that much less troubles in the first corner if you make, let's say, a normal start. It gives us a good chance for the race and obvious we have to do a good job in the race but it gives us a better chance for having a good result. It's nice to get it right once in a while. It's been a while so, especially here in the home grand prix of Ferrari, so let's hope it brings us also a good result tomorrow.
Q: (Joonas Partanen - Iltalheti) We say you talking after the qualifying session before you came here, from the TV. Can you tell us what you were talking about?
SV: Yeah, we were waiting for Lewis. I think he was trying to finish his hair.
LH: I was!
Q: (Peter Farkas - Auto Motor) Again, Seb and Kimi. Did you expect to be so close to the quickest Mercedes today - especially after yesterday when the different was quite big? And could you please explain what you did since yesterday to turn the situation around? How confident were you that it would be possible?
KR: Like I said earlier, in a way is a bit surprised that we were this strong comparing to the Mercedes but, y'know, we made some small improvements and obviously people always talk so much about Fridays. It's a Friday: you do whatever you want. It's not about the laptimes. And worse, you don't know what the others are doing. So, it's pointless to say, ‘oh, we were bad yesterday'. We just did our stuff what we normally do. In the end, if you end up first or tenth, makes no difference if you know what you've been doing. So, we've been just… improve a bit the car and drove a bit better than yesterday. Yesterday I didn't feel I was driving very well and then it turned out to be in qualifying it all worked out well for us. Obviously we're still not happy, we're second and third but I think it's a place where we expected it to be a bit more difficult because the circuit layout. So it was a bit surprise but a nice one and I think things have been working well.
Anything to add, Sebastian?
SV: Nothing to add.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Lewis. Lewis, are you cautious tomorrow you can achieve a lot of points for the championship. It can be a crucial race and the other thing is that you are the only handicap between a Ferrari victory here - do you expect a difficult Sunday with the tifosi tomorrow?
LH: Going into any race you always want to get as many points as you can and you're always hoping there's an opportunity to gain more than the usual - but honestly I'm hoping that Nico pulls through and we both can do a good job and naturally we both want to finish ahead of the Ferraris here. That's always good to do on their home turf if possible and obviously for the championship. I think I've generally had a lot of support here for the last couple of years. Naturally the majority of the fans are going to want the reds to win but as long as there in this position I'm sure they'll still be happy.
Q: (Livio Oricchio - GloboEsporte) To both Ferrari drivers, considering the analysis of the long runs you did yesterday with both kinds of tyres and also this morning, and comparing with what we saw from Mercedes, what is a realistic prediction for the race?
KR: Like I've said already, we will try to do our best and see where we end up. Obviously we want to at least keep the places that we have right now but the main aim is to try to win races and that's why we are here. But it's pointless to start guessing where we're going to end up.
Q: (Luigi Perna - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb and Kimi; what was the secret of this qualifying compared to the others this season and compared to yesterday's performance; was it Marchionne boost or something else maybe?
SV: No, I think generally we obviously try to make steps forward every race so naturally you have some small bits and pieces, trying to help the performance overall so we did for here but nothing special, just for the race, here, just because it's our home race. I think we learned a lot in Spa, Spa is similar conditions to here in terms of downforce. We were both probably not that happy with the balance of the car. I think we found a better balance and the car kept coming to us this weekend. I think that's the biggest reason why the gap is smaller than usual, plus you never know what other people are doing. Maybe they were struggling or maybe Lewis was not as happy as he usually is. In the end, it doesn't matter. We had a very very good session. We've qualified second and third because we were second and third quickest today and the rest we will see tomorrow.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, about the race pace on Friday and how is the situation with the medium? Do you feel the car better with the medium or with the soft tyres?
LH: Yeah, the medium tyres actually feel better for me on the long runs. On the long runs we did on them, they felt quite solid, no big issues. I would say that with the softer tyre it's the same as it is everywhere: you get more degradation on the softer one but they both felt pretty good.
Q: (Nicolangelo Cioppi - Il Cittadino Canadase) Sebastian and Kimi, do you think it's possible from third place and second place for Kimi to win the race tomorrow here in Monza like in 2008. I was here in 2008 and I enjoyed it with you, even if it was raining like crazy.
SV: Well, I think there's always a chance. Obviously in 2008 I was on pole, didn't manage that today but I think since it's dry tomorrow, I think we have much better chances this year than I would have had in dry conditions in 2008. So the bottom line is I think it's always possible, it's always possible to have a surprise. I think we had some surprises this year so we like surprises and if we can surprise tomorrow then it would be a nice surprise.
KR: Who knows? Like I said, we try our best and hopefully achieve a great result and try to win if possible. It would be great to have a good result for the team.
Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you managed to beat Sebastian by five hundredths of a second. Where did you take that?
KR: I don't know. I haven't seen the data so somewhere, doesn't matter where it was. I gained on my previous best in the last corner. It doesn't matter to me where it happens.
