2009 Grand Prix of Italy, Qualifying: Kimi Starts P3!

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:23.375  1:22.973  1:24.066
 2.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:23.576  1:23.070  1:24.261
 3.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:23.349  1:23.426  1:24.523
 4.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:23.515  1:23.528  1:24.845
 5.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:23.483  1:22.976  1:25.015
 6.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:23.403  1:22.955  1:25.030
 7.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:23.578  1:23.207  1:25.043
 8.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:23.708  1:23.497  1:25.072
 9.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:23.558  1:23.545  1:25.180
10.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:23.755  1:23.273  1:25.314
11.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:24.014  1:23.611
12.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:23.975  1:23.728
13.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:24.001  1:23.866
14.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:23.828  1:23.901
15.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:23.584  1:24.275
16.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:24.036
17.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:24.074
18.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:24.121
19.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.220
20.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.951

News & Quotes:
Drivers warned against cutting chicane
Alguersuari gets gearbox-change penalty
Hamilton surprised by McLaren speed
Sutil thrilled to be in pole fight
Hamilton cleared over Buemi incident

Post-qualifying car weights –

Pos  Driver                             Weight (kg)
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes         653.5
 2.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes     655.0
 3.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                  662.0
 4.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes         683.0
 5.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes           688.5
 6.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes           687.0
 7.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes     679.5
 8.  Alonso       Renault                  677.5
 9.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault         682.0
10.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault         683.0
11.  Trulli       Toyota                   703.0*
12.  Grosjean     Renault                  699.8*
13.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber               697.5*
14.  Fisichella   Ferrari                  690.0*
15.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber               697.5*
16.  Glock        Toyota                   709.8*
17.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota          706.2*
18.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota          708.6*
19.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari       706.0*
20.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari       706.0

Ferrari Team Quotes – Kimi Raikkonen: “That was one of my best qualifying sessions of
the year and we hope that tomorrow things can go even better. I am
pleased with this result, for the team and for our fans. The car is not
yet perfect, but it’s good all the same. We knew the hardest task would
come in Q2 as after that, the car is always very competitive with a
race fuel load on board: all the same, it was a pleasant surprise to
see how it handled in the final part. I am confident for tomorrow: at
the start it won’t be as easy to make up a lot of places as it was at
Spa, because there are other cars fitted with KERS near me, but if
everything goes well, we can fight for a place on the podium.”

Post-qualifying press conference

Q. Kimi, it looked to be a reasonable trouble-free qualifying for
you. At Parabolica the car seemed to be a bit loose at the front end
but you got the lap done in the end.

Kimi RAIKKONEN: It is not perfect for sure but it shows us
again that once we put the race fuel in the car it seems to be to
always be stronger against the others. It is more difficult especially
in the second qualifying than the first and last one to make sure that
we get through. The car has been good all weekend. We had some issues
with it but unfortunately we cannot fix them as well as we want. But,
overall, on the race pace and with the race fuel the car is running
nicely and I am pretty happy with it. I think it was one of our best
qualifying and it was a good time in our home race to do it and
hopefully tomorrow it is going to help us get into a stronger position
for the race and try to fight for the first three places. But we will
see. It is not going to be easy tomorrow but we will give it our best.

Q. Can you compare how you felt before the race at Spa to how you feel now in terms of how you think it will go on race day?

KR: In both races we knew that car was going to be stronger
in the race than in qualifying. Of course if you start from sixth than
third place it is a slightly different story. I think it gives us a
better chance to have a strong finish. But it is going to be a long,
hard race for the car. We give the best and hopefully we can give a
good result for all the Italian fans and for ourselves. That’s our
biggest aim.

Q. Kimi, tenth and eighth yesterday; you said there was room to improve. What changes did you make overnight?

KR: We made some changes to try to improve the issues that we
had but even when yesterday I wasn’t a hundred percent happy, it was
still pretty fast. I think it’s been a positive surprise how good the
car has been all weekend. Today it was even better with high fuel.

Q. In comparison to Spa when you won but started further back, are you confident for tomorrow?

KR: Yeah, but OK, we are three places ahead of where we
started in Spa, but now there is a McLaren with KERS in front of us. At
the start, you cannot expect to jump them. We can jump the Force India
but probably not the McLaren. So that’s a different story and then we
see how the race goes. It’s definitely easier to overtake here than in
Spa, so if they have the speed on the straight line, as it looks it
will be difficult to keep people behind, it will be difficult to pass
them. We will see what we can do.

Q. We’ve seen a lot of drivers weaving on the back straight; how
much of an issue have tyre temperatures been here during qualifying and
the race itself?

KR: For us it hasn’t been a big issue. It’s more or less the
same as at any other circuit but maybe the first lap isn’t always the
easiest one, not the fastest one. It takes a few laps but I think it’s
the same for everybody. Some teams can use them on the first lap,
straight away, very easily and some not. But they may pay the price
later on in the race, the tyres would maybe not last, so it’s a bit of
a difficult situation.

Q. (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, gathering that
both Brawns are on one-stop strategies tomorrow, presuming you guys are
going to be running two, it looks like it could be close with those two
cars as well if that’s going to be the case.

LH: I’m not actually aware of what position they’re in –
fifth and sixth? – but obviously they are very competitive, they’ve
been quick – especially in P3 – they were very quick in Q1 and Q2, so
undoubtedly they will be very competitive throughout the race, and we
have to obviously optimise – I have to optimise my strategy and
hopefully hold them off but it’s going to be a close race tomorrow. It
should probably be one of the most exciting we’ve had here for some
time.

KR: It is what it is. We will see in a few hours how much fuel
everybody has, then we can make our plans, but until then there’s not
much point in thinking about it too much.

Q. (Will Buxton – Australasian Motor Sport News) Kimi, we’re
moving into the last few races of the season, who do you think has got
the best shot of winning the championship?

KR: I don’t know, there are a few people that can win. We
still actually have a chance but it’s not very… I don’t think it’s
going to happen for us, so after that it doesn’t really matter who
wins. I think Brawn has picked up speed a little bit this weekend, so
they are in the strongest position for sure.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis and Kimi, how much time did
it take you to get used to KERS at the beginning of the season? Was it
easy?

LH: It was just like Playstation, so it was very easy.

KR: I had it the whole winter when we started to
test, so it’s not difficult for the drivers to use, I think it’s more
of a challenge for the engineers to get it working well.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi, you talked
about the new kerbs, how the last version was lower than these ones,
but do you think that today it helped to get your position? And
secondly, no Finn was ever able to win here. Are you superstitious?

KR: No. I will try tomorrow and we hope to have a good
result. The kerbs are the same for all the teams and drivers, so it
makes no difference. It was more fun with the old kerbs but this is
probably a bit more similar for everybody. Nobody can really run over
them anymore. It seems to be working OK for us, so no complaints really.