Post-Qualifying Press Conference - San Marino GP

You can listen to the TV press conference at http://www.f1press.com

Q: David, everybody seemed to go out early and put in a banker lap but your car was still up on jacks. What was the problem?

David Coulthard (DC): We just had some problems in the morning session which took a while to sort out. The guys worked very hard, they were up until four this morning building another car so it's a surprise but I am delighted to get pole. I'm putting it down to the glasses because I saw Mika wearing his blue ones and I thought I'd go for orange today!

Q: It must have been a gamble on set-up with the possible changes in weather, but you put in the fastest lap of Imola.

DC: Obviously things are moving forward with tyre development and I think the cars, with these regulations, have slowed down but you can see how close the competition is and we all move forward.

Q: Mika, at what stage was it decided that you were going to take the traditional approach and do four runs of three laps, when Ferrari took the reverse and did three runs of four?

Mika Hakkinen (MH): We weren't very confident with the conditions so that is why we took a different approach.

Q: It was very exciting at the end - what made you miss out on the final lap?

MH: It's very simple, I think it's really nice, because we are team mates, it's nice for David to get the pole. Its been many occasions when I have been in front of David so this time it was good to let him be there.

DC: Your such a good sport, if anyone believes that....

Q.: Now Ralf, you seem to be appearing in the top three on the grid very frequently, but you left it very very late today. Tell me about your final lap.

Ralf Schumacher (RS): Well to be honest I didn't expect us to be that quick. We had several problems especially in the rain, as you saw we struggled. So hope it to be dry, and the Michelin is known to work better under hot circumstances with a lot of rubber (on the track). We didn't have the right conditions, but even then we seemed to get it right. BMW supplied us with another good engine. We changed quite a few things on the car overnight. And the tyres seemed to work as well in qualifying.

Q.: Now as you said problems earlier when it was cold on the Michelin's in the wet. What do you know of the weather forecast for tomorrow? If rain is forecast is it worth you turning up at the circuit?

RS: To be honest I just listen to the ones that say its (going to be) dry, because otherwise we are in deep problems again. I mean we have had a bit of bad luck this year, because every Grand Prix so far, except Melbourne, we had rain. I hope it's different tomorrow.

Q.: David, looking to the race tomorrow. You are ahead of your team mate Mika Hakkinen on the grid. But you are also ahead of him on points. So what's the situation going to be? You've got twenty points and Mika's got one.

DC: That's it, rub it in. There's a long way in this race to go, you know qualifying is only one part of it. Especially if you see the results I have had this year from bad qualifying positions. I just need to make a good start, hope we have a reliable start, and do the best we can.