Q & A with Heikki Kovalainen

Heikki Kovalainen: Yeah, it was one of the best qualifying sessions of the year, to be honest - I have been once on pole position and once in third before, so it's not too bad. Obviously the gap to the pole is big, but I could probably have had second place - on my first lap there was a yellow flag on the second sector and I didn't get to set my time until my second lap on my first set, so there was maybe a couple of tenths or so there. But the car felt really good, and I think we did a pretty good job to get the car well balanced, and we should be okay tomorrow for the race.

Q. As you say the gap to Nico is pretty big - do you think that will change in the race?

Kovalainen: Hopefully! There's no guarantee, but I'm not worrying about it too much - we just have to concentrate on our own thing, and if we're happy with the balance and we can't beat them then we'll have to look for something else.

Q. And qualifying this far up the grid gives you a number of options for the race.

Kovalainen: Yeah, we don't need to do anything that compromises our strategy, which is really good.

Q. Are you thinking about the championship now that the points totals are closing up?

Kovalainen: No, not really - I'm just trying to win the race, and that's the only thing I think about - if you win every race, then you win the championship.

Q. Do you think the heat will be a factor for the cars in the races?

Kovalainen: I don't think so - we didn't have any problems this morning or now, so we will need to be more on the limit, but I don't think it will be a problem.

Q. How hard is it for you in the car in this heat?

Kovalainen: It's not too bad - it's more of a problem when you wait around [in the pitlane] in the car when it is a bit harder, but it's not too bad.

Q. And tomorrow it's supposed to be even hotter.

Kovalainen: It's no problem. I feel pretty comfortable, and I don't have any problems at all with the heat.