Q & A with Neel Jani

Neel Jani: I have to say it was always the place we belonged - well, I think it should be one position more, actually! We were just struggling a little bit with our set up, and Hockenheim was the worst, but from there I think we have found something now which brought us quite a bit forward, and it seems to be working, slowly. It's still not perfect, but it's not bad now, and I'm very happy that we are the first of the second group. But there are still nine tenths between me and pole position, and that's quite a lot - if you go from me backwards for one second there are nearly twenty cars or so.

Q. Nico set his fastest lap, like most of the drivers, on his first set of tyres straight out of the pits, whereas you set your fastest lap towards the end of the session on your second set - was there a reason for that?

Jani: On my first set I did a lap which was not bad, but I caught up to Lopez, who caught up to Bruni, who caught up to Kovalainen slowing down I think, so we just lost a bit there. But then I put on my second set, and luckily I could improve.

Q. You were pretty much the only guy to improve on your second set - was it something that you changed on the set up?

Jani: We changed something a little bit, but as I say we're not on a bad pace now and we're still developing it, so we can still improve - I don't think we can improve nine tenths at the moment, but I have to say thank you for the team because we are reaching the level where we belong at last.

Q. You've been waiting for some time to get this set up right.

Jani: Yeah, and everybody probably thought it was just excuses, because I was always saying we are struggling, but now at least I can prove in qualifying that I can do it. Tomorrow we have another thing to prove - well, not to prove, but to get for myself - my first podium.

Q. You were struggling in qualifying and, time gaps notwithstanding, you seem to have a solution for qualifying form. Do you think that you will also have the answer for form in the race?

Jani: Well I don't know! We have to see tomorrow - it's a good question, and if I already knew the answer then we could be working on that today! I think we have improved for the race as well, but tomorrow we will see how much we have improved.