Quotes Roundup – Week Ending 29th March

The very best from the mouths of those in the know.

Preview Quotes

Moments before the action gets underway…

• “There is no better place to begin the FIA Formula 1 World Championship than in Australia. The weather is fantastic, the facilities are excellent and the people of Melbourne make us all feel extremely welcome. Most importantly, everyone arrives with an air of enthusiasm and expectation.” Lewis Hamilton
  
• “It’s a different emotion to be starting my second year with Toyota compared to 2008 because now I am much more familiar with the team and I feel I can really start the season strongly. Last year it took a few races to find the right direction for me in terms of set-up but I don’t expect that to be a problem this season.” Timo Glock
• “We are making these tyres to the same sizes as we had with grooved tyres, but this means there is a new front/rear grip balance. The teams will therefore have to work hard to get a good set-up, particularly with the varying surface of Albert Park, and we will be working closely with everyone to achieve this.” Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone
  

Post Qualifying

How the teams felt after sorting the grid…

• “I’m not rapped with my last lap. My previous flying laps had gone well, so I would have liked a better result, but that’s where we are so we’ll try to make something from the race.” Mark Webber
  
• “Unfortunately Nick missed Q3 by a small margin. However, this gives us more opportunities for the race strategy, because from eleventh on the grid you are free to choose the amount of fuel for the race.” Mario Theissen
  
• “We arrived here to fight for the podium, but this might not be the case tomorrow. We were very close to Q3 times, only two or three tenths of a second off, but I made a mistake as I tried to make up some time in the final corner. I’m disappointed as I thought I could be fifth or sixth on the grid.” Fernando Alonso
  

Post Race

A fantastic race got us underway for the new season…

• “I’m very disappointed with the mistake I made in the pitstop. I was just confused with last year as we were always in the last slot in the pitlane, so I just overshot and had to be pulled back into the pits.” Giancarlo Fisichella
  
• “can’t say how disappointed I am to finish third but have the result questioned. When the safety car came out towards the end of the race Lewis Hamilton passed me but soon after he suddenly slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. I thought he had a problem so I overtook him as there was nothing else I could do.” Jarno Trulli
  
• “If you take the whole race, we had the Brawn which was on another planet, then we had the Red Bull – Vettel was quite strong, quite a good pace, maybe a bit better than us. Then we had Kubica who was also competitive. I think we are in the middle of these teams.” Felipe Massa