Australian GP - Post-qualifying press conference - Pt.2

Drivers: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Jenson Button (McLaren) and Romain Grosjean (Lotus).

Questions from the floor

Q: (Frederic Ferret - L'Equipe).
Question to all of you: have you been surprised by the lack of pace of the Red Bull? And a special one for Lewis: your first start in 2007 was a little bit tricky. Do you have advice for Romain?

Lewis Hamilton:
Tough one. I think we're all probably surprised... I myself always thought that the Lotus was going to be quick this weekend which they are and of course, I'm surprised that we are so fast. I knew that we would be competitive this weekend but I didn't really know what to expect, in terms of how close people would be, but I'm pleasantly surprised. As for Grosjean, he knows what to do. He's got great experience and I'm sure tomorrow he will do his utmost best.

Jenson Button:
I think everybody's answered that one already. I think we did a very good job of getting the best out of ourselves this weekend. I think we haven't really made any mistakes. I don't know what Red Bull have been up to. Sebastian obviously took a trip into the gravel this morning, which wouldn't have helped their preparations. But Red Bull haven't lost it. They're still going to be competitive and we can never forget that but at the moment, we're going to enjoy this moment and go out tomorrow and hopefully have a great race.

Romain Grosjean:
It's great but I'm sure Red Bull will work very hard and come back quickly, but we have to improve ourselves every time and we have seen that some teams are better than others. We didn't know too much what to expect about the winter testing and after this morning. I was more confident than my engineer before qualifying. 'Ah, it should be fine,' but at the end, we are here and they will back for sure. We have to keep fighting and not resting.

Q: (Mike Doodson - Honorary).
Lewis, you just said that you expected the Renault to be quick. I wondered if either you or Jenson had got close enough to Romain and the Lotus, either in testing or here, to know where it is strong?

Lewis Hamilton:
There wasn't a time during testing that I was ever behind either of them, so I have no idea where they are quick, but they are clearly very very fast and have great downforce. Were you?

Jenson Button:
Maybe, but I don't know. My memory is not that good.

Romain Grosjean:
Everybody is trying to avoid everybody in testing.

Q: (Ian Parkes - Press Association).
Lewis, 20th pole of your career, I don't know if you remember them all, but how does this one compare to some of the others, in particular, given the turbulent 2011 you endured last season?

Lewis Hamilton:
Yeah, I still can't believe that I've had so many pole positions. For me, every one has been special and particularly this one. To come straight into the season and start off so well through qualifying - we've still got a day ahead of us - but it's a fantastic feeling and of course, with the tough couple of years past, it's definitely good a way to start off on the right foot.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri - La Gazzetta dello Sport).
Lewis and Jenson, you've both won this race in the year when you won the championship, are such statistics important or not important? What do you have to do tomorrow to win the race?

Jenson Button:
Beat these guys. I don't know what to expect. We can go through as many simulations as we want and the opinions of the race that we want. All I know is that we have made the race a little bit easier for ourselves compared to the Red Bulls. Last year it was the other way around and it was more of a difficult race because they were starting on the front row, but this year it's the other way around. I'm happy with where we are, but tomorrow is again a very different day. We will stay positive. Obviously we're doing everything and doing everything right and making sure that we don't make mistakes overnight and get the right balance for tomorrow in the race.

Q: (Livio Oricchio - O Estado de Sao Paulo).
To all of you: we saw a beautiful battle between McLaren, Lotus, Mercedes and Red Bull here in qualifying. Do you think this is the picture of the championship or is it a particularity of the track?

Jenson Button:
I think those are the four teams that after testing... you didn't know which order they were in but those were the four teams that you would say were putting in good laps in testing, so yes, I think we expected those four teams but you never know the gap between those teams and as you said, through qualifying, in Q1, Q2, Q3, it was all mixed up. It's good to see; good that we ended up near the front in the important one.

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Motor und Sport).
The first race is normally the one with the most question marks. Yesterday you had little running the dry, today it was just one practice session. Was it enough to answer all the questions for the race, Lewis or Jenson?

Lewis Hamilton:
We could always do with more time on the track and more running, but I think everyone is in the same boat generally. So we have to really rely on the data and the information that we got on the tyres in our long runs in the winter testing and at Barcelona in particular. Hopefully that will put us in good stead for tomorrow, but it's going to be an interesting race for sure. Don't know what these tyres are going to do but they don't seem too bad.

Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat).
Romain, how does it feel to lead 1-0 against Kimi after the first qualifying (session)?

Romain Grosjean:
Well, you know when you start qualifying you're fighting against 23 other guys and everybody starts qualifying thinking he will fight for pole position and to achieve that you have to beat everybody.