Valencia (23/08/2008).- Felipe Massa clinched an historical pole position at the first Telefonica Grand Prix of Europe to be held at Valencia Street Circuit tomorrow, August 24th.

The Brazilian driver for Ferrari lapped the best time in Q3 during the qualifying sessions for the Grand Prix, in front on Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) and Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber). Fernando Alonso was only able to make twelfth position on the grid and was not able to take part in Q3 after being eliminated in Q2, along with his team mate Nelson Piquet Jr., Nakajima and Timo Glock.

Beforehand, David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella, Rubens Barrrichello and Adrian Sutil had already been eliminated in the previous qualifying session, during which Jarno Trulli lapped the fastest time (1.37.948).

Massa admitted that he clinched the pole position during "the first sector, where I made time". The Brazilian driver for Ferrari explained that regarding the choice of tyres "I wasn't sure. I started with hard compound tyres during the morning session but the car was behaving strangely. We then changed to softer tyres for Q2 and Q3". Regarding the position of the first place on the grid, Massa thinks that starting from the right of the track has been a good decision.

Lewis Hamilton was very happy with his second place on the grid: "we are strong, the team has done a great job and I am satisfied with my position on the grid", asserted the McLaren Mercedes driver.

In the race "the brakes and tyre management will be decisive. We have to find the exact braking point so as not to overshoot the corners because the there is grip on the track, but when you are driving on the limit it is easy to make a mistake", stressed Hamilton, who said that is strategy will be to "try and overtake Massa before the first corner".

Robert Kubica agrees with Hamilton in that the choice of tyres "will be important for the race", although the conditions have changed since yesterday and tomorrow they could be different again. Furthermore, the BMW Sauber driver said he was "happy" to be back among the first three drivers on the grid "both the team and I have worked very hard, and we hope not to make the same mistakes we made in Hungary".

The Pole pointed out that in order to overtake "you have to go off the line, particularly at the end of the straight and before corner 17, but everything will depend on the grip level of the tyres".

 

Source: Valmor Sports