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Tag: qualifying

  • Canadian GP Qualifying Team and Driver Quotes

    Canadian GP Qualifying Team and Driver Quotes

    Read what the teams and drivers had to say after the Canadian GP Qualifying.

    Caterham

    Charles Pic 18th
    “It’s been a pretty good day for me. We changed the plan for FP3 when the session was delayed and continued the progress we made yesterday with a decent balance for quali. That worked out well in Q1 as it meant I had a car I could really push with and ending up ahead of a Lotus and both Marussias means we’ve achieved today’s target. I think the race is going to be really interesting. We haven’t had any running yet in the sort of temperatures we’re expecting for tomorrow so we really don’t know too much about how the tyres will degrade, but we found a good balance yesterday on the long runs on both dry compounds and we have a lot of sets left so we can maybe try something different with the strategy. Even though this track is tough on wear rates on the tyres we’ve been able to look after them pretty well and that gives us options for the race that we can work on tonight.”

    Giedo van der Garde

    Giedo van der Garde 21st
    “FP3 was good for me, even though it was obviously cut short, but we found a balance for quali on the inters and managed to get a couple of laps in on the supersofts at the end. After a good FP3 quali really didn’t go to plan. We went out early on inters, one of the first on track, and the times kept coming down as the dry line started to appear, but it was never right for slicks as it had been at the last race in Monaco. We went onto a new set of inters with a few minutes left but then, on my quickest lap I made a pretty big mistake that cost me about 1.5 seconds, and then on my final lap I had to back off for a yellow flag and that meant I couldn’t put in a really representative time. It’s a shame as the car felt good and I’m enjoying the circuit, particularly in these sorts of conditions, but we know we have decent race pace so we’ll put today behind us and move onto Sunday.”

     

    Ferrari

    Fernando Alonso 6th
    “We were well aware how difficult this weekend could be, because with such changeable weather, the track can change from one lap to the next and right to the end, you can never be sure what are the right tyres to use. I am reasonably happy to have salvaged what I could from a qualifying that featured so many unknowns. Starting from sixth here isn’t bad, because you can overtake at this circuit. I’m definitely hoping for a race with no rain, because in the dry, looking at yesterday’s long runs, we can be more competitive and quicker than some of the cars that start in front of us tomorrow. The aim is still to make up ground on our closest competitors: with Raikkonen we have a slightly better chance of doing so, as he is starting behind me, while with Vettel, it’s a tougher task. In any case, I won’t take anything for granted, because here, especially if it rains, anything can happen and it can be the case that strategy counts for less than luck does”.

    Felipe Massa Canadian GP Qualifying crashFelipe Massa 16th
    “I am very unhappy with the way qualifying went for me. Track conditions were not easy, there was very little grip and I was struggling to put together a good lap. I went out in Q2 because I braked on a white line at Turn 3 and when the rear end broke away, there was nothing I could do anymore. Physically, I’m fine, but within myself I’m very disappointed. Never before have I had three accidents in such close succession, even if it’s always the case that when you try and give your all on tracks like this one and Monte Carlo, the risks are always higher. I still don’t know exactly how badly damaged the car is, but even if I’m very disappointed with what happened, we must stay focused, because tomorrow’s race will be long and on this track, anything can happen. I had a good pace today and tomorrow I plan to drive an attacking race”.

    Pat Fry, technical director
    “Today’s qualifying was extremely complicated and its outcome was significantly influenced by the variable weather conditions. In situations like this, the drivers must absolutely be able to do the right number of runs in all three phases that make up the session and with that in mind, we paid close attention to how much fuel we put in the cars, in addition to making the best tyre choices on a track that was in a state of continuous evolution, because of the intermittent rain. In fact, we had a few problems in getting the tyres up to temperature and on top of that the track surface here is less abrasive and so it’s even harder to get the right feeling from the tyres. Fortunately, overtaking is possible here and from where he starts on the grid, Fernando can certainly try to attack. It will be harder for Felipe, because he’s starting from quite a way back. But in the last few races, we have always had a good race pace and we hope that tomorrow the weather clears up enough so that we can make the most of our potential”.

     

    Force India

    Paul di Resta 17th
    “It’s very frustrating to be starting in P17 so we need to sit down and analyse exactly what happened. Something went wrong with the seamless shift software during my first run in Q1 and when I came in the team tried to fix it. It was only a small issue, but we lost valuable time trying to find a solution. Meanwhile the track was getting faster and faster. By the time I had got back out it was raining again and therefore we missed the track at its best. There’s not much you can do in that situation, but it’s a massive disappointment given how competitive the car was yesterday. I’ll try and take the positives because you can overtake on this track and the car is strong. We need to come up with a masterplan tonight and I will be pushing hard tomorrow.”

    Adrian Sutil 8th
    “I’m quite happy with eighth place. It was a tough qualifying session and very hard to judge the conditions. Some parts of the track were wet and other areas were dry, so it was difficult to know how much to push. I also struggled to get the heat in the tyres, so it was not easy to get it altogether for one lap. The most important lap for me was just after the red flag: we all queued up at the end of the pit lane – a bit like a race start – and I knew I had one chance to make Q2. Fortunately it worked out well for me.”

    Robert Fernley, deputy team principal
    “Another excellent effort by Adrian to qualify eighth given how difficult the conditions were today. He was struggling to get the intermediates to work, but he delivered some excellent laps just when it mattered to secure his place in the top ten. Paul’s session was disrupted by a small software issue, which meant he missed out on the optimal track conditions and couldn’t show his true potential. When he did get out at the end of Q1, his best lap was totally compromised by Rosberg, who spun in front of him. It proved very costly and has given Paul a lot of work to do in the race. We know he will keep his head down tomorrow and with dry weather expected he can hopefully demonstrate the inherent pace of the car.”

     

    Lotus

    Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1 TeamKimi Raikkonen 10th (grid penalty)
    “We didn’t have grip in these conditions so we did pretty much all we could do, but if there’s no grip you can’t go faster. In this weather it’s difficult as sometimes the rain gets harder, sometimes the track is drying so you have to try to be out there when the circuit’s at its best. P9 on the grid is not what we want so we’ll have to see what we can do in the race tomorrow.”

    Romain Grosjean 22nd (grid penalty)
    “Clearly not the best day, and of course with the grid penalty I now start in what should be P29 for the race, which is a long way back! After we changed to new intermediates mid-way through the session I had one lap to set a time when the track was at its driest, but there were yellow flags after someone went straight on so I had to slow down and respect the warning. Then the track was too wet to go faster. We got caught out a little bit by the weather but it’s nobody’s fault; just yet more bad luck. In these conditions it’s impossible to predict when the rain will be at its heaviest and we didn’t see anything from the radar to suggest it would get worse. It’s going to be a long race from the back, but we know the car is quick so our weekend is far from over yet.”

     

    Marussia

    Jules Bianchi 19th
    “It has been a frustrating day as I think we were looking strong yesterday in the dry and in anticipation of a dry race tomorrow. Today was a bit of a wash-out however because, although the rain was not heavy, it was intermittent and the track was quite variable at several different stages of the day. Like most of the field we took a gamble on the track having dried enough by the start of Q1 for us to use the Supersoft tyre, but it was so slippery that we were lucky to make it back to the pits to change to the Intermediate. I never got a clean lap as there was the occasional damp patch on the line, so I couldn’t get the consistency to improve enough. I hope we can expect the forecast dry race and we can focus on the positives from yesterday.”

    Max Chilton

    Max Chilton 20th
    “That was a very tricky qualifying. It wasn’t easy to read the track before our first run but it was soon very clear that the Supersoft we had started on was not the way to go. It was like an ice rink! Once we’d switched to the Intermediate tyre I had the confidence to start attacking and we were making good progress, but the track was evolving the whole time so everyone was going quicker. On my quickest lap I got blocked but it’s good that we start ahead of at least one of the Caterhams tomorrow. I hope we’ve seen the last of the wet here and we can look forward to a dry race, as things were quite promising yesterday.”

    John Booth, team principal
    “The wet conditions made for a difficult day for the Team. FP3 threw up more than the usual challenges with only half an hour of running, however at least both cars got onto the option tyre at the end and Max had a particularly good end to the session. Jules didn’t quite get the best out of his tyres having run wide and onto the damp conditions on the dry tyres, however we could see that, in the main, the cars were pretty much as we’d expected them to be after we’d applied our overnight learnings. The Qualifying session was obviously very difficult. We felt it was right to try and use the option tyre, however, as with most of the field, we stopped almost immediately for the Intermediate. Whilst there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the timing of our runs, traffic and varying water conditions meant we never got the best from either driver. We’re much happier with our performance on dry tyres and, although there is still a slight risk of rain tomorrow, it does seem that it is more likely to be dry than today. We look forward to that being the case and making as much progress as we can.”

     

     

    McLaren

    Jenson Button, Spain 2013Jenson Button 14th
    “Today’s qualifying was one of those sessions where it either all falls into place for you – or it doesn’t. And we were just out of luck this afternoon. We encountered yellow flags, a red flag; and, when the session restarted, I crossed the line about half a second too late to start my final flying lap. We weren’t as competitive as we thought we’d be, and 14th obviously isn’t the place where I want to start, but the good news is that you can overtake around here. A race in mixed conditions tomorrow would be good for us.”

    Sergio Perez 12th
    “That was a very tricky session – it was difficult to make the most of things, and, in the end, luck just wasn’t with us. The red flag at the end of Q2 affected me just as I was about to set a good time. Then, with only two minutes of the session remaining, I didn’t get a run without traffic – as a result, I couldn’t get my tyres up to temperature. The fact that some of the others managed to improve was frustrating, but that’s racing; sometimes you get it right, and sometimes you get it wrong. It’s a shame, because I think we had the pace to get into Q3 today. Our focus is on the race, and I think we can still score good points tomorrow. It’s not over.”

    Martin Whitmarsh, team principal
    “A difficult session for everyone – but, ultimately, things just didn’t go our way today. In Q2, we’d just switched both drivers to their second set of Intermediate tyres when they encountered yellow flags, and then the red. We couldn’t really get the quick laps we needed. When the red flag came out, we only had two minutes of the session remaining, so it was always going to be difficult to get out and improve. Jenson narrowly missed starting his lap – by about one second – and Checo had too much traffic and struggled to get his tyres up to temperature. Consequently, we didn’t get a car through into Q3 for the first time this year. But, in Jenson and Checo, we’ve got a pair of fantastic racing drivers who’ll most certainly be giving their all tomorrow. The unpredictable weather conditions show no sure sign of abating, and we’ll be pushing to maximise every available opportunity in a race that’s destined to be long, hard and unpredictable. There’s still a lot to play for.”

     

    Mercedes

    Lewis Hamilton 2nd
    “It’s good to be up on the front row again but I am a little disappointed with my last lap. I was seven-tenths up going into the last corner which was really slippery and unfortunately I went straight on. I would have lost time there anyway as it was so wet but there was a chance of pole if the lap had come together. Tomorrow should be a good opportunity for us though. The car felt great yesterday in the dry so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that the rain stays away for the race and hopefully we can give Seb a run for his money. We’ve got a good car and I feel like I’m on it here so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

    Nico Rosberg 4th
    “We were very quick in the difficult conditions out there this afternoon and I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t qualify further up the grid. Unfortunately my radio stopped working and communicating with my engineers is crucial in conditions like we had this afternoon. The biggest issue was not knowing that I had one more lap that was the chance to improve my time. But generally I can be pleased to be starting from the second row and I will hope for a strong race tomorrow. We need to manage the tyres well and then I believe we can get a good result.”

    Ross BrawnRoss Brawn, team principal
    “It was an unusual qualifying session this afternoon, with both drivers staying on the intermediate tyres throughout. The team managed the situation well, getting the cars out on track at the right time, and we saw how difficult that was to achieve today. Both drivers did a fantastic job: Lewis secured his third consecutive front-row starting position while Nico finished P4 in spite of a radio problem that made communication difficult when he was out on track. As we often see in conditions like this, there are some cars out of position compared to where they would be in the dry, and that should make for a very exciting race.”

    Toto Wolff, executive director
    “It was a tough qualifying for everybody and these are conditions where it is a lot easier to get things wrong than right. That means we’re very happy to have both cars on the front two rows, starting second and fourth tomorrow. The race will be a step into the unknown because the forecast says it should be dry and warmer than it has been so far this weekend. That will keep everybody on their toes and should make for a fun afternoon.”

     

    Red Bull

    Sebastian Vettel 1st
    Sebastian_Vettel“It was very tricky today, especially as you never knew what the conditions were going to be like the next time you went out. It was intermediate tyres throughout, but it was extremely difficult to adapt as the conditions were constantly changing. In the last qualifying session we decided to have two runs; we thought the second would be quicker, as we had a new set of tyres for that, but it started to drizzle in the last sector, in particular in the chicane. I went straight there on one lap and on the second I had a mistake somewhere else, so it turned out that the first run was the important one. I’m happy the lap was good enough, as it was tight with Lewis. Congratulations to Valtteri, I think he did an excellent job putting the Williams on P3. For us, I am extremely happy with the result and looking forward to the race tomorrow. I think we had strong pace yesterday, so no matter what the conditions we should be in decent shape.”

    Mark Webber 5th
    “That was quite tricky for everyone. It’s a bit of a mixed grid and I would have liked to have been a bit more comfortable than fifth, but in the end it’s what we got. There’s a long way to go tomorrow, so let’s see how it unfolds. It was a good job by Bottas and it should be an interesting grand prix. Dry conditions tomorrow are nicer for everyone as it makes it a bit more predictable and straightforward, and visibility here isn’t great here if it rains.”

     

    Sauber

    Esteban Gutierrez 15th
    “The conditions today were very tricky. I was trying to find the limit of the car, and getting grip was difficult. A red flag interrupted Q2, and then it was quite a challenge to put a lap together. Although FP3 was shortened, we were able to get an idea of what would be possible in qualifying. We are pushing the window to the top ten and we need to keep fighting for Q3. For the race tomorrow we are not sure about the weather, but I suppose it’s going to be dry. This can be good for us, because we decided on a low downforce set-up. Hopefully this will help us to overtake.”

    Nico Hulkenberg 9th
    “It was really bad luck today. I was on a good lap and could have made Q3, but then the red flag came out 200 meters before the finish line. But I think, after a difficult day yesterday, today we improved quite a bit and P11 is not too bad to start from – it’s close to the points. According to the weather forecast it’s going to be dry and warmer than it has been all weekend. We have to wait and see how competitive we can be.”

    Monisha Kaltenborn, team principal
    “It was an exciting qualifying. The team improved significantly compared to yesterday. The fact that Nico didn’t make it into Q3 was tough luck. From where we are now, we have a good base for the race tomorrow and points should be possible.”

    Tom McCullough, head of track engineering
    “After a difficult Friday we got a lot more out of the car today, and the drivers handled the difficult qualifying conditions very well. Ultimately Nico was unlucky with his final lap before the red flag. He had completed the final corner and was on the way to the line when the red flag came out. His lap time would have taken him easily through to Q3. That’s a bit disappointing, but from P11 and P15 we can still score points on a track like this. The car should be strong tomorrow in the race.”

     

    Toro Rosso

    Jean-Eric Vergne 7th
    “It was not an easy session and at one point I thought I wouldn’t even make it out of Q1! But we managed to improve a couple of things on the car and that helped. Generally, I feel comfortable in the wet, but that wasn’t the case today. The car wasn’t exceptional, but we got the most out of it I think. It was tough driving out there, but in the end it worked as is clear from the fact I got seventh place on the grid. It’s my best ever F1 qualifying, but I’m not going to be jumping for joy over a seventh place, as there are no points given out on Saturday. We still have the main part of the job to do tomorrow, when I will be trying to at the very least maintain this position and even do better. I’m a racing driver so I always want to go forward. It will be a difficult afternoon in very different conditions, but our long run pace was good yesterday so that’s a reason to be optimistic.”

    Daniel RicciardoDaniel Ricciardo 11th
    “The conditions were very difficult this afternoon, everything you can think of – wet, damp, greasy, oily…so we never really got going and we were quite lucky to make it into Q3 as I was never really comfortable or happy with the car on the intermediate tyre. I think there was an element of luck with me getting into the top ten today. If it’s dry tomorrow, I feel we can move forward up the order as I think that there are a few guys in front of us, who won’t have that pace in the dry so I’m definitely hoping the rain holds off tomorrow. However, I am happy that both Toro Rossos are in the top ten, which is a great achievement for the team.”

    Laurent Mekies, head of vehicle performance
    “A bit like Monaco two weeks ago, this was a complicated qualifying session for everyone, especially the drivers. For the engineers on the pit wall it was important to put the cars out on track at the right time, while for the crew in the garage they had to follow carefully the many instructions they were receiving. Overall, things went well, as we got both our cars in Q3 which is a good step forward. Of course, you always want more and we feel we had the potential to do even a bit better in Q3. Nevertheless, these are two very good starting positions for tomorrow, when the weather forecast is for very different conditions and from where we are on the grid, we must be aiming to get a good points haul with both cars.”

     

    Williams

    Pastor Maldonado 13th
    “Today the conditions were very challenging for all the drivers as the track was changing with every lap and you needed to be out at the right time on the right tyre. We were more competitive today and I think the conditions really suited us. I was unlucky in Q2 because I was on my best lap when the red flag came out, and when the session resumed there was a lot of traffic around me. Valtteri qualifying in third place gives the whole team a boost and hopefully we can score points tomorrow.”

    Valtteri Bottas 3rd
    It’s a great feeling to qualify in third place and the team did a really good job today. The showers made the track very slippery but this suited us as the car handled the conditions well. We were on the right tyres at the right time which was so important today. If the conditions are dry tomorrow then it will be difficult to stay where we are, so I will be hoping that we see some rain. The whole team has been working hard to improve our performance and we have been making steady improvements with each race.

    Mike Coughlan, technical director
    “The conditions were changeable today making it difficult for all teams. We feel that we have made another step forward in performance, but ultimately today we were able to capitalise on the conditions. We worked well as a team to get the best position on track at the right time, and P3 was the result. If it is dry tomorrow it will be difficult to hold that position but we will be fighting hard for points with both cars. It’s a well-deserved result for Valtteri and for the whole team and it gives us all a real boost after all the hard work everyone has been putting in. Pastor is starting just outside the top ten as he couldn’t complete his quickest laps in Q2 due to the red flag and traffic, so he will also be pushing hard to bring home some points tomorrow.”

  • Raikkonen and Ricciardo hit with grid penalties

    Raikkonen and Ricciardo hit with grid penalties

    Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo have both hit with grid penalties for the start of the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

    The stewards found that both drivers had breached pit lane protocol, that warranted them being penalised with a two place drop each. However, with the drivers having to start alongside each other on the 5th row of the grid originally and the way the penalties are being imposed, each driver will effectively lose only a single place each.

    Kimi Raikkonen will now start from 10th place on the grid and Ricciardo will start from 11th. Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg who would have started 11th, will now start from 9th despite having originally missed Q3.

    Here is the revised grid for the start of the Canadian Grand Prix.

    Five drivers were summoned to explain their actions to the stewards following the chaotic Q2 restart after the red flag for Felipe Massa’s accident. Raikkonen and Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne, Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez were all called in to answer for their actions – all five of them cited for allegedly breaching Article 23.6 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

    Drivers countered allegations that they had not started from the “fast lane” of the pit exit with the defence that they had intended to make practice starts from the left hand side of the pit lane, which is permitted in the rules.

    Daniel RicciardoThe stewards accepted the defence but stated that they still needed to leave in the order they arrived in the pit lane so Raikkonen – who left 2nd after arriving 4th, and Ricciardo who left 4th after arriving 6th, were still left with a two place penalty each.

    Raikkonen also had to explained why he swerved around Mark Webber to overtake him in the queue as we all saw at the restart.

    According to the stewards’ statement, “The driver claimed he intended to make a practice start from the left hand side of the pit exit, as permitted. The driver claimed he was unduly delayed by Car 2 [Webber].”

    “Car 2 did remain stationary for almost 2 seconds following the start of Q3 and the Stewards conclude in the circumstances this qualifies as ‘unduly delayed,’” read their statement, concluding that no further action would be taken regarding the matter.

    Raikkonen’s penalty is served first, dropping him from 9th to 11th behind Hulkenberg. Ricciardo’s penalty is then served dropping him from 9th to 11th meaning that they each effectively only lose one spot.

    Click here to see the revised grid for the start of the Canadian Grand Prix.

     

  • F1 2013 – Canadian GP Qualifying Round-Up

    F1 2013 – Canadian GP Qualifying Round-Up

    The Canadian Grand Prix weekend is famous for many things including changeable weather conditions.

    The Formula 1 pack had to contend with tricky track conditions as the rain rendered the use of slick tyres completely out of the question. The first session of qualifying sported the beginnings of a dry racing line but no driver was brave enough to venture out onto slicks.

    Paul-di-RestaDrivers filed out of the pitlane on the red-walled supersofts but conditions demanded a quick return to the pits and set of intermediates to negotiate the circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Paul di Resta and Romain Grosjean were the biggest causulties in the first session of qualifying as neither made the cut. Scot di Resta was especially critical of his team who he said chose the wrong time to ‘fix an issue’ with the car. Grosjean’s qualifying session was brought to an end as the Frenchman encountered a yellow flag and a tad too much rain on his final run. Grosjean will start the race in last place due a 10 place grid penalty incurred from the Monaco GP.

    The second session of qualifying was no less dramatic as Felipe Massa binned his Ferrari in the barriers of turn 3. The Massa incident brought out the red flag with just about two minutes left on the clock. As the drivers scrambled to the pit exit it was Adrian Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo who made the most of conditions; both securing a passage into Q3.

    Meanwhile, McLaren’s Jenson Button painfully missed the chequered flag by a couple of seconds and was cemented in 14th place while teammate Sergio Perez was 12th. After stating his feelings about a poor start to the season earlier in the week Williams’ Valtteri Bottas sensationally advanced to the final top-ten shootout.

    Valtteri_Bottas_2012_Malaysia_FP1_2It was Sebastian Vettel who judged it best in the final part of qualifying. As conditions continued to fluctuate throughout the final ten minutes of qualifying Vettel set a time of 1:25:425s in the opening minutes. Only Lewis Hamilton came within striking distance of the German setting a time just 0.086s slower than Vettel. As the big guns duked it out for the front row it was rookie driver Bottas who stole the spotlight. The Williams driver, flying throughout the hour, set the third fastest time overall.

    A noteworthy mention to Toro Rosso as both Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo qualified in the top ten for Sunday’s race.

    Championship contenders Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen qualified in 6th and 9th respectively.

    quali

  • Nico Rosberg makes it an F1 qualifying hatrick in Monaco

    Nico Rosberg makes it an F1 qualifying hatrick in Monaco

    Nico Rosberg took his third pole position in a row today as Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix in a rain hit qualifying session.

    The Red Bull drivers will be occupying the second row of the grid tomorrow, followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.

    Q1 started just after rain hit Monaco – following three days of sunshine in the principality. The track was damp at the start of the session, making it necessary for everyone to come out on track on the intermediate Pirelli tyres.

    Everyone headed out to get an early banker lap in, except for the three drivers who crashed during FP3, Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean and Adrian Sutil.

    Jules Bianchi was struck out of the session early with an airbox fire, ending his session before it had really even started.

    The Lotus F1 team got Grosjean out onto track in the final minutes of the session and repayed them by setting the fastest time after the session.

    Ferrari were not able to get Felipe Massa’s car ready in time to get it out and he will start from the pit lane.

    Giedo van der Garde was the greatest surprise of the first session, getting his Caterham into Q2. Paul di Resta, Charles Pic, Esteban Gutierrez, Max Chilton, Jules Bianchi and Felipe Massa were eliminated after Q1.

    Nico Rosberg fastest in MonacoThe second part of qualifying made it difficult for drivers to decide which tyres to be on as the track continued to dry. In the end they all opted for slicks. Van der Garde was the first driver to switch to the dry supersoft tyres and managed to out-qualify Pastor Maldonado and qualify an amazing P15 for the Caterham team.

    Jean-Eric Vergne surprised all by securing his place in Q3 for the first time this year.
    Grosjean, unfortunately was not able to make it through and blamed one of the Toro Rossos for holding him up.

    Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Grosjean, Bottas, van der Garde and Maldonado were all eliminated after Q2.

    The track was dry enough for everyone to head out on supersoft dry tyres for the third session. Lap times were falling like crazy as the track kept improving.

    Alonso was one of the first drivers to change tyres and head out for his final run, giving him two chances to have a go at a time. But he only managed P6 with his final effort.

    Despite how it after FP3, Ferrari and Lotus were nowhere near the battle for pole in qualifying and it was between the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers.

    It was Nico Rosberg who went fastest with a 1.13.876 by the end of the session with Lewis Hamilton one tenth behind him.

    Below are the full results for F1 Qualifying in Monaco.

    Monaco Qualifying Results

  • Spanish F1 Qualifying Team and Driver Quotes

    Spanish F1 Qualifying Team and Driver Quotes

    Here are the team and driver quotes following the Spanish F1 Qualifying session in Barcelona today.

    Mercedes
    Nico Rosberg (1st, Q3 – 1m 20.718s)
    “It’s a great feeling to be on pole again. So far this weekend has been very positive and it’s a pleasure to see that the team is improving and fighting through the problems together. I know everyone back at the factory and at home will have been watching this afternoon and it’s a great feeling for all of us. However, we know that this is only half of the job completed and have the painful memory of what happened in Bahrain to prove that. We’ve worked very hard on our race pace but this track is tough for the tyres, particularly with graining. So it will be a big challenge tomorrow and our goal is to make the most of the opportunity we have from starting at the front and get a strong result for the team.”

    Lewis Hamilton (2nd, Q3 – 1m 20.972s)
    “A great job by the team and I’m so happy that we got a one-two qualifying result today. It’s a real bonus for us to be so high up, and that’s all down to the hard work that the team have put into this car, I can’t thank them enough. Of course, I’d like to be one place higher but Nico did an awesome job and really nailed his lap. I’ve not been totally happy with the balance of my car all weekend, even today, so we need to look at it this evening and see what we can do for the race. Limiting the degradation is going to be my major challenge as the general pace isn’t too bad. It’s going to be tough to keep these positions tomorrow but we’ll give it our best shot.”

    Ross Brawn, Mercedes team principal
    “A great job by the team and both of our drivers today: I believe we have the strongest driver pairing in Formula One this year and they demonstrated it today. However, we know that it’s tomorrow afternoon that counts and we have worked diligently this weekend to find the right solutions to improve our performance and consistency in race conditions. I don’t think we will be the strongest team in the race but we are starting from the best possible position. Now we need to get through the first stint, which will certainly be interesting on the option tyre, and then see how our race develops.”

    Toto Wolff, Mercedes team executive director
    “It was a nice surprise for us to see both cars at the top of the times this afternoon but we know that Sunday afternoon is a more complicated challenge for us. We have worked all weekend with the race in mind but it is clear that we are harder on the tyres than some of our rivals. Tomorrow will show us what progress we have made on improving this situation and our pace in the race.”

    Sebastian VettelRed Bull
    Sebastian Vettel (3rd, Q3 – 1m 21.054s)
    “I was pretty happy with the last sector, as historically it’s been a bit weak for me. Now finally, after the last couple of years, I understand the last few corners a little better. I’m quite happy as yesterday and this morning I wasn’t too comfortable, particularly in the last sector, but we improved the car. We had a pretty smooth qualifying session, we took a slightly different approach to some others using option tyres only – whether that helps us tomorrow we‘ll have to wait and see, but it will be an interesting race and a lot will be about tyre degradation. It’s good to start a little bit higher up, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

    Mark Webber (8th, Q3 – 1m 21.570s)
    “Qualifying went well today apart from Q3. I was disappointed with the lap in Q3 and lost a lot of time in the last sector; I’m normally quite strong there, but I was in trouble with the rears. It’s a sensitive game these days and you need to get everything lined up. So, in the end I’m disappointed with the last lap, but everything else I was happy with. It will be an interesting race tomorrow.”

    Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
    “A very interesting qualifying. Sebastian put in a phenomenal lap at the end of Q3 to line up third on the grid, which was beyond what we expected after Q1 and Q2. With the two Mercedes ahead of us and Kimi and Fernando behind it makes a fascinating grid for tomorrow’s race. For Mark, having looked competitive in Q1 and Q2, unfortunately his lap in Q3 was just that little bit off and, on such a close grid, the differences are marginal. Hopefully both drivers can have very strong races from their grid positions tomorrow.”

    Thierry Salvi, Renault support for Red Bull
    “Although we know Barcelona well from winter testing, there are several challenges to setting the engine up here and a number of things we need to stay on top of. There are a variety of corner speeds and some heavy braking zones, and the third sector is a big challenge drivability wise. We’ve worked to make the engine as smooth and driveable as possible to counter these issues and generally everything is working well. Based on tyre wear and grid position we seem to be in good shape for tomorrow’s race, which is again likely to be very exciting.”

    Kimi Raikkonen in Spain 2013Lotus
    Kimi Raikkonen (4th, Q3 – 1m 21.177s)
    “That was more or less all we could do today. I didn’t make any mistakes on my fastest lap so that was pretty much all there was to come from the car. I wouldn’t say it was a perfect lap, but I don’t think we would have been much higher up the order if it had been. The Mercedes, as we’ve seen before, seems to be pretty fast in qualifying but hopefully in the race we can turn it around. Our race pace has been pretty good all year so let’s try and get on the podium. I’ll have to make a good start, then let’s see what happens.”

    Romain Grosjean (7th, Q3 – 1m 21.308s)
    “We did a good job today throughout qualifying but on my last lap I made a mistake into turn one, so I decided to back off and save the tyres. Otherwise, I think we could have done a bit better and maybe sit one or two rows further towards the front. I was happy with the car and all the work we’ve done since Friday. For tomorrow, we will see what happens as the competition is very tight. As we have seen, conditions are variable this weekend and once more the tyres should be key.”

    Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director
    “We’re pretty happy with today’s performance. We made some changes from yesterday then had a productive morning validating them on track. It was a reasonably straight-forward qualifying session with both cars saving two sets of the medium tyres for Q3 and no real dramas to speak of. Unfortunately Romain had a lock-up on his last lap, otherwise he would have been right on Kimi’s pace, but to have the slower of our two cars starting from P6 certainly isn’t a cause for concern. The new hard compound seems better suited to this track than the previous version, certainly with the temperatures we’ve experienced here. It works well for us. The allocation of the hard and medium compounds is not a life changing scenario either. What’s possible in the race? P4 and P6 starting positions are pretty decent for us when you consider the race pace and tyre management we’ve been able to show so far this season. There’s certainly the potential to have a very good race tomorrow.”

    Ferrari
    Fernando Alonso (5th, Q3 – 1m 21.218s)
    “It’s a well known fact that Saturday afternoon is our weak point and fifth place is more or less what we were expecting. We were well aware that Red Bull and Mercedes would both be very strong, but while it’s true we have to start taking back points on Vettel, we are not too scared of Mercedes, who usually have higher tyre degradation. The team and I are optimistic for tomorrow as our race pace is good and usually we manage to go better on Sunday. We start from the clean side and hope that will allow us to get off the line well, because what we need here is to make up some places at the start and then put in a few clean laps in the early stages or at half distance. We will also have to defend against Raikkonen: so far he has gone very well in the races and the Lotus doesn’t seem to suffer too much on the tyre front. As usual this season it will be very important to choose the right strategy, because there is only one lap difference in terms of degradation between the two tyre compounds.”

    massaFelipe Massa (6th, Q3 – 1m 21.219s)
    “I can’t say I’m pleased with this result, because I was expecting more after the times I did this morning. Unfortunately, in the third sector I had slight understeer which was costing me time, but all the same, I feel very confident because our car seems competitive. Now we must concentrate on tomorrow’s race, because it will be a long one and anything can happen. As for the Stewards’ decision relating to what happened with Webber in Q2, it was not my intention to get in his way and in all honesty, I can’t recall having affected his qualifying. When I saw him in the mirrors, I thought I’d get through the corner before letting him by, which was the only course of action at such a narrow point. On top of that, he was on worn tyres at the time and I don’t think he was doing a quick lap. I’m not surprised at the pace of the Mercedes, as they were already strong here in winter testing and their car is always very competitive in qualifying. This result shows once again that, on Saturdays, our rivals prefer to take a more conservative approach in the morning before revealing their true potential in the afternoon”.

    Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
    “First of all, I want to wish the best of luck to Pat Fry, our Technical Director who will be undergoing an appendectomy this afternoon and we wish him all the best for a rapid recovery. As for qualifying, we knew we couldn’t be in the hunt for the very front: we definitely cannot be satisfied with the result, but the third row is still a good starting point on which to build in tomorrow’s race. It was not a surprise to see the two Mercedes being so quick, as it was also the case in winter testing at this track. Looking ahead to Sunday, we are reasonably sure we can count on the potential we have seen so far and as usual, the start will be very important to try and make up a few places. Tyre degradation will still be a key factor and so we must stay focused and make the most of any opportunity.”

    McLaren
    Sergio Perez (9th, Q3 – 1m 22.069s)
    “We’ve had a difficult couple of days – I had problems throughout practice – so to get through to Q3 was a great result, and something we really weren’t expecting. I’m very pleased because I got absolutely everything out of the car. So we’ll go into the race tomorrow looking to maximise our potential. If we can manage that, I think we should be satisfied. The whole Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team is determined to keep on fighting. I’ve seen how hard the guys in the garage, and everybody back at MTC, are working to get us back to the front – so today’s result just makes me even more hungry to justify all their efforts.”

    Jenson Button, Spain 2013Jenson Button (14th, Q2 – 1m 22.355s)
    “Congratulations to Checo – he did a great job, particularly in Q2. He did everything right this afternoon and showed that some of our recent upgrades are definitely working. It’s not yet enough, but it’s rewarding to see that we’re making some progress. For me, the car felt okay in Q1, but, in Q2, I couldn’t find the grip for my final run. It felt as though the tyre pressures may have been too high, but to be honest we’re not yet quite sure exactly what happened. So, tomorrow, from 14th on the grid, whatever we do will be difficult. It’ll be a tricky afternoon, but we’ll definitely do our best to make the best of it.”

    Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
    “Checo did a fantastic job in qualifying today – especially in Q2 during which he drove a sensational lap to be seventh-quickest. In Q3 we considered taking the tactical option, in other words not running him at all in order to conserve an extra set of tyres. But, in the end, on the basis that he was driving so well, we decided to go for it in the hope that he might repeat his Q2 form relative to his principal opposition. As things panned out, he lost a little time in sector three on his best Q3 lap and ended up in P9. But, anyway, I want to say ‘Well done Checo’, because he was extremely impressive here this afternoon. Jenson had a difficult qualifying – and, although we haven’t yet had a chance to examine his data thoroughly, it would appear that perhaps his tyre pressures may have been set a little too high. But, whatever the problem turns out to have been, I’m certain that, had he felt comfortable in his car, he’d have been able to go through to Q3 as Checo did. Having said that, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ ambitions extend to a great deal more than merely going through to Q3, and it’s clear that our MP4-28 still requires a lot of development before it becomes as competitive as we need it to be. But we’re gradually understanding more about its shortcomings, and I’m sure we’ll get there in the end. In the meantime, both Checo and Jenson will give 100 percent tomorrow in their efforts to score as many world championship points as possible for themselves, for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, and last but not least for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ many fans all over the world.”

    Force India
    Paul di Resta (10th, Q3 -1m 22.233s)
    “I think we can feel pretty pleased with tenth because we achieved our target of reaching Q3. I did not quite get the maximum from Q3, because it was difficult to optimise the final sector on my out lap, but we are still in a good position for the race. Tyre wear will play a big role tomorrow because this place is one of the hardest tracks for the tyres. Hopefully that will work to our advantage and we can make some progress with a good strategy and not spend too much time in the pit lane. There will obviously be a lot of cars behind me with new tyres, so the race to the first corner will be crucial.”

    Adrian Sutil, Spain 2013, Sahara Force IndiaAdrian Sutil (13th, Q2 – 1m 22.346s)
    “Q1 went well and my run on the hard tyres gave me some good information before I fitted the mediums. Then Q2 was a bit disappointing because my position on the track for the final run was not ideal. Vergne pulled out of the pits just as I was leaving and I had Nico (Hulkenberg) pushing from behind. Also Webber was on a flying lap and it was difficult to find a gap. I think that’s the main reason why I missed out on Q3 because we had the pace to be in the top ten. I’m sure my car is going to work well tomorrow, but it’s so tough to overtake here and qualifying position is very important.”

    Robert Fernley, Force India deputy team principal
    “It’s good to see Paul make it through to Q3 – the first time the team has done so in Barcelona – and it means we’re in a good position to go and fight for points. Adrian has been matching Paul’s pace in all the sessions but his Q2 lap was compromised by track position – he couldn’t get a clean lap and that cost him a few rows on the grid. I expect us to be strong tomorrow and hopefully we can demonstrate the sort of race pace we’ve shown in the previous four races. The car is nicely balanced, we are working the tyres well, and there’s every reason to believe we can come away with two cars inside the points.”

    Toro Rosso
    Toro Rosso, F1 Qualifying, Spain 2013Daniel Ricciardo (11th, Q2 – 1m 22.127s)
    “I was pleased with the way the session went overall, particularly Q2 and I think we got the most we could out of the car. While yesterday was a good day for us, this morning was nowhere near as positive, as I had problems with the balance on the car. So we had to play catch-up and this afternoon we managed to get it right. I was happy with my lap in Q2, even though you can’t help feeling a little bit disappointed to miss out on Q3 by such a small margin. But we are close and we can have a good race tomorrow. We have made progress and we are once again looking as competitive as we did in China.”

    Jean-Eric Vergne (12th, Q2 – 1m 22.166s)
    “We have made a good step forward which means we start the European part of the season with a stronger car, so that anything is possible tomorrow. There are a lot of positives to take from this afternoon, starting with the fact my car’s set-up will be even better suited to race conditions than to qualifying. Twelfth is a good place to start and points should be on the agenda tomorrow. The team has done a fantastic job to bring some updates that have worked well, but we still need to do a bit more to be genuine contenders for Q3, but so far it has been a good weekend and I am feeling very confident for tomorrow.”

    James Key, Toro Rosso technical director
    “We brought a lot of new bits here, making significant changes to the car, as part of a plan established a long time ago for this weekend in Barcelona. With such a big change, we didn’t know if everything would work as planned and yesterday we saw that, fundamentally, it seemed to work as we hoped. After a satisfactory Friday, this morning Daniel suffered a bit with the balance on his car. However, Jean-Eric has been comfortable with the car all weekend, doing a very good job. Our qualifying result has highs and lows, because it’s our best overall team result this year and Jean-Eric did very well to be so close to his team-mate, but on the other hand, it’s a shame to be out of Q3 by the blink of an eye. It is satisfying that we have made a good step and we are still learning about the package. In our favour for tomorrow is the fact that, being just outside Q3, we can choose our own tyre strategy for the start and we are ahead of all the other cars in that same situation, while we have also saved a new set of Medium tyres. We don’t know quite what to expect from the tyres in the race, as they both seem to be working well as a race tyre.”

    Sauber
    Nico Hulkenberg (15th, Q2 – 1m 22.389s)
    “Qualifying went according to plan today. It is disappointing, as we are simply too slow. The updates this weekend were a step in the right direction, and the set up of the car during qualifying was good, but not good enough as the other teams might have improved even more. I am very satisfied with my lap in Q2. It was the perfect lap. We used two sets of mediums in order to try to get a better grid position, but in the end it wasn’t enough, because we were missing pace. Other than that, I think we can be satisfied with what we have done, but we simply need to find more speed.”

    Esteban Gutierrez, Spain 2013Esteban Gutierrez (16th, Q2 – 1m 22.793s)
    “Qualifying today was tricky. Yesterday and in FP3 this morning I felt quite confident and the laps seemed to be consistent. Overall I think the updates are a good step forward. I could have got more speed out of the last set of tyres, but it’s a delicate position when you are driving on the limit and I tried to get the best out of what we have. I’m not satisfied, as I want to be further in front. We simply need to keep pushing to get more speed.”

    Tom McCullough, Sauber head of track engineering
    “Yet another tight qualifying session where a few tenths move you a long way up the grid. We can take positives from the fact that all the updated parts on the car are working as intended. Both drivers drove well during both sessions. Tyre management will be key tomorrow in the race. So along with that and the strategy we’ll now look at the best way to move ourselves forward from where we are starting.”

    Monisha Kaltenborn Sauber team principal
    “We cannot be satisfied with P15 and P16. Especially on a track like this one, it will not be easy to achieve a lot from where we start. Both drivers showed great performances today. This shows we have reduced the gap in qualifying, but still have to improve more.”

    Williams
    Valtteri Bottas (17th, Q1 – 1m 23.260s)
    “Unfortunately the result from today shows where we are compared to others, but I still think we’ve made a step forward and we’re heading in the right direction. It seems everyone else has improved as well which means we are in similar position to the first four races. Hopefully we can keep making the same steps race-by-race. We will try our best tomorrow and I still think we can climb up the grid as our race pace looks good.”

    Pastor Maldonado, Williams F1 TeamPastor Maldonado (18th, Q1 – 1m 23.318s)
    “We’re having a difficult time with the car at the moment, but we have been working very hard to improve things. We were missing a lot of grip which made it difficult to get a good time today. In terms of performance, we’re not there but we will keep focusing on the work needed to move us up the grid.”

    Mike Coughlan, Williams technical director
    “After winning here last year, to go out in Q1 is really disappointing for us. On such a close grid, in which Valtteri only missed out on Q2 by half a tenth, we need to be making bigger steps forward than those around us if we want to be able to show any improvement in results. Our race pace is more competitive than what we have shown today so we still aim to fight for points in tomorrow’s race, but everyone at Williams, both here and at the factory, knows that there is a great deal of work to do in order for us to move forward this season.”

    Caterham
    Giedo van der Garde (19th, Q1 – 1m 24.661s)
    Giedo-Van-Der-Garde“I’m obviously really pleased with how today’s gone, both in FP3 and qualifying. We made a few changes to the car overnight to try and find a balance with the new parts and it’s worked out really well. I’m not running the same package as my teammate here – I have most of the new package except the front wing so we went a slightly different way than Charles on setup and even though I didn’t get a really quick lap in during FP3 I could feel we were going in the right direction. In qualifying it came good and on the second run I had a clean out lap, got the tyres working well, and then a really good run to set my best qualifying time of the season so far. Days like today show how my learning curve keeps improving. I’m working better with the engineers in every session on track and they are finding out more about how to help me get the most out of the car. This is the sort of performance I’d targeted for when we had new parts on the car so I’m really pleased for me, the whole team and everyone who’s backed me that we can deliver like we did today. There’s more to come, in the race tomorrow and with more new parts for the rest of the year and this is a great way to kick off the European season.”

    Charles Pic (22nd, Q1 – 1m 25.070s)
    “It’s been a bit of a tough weekend so far. We’ve put a few new parts on the car and have tried several setup options to get the most out of them and find a balance I can use, but it hasn’t worked yet. FP3 was ok – I didn’t have a completely clean lap so we knew there was a bit more time to come after that session, but in qualifying the car just didn’t feel like it was working as well as it had in the morning session. I’m not too sure why but we’ll go through all the data and find out if there’s anything we can do for tomorrow. On the positive side, we know we have good long run pace and I think we can have a decent race tomorrow. The weather’s supposed to be a bit warmer and that’ll suit our car better than the cooler conditions we’ve had so far this weekend. Our pit stops have been good all year and our tyre degradation here has not been too bad on both compounds, so I think we should be ok for the race.”

    Marussia
    Jules Bianchi (20th, Q1 – 1m 24.713s)
    “We had a good Free Practice Three session this morning and the changes we had made seemed to move us on quite a bit from yesterday. We found more grip but the car is still not well-balanced and this is the most I could get from it today. The balance was quite variable in the first and last sector on different laps and I’m still not happy in the high-speed corners. We need to go through the data and understand what I can do in the race tomorrow to manage these situations. We need a good start to get ahead of Van der Garde but I think we will see some improvement tomorrow in terms of our race pace.”

    Max Chilton (21st, Q1 – 1m 24.996s)
    Marussia F1 team Spanish Grand Prix Preview Quotes“We’re not there yet with the balance of the car but I am pleased with the progress we have made since yesterday. My first lap in particular was strong and I’m definitely feeling the benefit of not having lost track time this weekend. I feel like I’ve been able to demonstrate more of my progress. I’m really looking forward to the race now.”

    John Booth, Marussia team principal
    “We were pleased that the analysis we did overnight on our upgrade package showed that we continue to enjoy good correlation with our development tools. The upgrades we have for this race have certainly brought more performance to the car and last night the feeling was that if we’d had more time to work on the developments during FP1 and FP2 there would be more to come. We haven’t really found a great balance on the car yet, however we did have a very positive FP3 session where we made good improvements to the car. Jules was unable to get a good lap together in qualifying due to a difficult balance and Max had to be a bit more aggressive on his out lap due to traffic to find clean air. So neither driver quite got the lap they wanted today but it’s good to have them so close to each other and I think we can look forward to a good race tomorrow.”

    Pirelli
    Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director
    “The teams had their preparation time for qualifying limited by wet weather yesterday morning, so there were still a number of question marks today. As expected we saw a considerable degree of track evolution, with this year’s pole time in Barcelona the fastest-ever since Pirelli came to Formula One in 2011. The teams have quickly got to grips with our latest evolution of the P Zero Orange hard, which should make it easier to maintain the tyres within the optimal working temperature range and so use a wider variety of strategies. With plenty of lateral energy through the rubber, an abrasive surface, and warm temperatures Barcelona is quite challenging for the tyres. We would expect to see three pit stops tomorrow – as was the case last year. The race has never been won from outside the front row, so it will be interesting to see if any drivers can reverse that trend through the use of strategy.”

  • Kimi Raikkonen Q&A

    Kimi Raikkonen Q&A

    Despite being on or near the top of the time sheets all weekend in Barcelona Kimi Raikkonen qualified fourth ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix today. Here’s what he had to say to reporters after qualifying.

    Q: Kimi, you’ll start from P4 tomorrow – one of your best qualifying result so far this season. What do you make of that?
    Kimi Raikkonen:     Well, I have to make a good start and then I take it from there. What else do you expect I do? Mercedes have not been as strong in the races as they have been in qualifying so everything seems possible.

    Q: After the morning session had you hoped for a spot on the first row of the grid?
    Kimi Raikkonen:     It’s been pretty good all weekend long, but unfortunately during qualifying it was a bit more windy than it was in the morning session and that made it a bit more tricky in Sector 3. For sure we didn’t have the speed of Mercedes, but we have seen that before so I am open for anything in the race.

    Q: Did you have had any idea before qualifying where you would fit in?
    Kimi Raikkonen:     After I made it into Q3 it could have been P1 or P10. Everything is pretty tight, so I am satisfied where I am as it was the best qualifying result in quite a while.

    Kimi Raikkonen in Spain 2013Q: A penalty points system for drivers has been spoken about recently. Sebastian Vettel clearly said in the FIA press conference that he is not in favour of it. What is your opinion?
    Kimi Raikkonen:     Why should I make a comment over something that is not finalized yet? Nothing has been decided and I am sure there will be changes made to the proposal. We always had penalties when a driver did something wrong – now they are looking at a new catalogue for handling misbehaviour. The best way to avoid being confronted with any penalties? Do nothing wrong, don’t break the rules – then you’re fine!

    Q: Do you expect Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso will be in close combat tomorrow? Alonso sure wants to put on a show in front of his home crowd…
    Kimi Raikkonen:     How would I know what’s on Alonso’s agenda! Go and ask him.

    Q: Do you think that you can do one stop less than the others or will it be an equal playing field?
    Kimi Raikkonen:     We will sit down and discuss our strategy this evening. And you would have to tie me to a stake to get a word out of me! All I can say is that we will see a very interesting race tomorrow and that is what fans want to see.

  • Post-qualifying Press Conference – Spanish F1 Grand Prix

    Here is the transcript of the post-qualifying press conference ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix in Barcelona.

    Q: Nico, two in a row. Just looking at the lap there on the monitors, it looked like a very clean lap. Tell us about where you found the speed today?

    Nico Rosberg: It’s just been… things just worked really well the whole weekend, just optimised everything. Of course, after Bahrain thinking about the race a lot, also, so surprised that we could be that quick today. But it all went perfectly in qualifying and I had a really good lap in the end. I’m really, really happy with that. It’s always a good motivation boost and everything, especially for the team – front row, fantastic. But of course I have to be a bit cautious because of what happened in Bahrain, so for sure, nice but to be enjoyed with caution.

    Q: Lewis, as Nico said a one-two for Mercedes and for you just a couple of tenths off Nico. Where did it get away from you?

    Lewis Hamilton: Firstly, congratulations to Nico, he did a great job, so very happy, but also really happy for the team because it’s down to the great work that everyone is doing back at the factory, so I’m very proud to be able to get a front row for the team. But, as Nico said, we’ve got to approach it with caution because tomorrow is going to be tough but today I didn’t have two option sets at the end, which would have helped a little bit but I think was just quicker today.

    Q: Well done and Sebastian – final sector it would appear where Mercedes had it over you today, just two or three tenths of a second, I think, on the final laps. Is that where it got away from you today?

    Sebastian Vettel: To be honest, no. I was pretty happy with the last sector because historically it has been a bit weak for me. After a couple of years now I finally understood a little bit better the last couple of corners. I’m quite happy to be honest because yesterday and this morning I wasn’t really happy, particularly in the last sector. I think we improved the car. Things calmed down and we had a pretty smooth qualifying session. Again a little bit different approach than the majority of people – using option tyres only. Whether that helps us tomorrow we’ll have to wait and see. But for sure it will be an interesting race. It will be all about tyre degradation. I think we’ve seen this in the winter. We didn’t really get very far, all of us. So now I think with the conditions it’s helping a little bit but still it’s a tough challenge and the tyres don’t last as well as we’d probably all like but that’s the challenge we have to face tomorrow. I’m happy with today’s result. It’s good historically to start this grand prix a little bit further up, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.

    Q: Nico, let’s talk a little bit about the race tomorrow. You mentioned that you don’t want to get too overconfident after what happened in Bahrain, but tell us a bit about the work done behind the scenes to avoid a repeat of what happened to you in Bahrain?
    NR:     Yeah, for sure, everyone has been working really, really hard back in the factory to understand even better our problems. You know it’s really an ongoing process, understanding how to get the most out of these tyres. It’s really, really complex, for us drivers, for the engineers, for everybody and we’re just a bit behind at the moment. I’m sure we’ve caught up now. But then you come here and there’s different issues again because here it’s more the graining of the tyres that’s the main issue. And so then again here we were trying to catch up and make the most of that situation. I think we’ve improved things. This morning things were looking at little bit better, so I’m a little bit more confident for tomorrow but still the race is going to a whole different thing, with the tyres it’s a big challenge.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Nico, pole position has been vital here in the past. Do you feel that’s still the case? I guess you’re hoping it is?

    NR: For sure it’s a benefit to start first. Yeah, definitely. Clean air – hopefully – after the start, starting on the better side of the grid, so that’s all great but the race is very long. To win it’s not good enough to start from pole, you need to have the fastest race car. As we’ve seen, there’s so many differences in speeds through the race and strategy and everything. And if you don’t have a very, very quick car there’s no chance. So, just really need to wait and see.

    Q: Lewis, give us your thoughts on how you feel the race will evolve tomorrow. Obviously you starting on the front row of the grid, historically it’s the place to be.

    LH: It is, but my side of the grid isn’t really the place to be. These two have a good position on the cleaner side but we’ll do the best job we can from the start but I think more the concern is tyre degradation. Looking after those tyres is going to be an interesting one. I really hope that we can try and get into turn one first, in a 1-2, that’d be really good for the team.

    Q: Sebastian, still no pole for you in Barcelona. What is it about this place?

    SV: I think today we can be very happy. Mercedes was too quick, both Lewis and Nico. So, I think we can be happy with the result, as I said. Historically, I didn’t really like the last sector and the new corners they implemented a couple of years ago. This year it seems to be that, for the first time, I found a better way around, after trying so many times – which is quite funny if you think that we come here more than once a year. So, I’m happy with that. And for tomorrow hopefully I can prove statistics wrong. I know it’s very important to start from the front row. We just missed it – but I’m confident for the race. I think this year will be a lot about tyres. Nico touched on it earlier. I think generally everybody is suffering quite a lot, so let’s see if we can make our strategy work and have a fast race from where we are.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Nico, congratulations for the pole. Did you practice to take it already during pre-season testing?

    NR: Did I practice the pole position? No. But I mean of course. We practiced with lower fuel during the winter to simulator pole position – well, not pole position, to simulate qualifying. Just as for the car, us drivers, y’know it’s also good to practice a little bit – so I was quite confident coming here because I know that I feel comfortable with the car on this track and things went really well today, definitely.

    Q: (Livio Orrichio – O Estado de São Paulo) Both Mercedes drivers, your team said many times that you must better the car in race conditions – and all the improvements you try to do for this race was in this direction, and the free practice yesterday and today morning. Do you think the car can be in race condition better than the previous race?

    NR: Better for sure, yeah. Because in Bahrain the temperatures and the circuit and everything exposed our small weaknesses in a very extreme way. So a) we’re in a different track and everything so naturally it’s going to be a bit better, and b) we also really tried to understand what went wrong in Bahrain, and we do understand better what’s going on there and have improved things. But still, for sure, I’m not going to sit here and say I’m very confident that I can go for the win tomorrow. No, the target needs to be a little bit less than that I think – maybe a podium – but there are so many unknowns for tomorrow because the situation is completely different again, with graining. And so, we just have to see how it goes.

    Q: And Lewis, your thoughts on that and whether you’ve had to adapt anything in terms of the way you drive, in terms of looking after the rear tyres on the Mercedes?

    LH: Not really, it’s the same as the last race for me.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Nico, in the past few years, Lewis’ team-mates were just blown away by him in the qualifyings and now you’re beating him on a regular basis. How does it feel?

    NR: Of course I’m pleased, yeah, to be ahead of Lewis, very happy with that because I know that he’s very, very high level in terms of his driving. He’s one of the best out there. When I can be in front of him I’m extremely happy.

    Q: (Adrian R. Huber – Agencia EFE) Question for both Nico and Lewis. Did you guys expect in the pre-season this beginning of the season – or is this working out much better than you expected? Less?

    LH: I don’t think we expected it, definitely not. Especially for Nico, in the last couple of years have had a really difficult time in the team with the cars, and me coming to the team I definitely didn’t expect to have such a competitive car. But obviously massively pleased that we do and it’s great to be able to put on performances like we have today for encouraging the team and the guys back at the factory to keep pushing to improve and bring more developments. We’re not there yet but this is a good starting point for us.

    Q: (Pierre Van Vliet – F1i.com) Sebastian, you had only one run in Q3. What’s the point of saving tyres and how to you expect that to play a role tomorrow in race pace?

    SV: What’s the point? I think it’s pretty easy: the tyres don’t last so the fresher the tyres are, the longer they last. Ideally they are new. That’s why we decided to save as many sets as we can. Obviously a bit different to other people but that’s the idea behind. Whether it works or not we’ll know tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the big challenge – as both of them touched on – to look after the tyres and make them last, try to suffer as little graining as possible, which I think we all do suffer, some people more, some people less.

    Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Live) Lewis, do you have a problem with your car today? When will we see you win in a Mercedes?

    LH: Generally this weekend I haven’t had the best of weekends up until now. Obviously this is still great for us today, to be one and two on the grid but I’ve just been struggling all weekend generally. Even my long runs have been pretty poor but on one lap pace, the car doesn’t seem to be too bad but I’ve just been a little bit lost generally, not really knowing what things to change and which direction to go, so I kind of didn’t really make many changes into P3 and into qualifying, I just left the car the same. I didn’t really make any changes to it, I wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable but I knew that it was good enough to do what we did today. As for the win, we’ve got improve our race pace but obviously we have very good qualifying pace. I hope in the near future we will get our win, but we’ll work for it tomorrow.

    Q: Nico, you used the word confidence before. Did you use a used set of tyres in Q2 to get through?

    NR: I used a used set…

    Q: Yeah, because Lewis was tearing it up in Q2 and you came in Q3 with a new set of tyres, so you obviously felt very confident then?

    NR: Confident, yeah, in general, confident, yeah. It was more a question of Lewis didn’t quite manage to get his lap right with the used set in Q2 and I managed to get it right so it was enough to go into Q3. That was the difference.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) There’s some talk about this penalty points system being discussed; something could be implemented in the future. I just wanted to get each of your opinions on what you think of this proposal if it happens.

    SV: I don’t like it. I don’t know, maybe I’m a little bit too old fashioned, I don’t want to make this too long but I think we had a lot of penalties in the past. I think from a drivers’ point of view we’ve been pushing for penalties and right now we are probably in a situation where we have more penalties than we would like so it’s a little bit of a vicious circle . I think the catalogue is not released entirely. I’ve seen some sketch of it but I think you have the potential of scoring points for some things that are not entirely in our hands and small things and at the end of the day the consequence could be very big. I don’t know if that’s the idea. Surely, if you want to adapt a system that everybody uses on the road, which is the idea, there might be some logic behind it, but at the end of the day we are not driving on the road, we are racing.

    LH: I’m not really bothered by it. I don’t really have much of an opinion about it.

    NR: I don’t know enough about it so it’s not worth commenting on.

    Q: (Rosanna Tennant – Pole Position) A light-hearted question: Lewis, how’s Roscoe finding his race?

    LH: Go and ask Roscoe! He’s much better. He was a bit ill – not ill, but he was injured earlier in the week but he’s recovered so I might bring him down later on or tomorrow, with his new team coat, yeah, race suit.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, taking account that maybe the other two guys have a problem with long pace, the long race distance, who do you think could be your main challenger tomorrow, Kimi or Fernando?

    SV: Well, I think first of all them (the two Mercedes drivers), they are in front of us right now so to be honest, I think they had some long runs and they didn’t look too bad. Historically the Mercedes is pretty aggressive when it comes to looking after the tyres. How that turns out tomorrow we will have to wait and see. Other than that, eye-balling the long runs yesterday, I think Ferrari and Lotus were pretty competitive, so I think we can expect them to be very strong in the race as well.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) Nico and Lewis, what kind of help do you really expect from your new development driver Daniel Juncadella?

    NR: For sure he’s been doing a good job in the simulator from what I hear but why he is here this weekend is mainly as a gesture from Mercedes DTM to give him race experience and to see what it’s like at the pinnacle of motor sport. For sure, in DTM, there are a lot of things they can learn from where we are in F1.

    LH: I think that’s a good answer really. It’s good fun to be here to experience… (interrupted, inaudible)

    Q: (Valenti Fradera – El 9 Esportiu) Following on the question about Nico beating you in qualifying, Lewis do you feel somehow disappointed to having been pipped by Nico again?

    LH: No. Sometimes you get beat, sometimes you get ahead. It’s the name of the game and at the end of the day he was quicker today and it just means for me that I have to work harder. Simple.

    Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) Hallo everyone: Lewis, you in particular seemed to be fastest in the final sector, as did you, Nico as well, that’s where the Mercedes seemed to find its time which is interesting because it’s the slower part of the track. So that might bode well for Monaco, perhaps, but what about this track tomorrow, which might suit the Red Bulls more which are faster in the first two sectors? Talk about tomorrow and Monaco if you like.

    NR: I don’t think you can understand something from that for how it’s going to go in tomorrow’s race in terms of degradation and race speed. Of course it is an interesting thing to have a look at and OK, it’s definitely not a bad thing for Monaco to be quick in that last sector with all the tight corners and last year we had a very good car in Monaco, I think the fastest of everybody, so I’m looking forward to Monaco, but in general we have to really play it low because it’s always great to be in front on Saturday but then if you’re not able to win on Sunday – which has been our issue and our weakness, has been our race pace, so we need to be very careful and just try and do better than the last race. Last race, I think Lewis managed to finish fifth and the target is to be a bit better than that.

  • Mercedes steal pole position in Barcelona F1 Qualifying

    Mercedes steal pole position in Barcelona F1 Qualifying

    Not many would have predicted that Mercedes would steal the pole position today in Barcelona F1 Qualifying, but they did.

    After FP3 this morning, it looked almost certain that either Ferrari or Lotus would lock out the front row but it was the German Mercedes team that took the honours.

    Rosberg delivered two amazing qualifying laps, both good enough to take the pole position. Lewis Hamilton was forced to settle for second place 0.254 seconds adrift of his team mate.

    Sebastian Vettel placed his RB9 in third place for Red Bull Racing, followed by the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen.

    Fernando Alonso only managed 5th place at his home qualifying with his team mate Felipe Massa behind him in 6th place. Massa however will have to see the stewards later today for impeding Mark Webber during Q2.

    Romain Grosjean put his Lotus in 7th place, ahead of Webber.

    The McLaren team are not having the greatest weekend of all. Perez did however manage a last minute surge to qualify 7th but team mate Jenson Button only managed to qualify 14th.

    Esteban Gutierrez will be seeing the stewards too after impeding Kimi Raikkonen and Button also complained that he was held up “massively” by Maldonado but both the Massa and Gutierrez incidents seemed far more severe in comparison.

    Giedo van der Garde is a very happy man at the back of the grid after qualifying at the front of the bottom four, a triumph for the rookie driver.

    Here are the full time sheets for today’s Barcelona F1 Qualifying session:

    Pos Driver                Team/Car              Time         Gap

     1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m20.718s

     2. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m20.972s  + 0.254s

     3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m21.054s  + 0.336s

     4. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m21.177s  + 0.459s

     5. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m21.218s  + 0.500s

     6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m21.219s  + 0.501s

     7. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m21.308s  + 0.590s

     8. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m21.570s  + 0.852s

     9. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m22.069s  + 1.351s

    10. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m22.233s  + 1.515s

    11. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m22.127s  + 1.126s

    12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m22.166s  + 1.165s

    13. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m22.346s  + 1.345s

    14. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m23.166s  + 2.165s

    15. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m22.389s  + 1.388s

    16. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m22.793s  + 1.792s

    17. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m23.260s  + 1.532s

    18. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m23.318s  + 1.590s

    19. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m24.661s  + 2.933s

    20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m24.713s  + 2.985s

    21. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m24.996s  + 3.268s

    22. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      1m25.070s  + 3.342s

  • F1 Bahrain GP Qualifying Team and Driver Quotes

    F1 Bahrain GP Qualifying Team and Driver Quotes

    Mercedes
    Nico Rosberg (1st, Q3 – 1m 32.330s)
    “For the first time this season everything went perfectly today and that’s a great feeling. Pole position feels like a kick start for me and it’s a great achievement from everyone in the team. We still had some work to do after the practice sessions yesterday and the team had a busy night to turn it around. Thanks to them for the quickest car out there today. The race tomorrow is a different story and we’re very aware of that. It will be difficult, especially with the rear tyres, and we know that other teams were stronger than us on the long runs on Friday. It will be a big challenge to stay ahead but starting from the front helps.”

    Lewis Hamilton (4th, Q3 – 1m 32.762s)
    “It wasn’t the best of days for me but big congratulations to Nico. Back to back pole positions for the team is great and Nico did a really good job out there. I couldn’t quite find the pace today and with losing five places from changing the gearbox, we’ve got a tough challenge ahead starting from ninth place. These things happen and I’ll do my best tomorrow. The best chance to gain some positions will come at the start and then we’ll see how it goes. Tyre degradation will be a huge factor so it’s going to be a very interesting race.”

    Ross Brawn, Mercedes team principal
    “As a team, we recovered well from two difficult practice sessions yesterday. Neither driver was happy and, together with their engineers, they did a great job to put us in a much stronger position today. Nico produced a great lap to take pole. I said earlier in the season that I think we have the best driver pairing in Formula One and they are proving it with their performances. Lewis had some problems this morning but he coped with them well and recovered strongly to qualify fourth fastest. He will drop five places on the grid tomorrow but we can still expect him to deliver a strong race. We know tomorrow’s race could be very different and perhaps today’s slightly cooler conditions favoured us, so let’s see what it brings.”

    Toto Wolff, Mercedes team executive director 
    “First and fourth places were a strong result this afternoon and we have to be very happy with Nico’s pole position. He did a great job and both of his timed laps in Q3 would have put him on pole position. Lewis has had a more difficult and disrupted weekend so far so qualifying was all about damage limitation for him, which he managed to do extremely well. However, we should be under no illusions about tomorrow. It will be a very tough race and it will be important for us to race hard in order to get both cars to the finish in strong positions.”

    Red Bull
    Sebastian Vettel (2nd, Q3 – 1m 32.584s)
    “I’m not disappointed with that. Well done to Nico, it was a strong lap and it was all his today. When I crossed the line I saw I was second on the screen and didn’t know how much I was missing to pole as the lap was fine. When I got told the gap to P1, it was clear that even with a perfect lap he was unbeatable today, but nevertheless I’m very happy. We managed to save some tyres throughout qualifying and it will be about tyre degradation tomorrow, so we’ll see what happens. It’s good to start from the front.”

    Mark Webber (5th, Q3 – 1m 33.078s)
    “I would have like to have got a bit more out of the car in that session and been a bit further up, but seventh with a penalty isn’t the end of the world. We have a different tyre strategy to some of the others and it’s a long Grand Prix, so let’s see how we go. I’m proud to be starting my 200th Grand Prix tomorrow. When I was a youngster arriving in Formula One, I never thought I would be in the sport for so long. I have had some incredible highs and some tough lows, but that’s top line sport. I have learned a huge amount during that time, about myself and life in general, and the drive is still very strong for the sport; I still enjoy it a lot. It’s another number, but it would be good to get a good result to mark it.”

    Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
    “That was a very tightly contested qualifying session. We stuck to a plan we formulated before qualifying, using one set of the soft tyres in each of the sessions. Sebastian did a super job to qualify on the front row alongside Nico Rosberg. Mark, despite his three place penalty, will line up in seventh place and with the way you can overtake at this track he’ll be able to make progress from there. So, a very solid qualifying and one we can hopefully build on in the race tomorrow. Well done to Nico for getting pole today.”

    Thierry Salvi, Renault support for Red Bull
    “Bahrain presents some unique challenges for the engine, with very hot ambient temperatures and low humidity. This can be tricky for the cooling systems and is something we need to monitor closely to ensure it doesn’t become a problem. Equally the lack of running here throughout the year makes the track conditions very slippery, so we tweak the engine maps to give improved grip. All in all it’s a positive result today and gives us a lot of options on strategy tomorrow.”

    Ferrari
    Fernando Alonso (3rd, Q3 – 1m 32.667s)
    “It’s really good news that once again we managed to do well in qualifying, which is our Achilles heel! This is now the third time this year that we end up in the top three and, even if usually Sunday goes better thanks to our race pace, I am really pleased to see our potential already maximized on Saturday. The data seen from Friday’s long runs means we can be optimistic about a race in which our main adversaries are represented by Vettel and the Red Bull in front and the Lotuses which might be behind us on the grid, but they will definitely be in the game. Because of the penalties for Hamilton and Webber, Felipe will start from fourth: I think it’s much better that I find myself alongside my team mate’s Ferrari than Lewis’ Mercedes! We won’t discover which is the best strategy until tomorrow and it’s impossible to make predictions. But I think the best tyre for the race will be the hard and that could work in our favour, given it’s the one we have been most comfortable on all weekend.”

    Felipe Massa (6th, Q3 – 1m 33.207s)
    “I am very pleased with the outcome of this qualifying, because in the end, the decision to take a risk in Q3, going in a different direction to the one we had originally planned, turned out to be the best one. On the medium compound, I didn’t feel able to fight for the top places, the car had little grip and suffered a lot at the back. Even with the hard tyres, the chances of ending up further down the order was extremely high, but I still opted to stay with the tyres I felt most comfortable on. The penalties for two of the drivers ahead of me -Webber and Hamilton – mean I now move up the grid to fourth place, a point from where I can race with the leaders. Starting on the medium will definitely be an advantage, but to have a good race it will be vital to find the best strategy and ensure everything runs perfectly.”

    Pat Fry, Ferrari chassis director
    “It was reasonably straightforward to interpret this qualifying session and the good start positions we now have mean we are optimistic for tomorrow’s race and they also reward the entire team for all their efforts in improving our performance during qualifying. Of the updates brought here to Bahrain, we have decided to use only the most significant ones, while we will introduce the others in the upcoming races. We are not yet where we want to be, but the gaps seen today tell us that our work is going in the right direction and we must continue like this. Tomorrow, for the third consecutive time, Fernando will start from third place, which is on the clean side of the track here and we hope that could be an advantage at the start. Felipe’s fourth place is a great basis from which to build a race that he will run on a different strategy to his team-mate, having opted to use the hard tyres in Q3. Once again, we can expect a Sunday on which drivers will have to pay close attention to tyre degradation, while the pit wall will have to make the right calls.”

    Force India
    Paul di Resta (7th, Q3 -1m 33.235s)
    “We knew we were in good shape to challenge for Q3 today and we looked strong throughout all the sessions. As the tracked gripped up we didn’t quite have the speed we expected, but I’m still pretty happy with what we’ve achieved, especially as I will move up to fifth with the grid penalties. We’re in a great position for tomorrow; the car is strong and our long run performance yesterday gives us every reason to be hopeful of challenging for some good points.”

    Adrian Sutil (8th, Q3 – 1m 33.246s)
    “The car was quite tricky to drive today and the grip level of the track made it difficult to complete the perfect lap. My final lap in Q3 could have been better, but I’m pretty happy with the outcome, especially if I move up to sixth. The track suits us, we like the warm weather and things look promising for tomorrow. It’s a good starting position to have both cars on the third row and we will be looking to move forward in the race.”

    Robert Fernley, Force India deputy team principal
    “An excellent team effort today brings us our best qualifying performance of the year. We knew we had the pace to get both cars into Q3 and in the end there was very little to choose between Paul and Adrian with just a hundredth of a second separating them. We expect to move up a couple of positions with both cars when the grid penalties are handed out, which puts us in a very strong position for the race. We have no concern with the tyres so the key tomorrow is to hold track position and find some clean air with the strategy so that we can make the most of our strong race pace.”

    Lotus
    Kimi Raikkonen (9th, Q3 – 1m 33.327s)
    “It wasn’t the easiest qualifying session after a weekend which hasn’t been the easiest so far either. Yesterday it was difficult at times to find the balance with the car and I found that again today. This morning it felt good and we didn’t do too bad in free practice, but we didn’t quite get it right this afternoon. My lap wasn’t great, but it’s a long race so we’ll just have to see what we can do tomorrow.”

    Romain Grosjean (11th, Q2 – 1m 33.762s)
    “It’s obviously disappointing to miss out on Q3 but it’s just one of those things. There weren’t any issues with the car, we just tried to be a little too brave by doing just one run and unfortunately it didn’t pay off. On the positive side, we’ve found a lot of performance this weekend compared to the first three races and our pace on the prime tyres in Q1 looked very strong. We qualified in similar positions last year and came away with a double podium, so it’s still all to play for.”

    Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director
    “We’re obviously disappointed with the qualifying result. We just missed the cut for Q3 with Romain who had been looking strong, but unfortunately the track evolution caught us out a little bit and he made a couple of small errors on his only lap in Q2. If this hadn’t been the case, we’re sure he would have made it through. Kimi’s session was a bit more of a mystery. His second run in Q2 was pretty respectable but it just didn’t come together for him in Q3. He’s been strong all weekend up until that point, so we’ll need to trawl through the data this evening to understand what happened. Romain has plenty of new tyres to work with and starting on fresh rubber should give him a good boost at the start and through the first stint. We can decide which compound he will start on so we’ll be crunching the numbers to work out the optimum strategy. Romain has plenty of new tyres to work with and starting on fresh rubber should give him a good boost at the start and through the first stint. We can decide which compound he will start on so we’ll be crunching the numbers to work out the optimum strategy. We were very happy with our long run pace yesterday, with both cars showing decent pace and manageable tyre degradation levels. It’s a tough race on tyres which tends to work to our advantage and we managed a great result from a very similar situation this time last year, so we’re certainly not out of it yet.”

    McLaren
    Jenson Button (10th, Q3 – no time)
    “It’s been a very difficult weekend so far, but 10th is a strong result for us today. The team is used to fighting at the front, so it’s the little things – like getting through into Q3 – that can make a positive difference. Of course, it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, though. I’ll race as quickly as I can, but I don’t want people to expect too much from us. However, there are positives to be drawn from today: we out-qualified a Lotus, which was a surprise, and I’ll be driving the first car starting on new tyres tomorrow. As in China, that brings a slight strategic advantage, so I’m hoping we can have another decent outing. I think we’ve both got a chance of scoring points – it would be great for both Checo and me to finish in the top 10 tomorrow.”

    Sergio Perez (12th, Q2 – 1m 33.914s)
    “Qualifying was very difficult, and it was disappointing to miss out on getting into Q3 by just a few tenths. We didn’t really have the pace to get any further up the grid, though; I think Jenson showed the maximum that was possible for us in Q2 today. Still, we’re in a better position to fight for points tomorrow. I’ve set my car up to look after its rear tyres, so I think our race pace should be a bit more consistent. It’s still going to be hard to get into the points tomorrow, but I hope we can have an okay race and make it into the top 10. But it’s going to be a long, hard race.”

    Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
    “Both Jenson and Checo did a very disciplined job out there today. Going into this race weekend, we knew it was going to be difficult for us – this is a rear-limited circuit, a characteristic that accentuates the weaknesses we have with our car. Still, those circumstances required patience and hard work, and I think the drivers and the engineers got the best from a package that’s more limited on a circuit like this. Jenson’s lap in Q2 was a phenomenal effort and allowed him to get through to Q3. While that’s not what anybody at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is used to accepting, we acknowledge that these are currently difficult times, and that lap was a welcome fillip. Equally, Checo drove extremely well in Q2, and was just a couple of tenths shy of Jenson’s top-10 effort. As in China last weekend, our efforts are primarily focused towards aiming for a decent result in the race tomorrow. Both our drivers are great racers, and I’m sure they’ll go out there and do a fantastic job for us.”

    Toro Rosso
    Daniel Ricciardo (13th, Q2 – 1m 33.974s)
    “This result is not too bad, even if it’s unfortunate that so far, we have not found the pace we showed last week. I don’t think I could have done better than this today, looking at the guys we managed to out-perform in qualifying and how we went in free practice. We were close to a McLaren and ahead of both Saubers and Williams, so I feel that is where we should be on current form. As for tomorrow, I’d love to get back in the points again and the tyres could produce some interesting surprises, which might work in our favour.”

    Jean-Eric Vergne (16th, Q2 – 1m 34.284s)
    “It was a strange session for me, as I set my fastest lap in Q1 on the hard tyre. After that, on the mediums that are meant to be faster, I was incapable of improving my time. The car seems to have changed a lot over the weekend and we need to find out why. At least looking at my lap time on the hard it wasn’t too bad, but there’s something we don’t understand about the mediums. We can’t say the car is bad, so I feel we can do better tomorrow, when there are still possibilities to do something in the race.”

    James Key, Toro Rosso technical director
    “On Friday we were fairly pleased with where we were, although we knew the car was not as well balanced as it could be. So we worked overnight and made changes for FP3, when we found that the balance was improved but somehow, while we had good pace on the prime, we were struggling more on the option. For qualifying, we went back a little bit on our settings to ensure we hadn’t made the car insensitive to the tyres. Jev got through into Q2 with a time set on the prime and Daniel had a reasonable lap on options. We knew it would be tough to get to Q3, especially as Force India are clearly quicker than us in qualifying trim this weekend. In the end, it was extremely tight, with Daniel doing a good job on the options, but Jev didn’t get his option lap and we now need to look at the data to understand what happened. The gap between the two types of tyre here is much less than in China and the option seems to be a reasonable tyre to race on, so it’s useful that we have a couple of sets of new options for that, as looking after the rear end of the car will be a key element in the race.”

    Sauber
    Nico Hulkenberg (14th, Q2 – 1m 33.976s)
    “We always knew it was going to be difficult to get into Q3 today. However, I expected we would be starting closer to the top ten. The car felt quite good in the practice session this morning, but then the wind changed and it seemed very sensitive to that. I think, it will be a long race tomorrow, especially because we know we are lacking pace at this circuit, but we will fight to achieve the best result possible.”

    Esteban Gutierrez (18th, Q1 – 1m 34.730s)
    “It’s not a good feeling starting last, but we always knew that this weekend was going to be difficult. Our speed this weekend has not been great. It was important to drive a clean qualifying today, but I did my best and this is what I got. It was a bit of a disadvantage to do the race preparation in free practice three, because I didn’t get enough practice on the new tyres on low fuel. However, it was important because the data will help us to prepare the strategy for the race tomorrow.”

    Tom McCullough, Sauber head of track engineering
    “Due to Esteban’s penalty we elected to concentrate on high fuel running in FP3 and approach qualifying in a different way today. We have plenty of new sets of fresh tyres left for him tomorrow, and we are looking at the best way of using them. On a more standard programme, Nico was happy with the car in FP3, but it was more difficult to drive in qualifying, and we need to understand that. To be within the same tenth as the two cars in front of you is always disappointing at the end of qualifying. We look forward to maximising the strategy with the goal of scoring points.”

    Monisha Kaltenborn Sauber team principal
    “We were able to improve the performance during the three free practice sessions, but it was not enough in the end. It’s a difficult weekend for our team. In Esteban’s case it was clear he would have to start from a long way behind due to his grid penalty. Nico was able to improve consistently, but he was unlucky because he ended up less than a tenth of a second behind 12th. It’s a challenging situation for the race, but we accept it and we will make the best of it tomorrow.”

    Williams
    Valtteri Bottas (15th, Q2 – 1m 34.105s)
    “I had a bit of traffic in Q1 so I was quite lucky to get through given that one or two tenths can be the difference between progressing to Q2 or not. I put a good lap together in Q2, the best lap I’ve driven here this weekend, so I’m pleased about that. I feel I got everything out of the car today but tomorrow will be a long race in these conditions, so I will be ready to challenge right from the start.”

    Pastor Maldonado (17th, Q1 – 1m 34.425s)
    “I have an extra set of tyres which is positive for tomorrow, and we are working together as a team to look at what we can do in the race. Qualifying 17th is a bit disappointing, but we are realistic with our targets at the moment. We are trying to do our best from the track and at the factory, and we are working to have a better qualifying performance soon.”

    Mike Coughlan, Williams technical director
    “Following practice this morning, our long run pace was looking better against the competition so our focus this afternoon was to just get into Q2. We ran new option tyres in Q1 on both cars to give us the best chance, but unfortunately we didn’t quite manage this with Pastor, despite both drivers posting identical times. The times were extremely close, with Valtteri just 0.4 seconds off Q3, so there was a chance we could have achieved more. Now we need to look to tomorrow and concentrate on our long run performance, and getting the best strategy for the race.”

    Marussia
    Jules Bianchi (20th, Q1 – 1m 36.178s)
    “After a positive start to the season, I think it has perhaps been a little frustrating for all of us that we have hit upon a circuit that is not so well-suited to our car. This happens – up and down the pit lane – but we have done a good job to stay focused and do what we can to make the best of it here. The balance problems we experienced yesterday were quite pronounced and gave us a tough start, but I think the direction we have taken to resolve them is a good one. Overall we have faith in our race pace and strategy and we will see tomorrow whether or not this was destined to be our race.”

    Max Chilton (22nd, Q1 – 1m 36.476s)
    “I’m much more comfortable heading into the race than today’s timesheet might suggest to be honest. After a good day yesterday we had the KERS water pump problem this morning and I lost half of the Free Practice Three session. Although that wasn’t the best preparation for qualifying, with the running I did get I could see that the changes we made since yesterday are positive and we have made progress in the right direction. Things were going well in qualifying but unfortunately I locked up into Turn 11 and looking at the data I easily lost three to four tenths there. So, again, it’s a question of looking beyond the timesheets at where we really stand for the race tomorrow and staying focused. We’re playing the long game here in Bahrain this weekend, so if I can get the right side of Van Der Garde at the start I think we can show more of the progress we have made behind the scenes.”

    John Booth, Marussia team principal
    “The build-up to the race has not been entirely straightforward again, but we’re optimistic that, as was the case in China last weekend, we will experience a much better Sunday. There is no denying that this track has not favoured our car so well, but behind the scenes we’ve actually made good progress to overcome the balance issues which have been our main concern. A KERS water pump problem on Max’s car created another disappointing setback for him, so all credit to him for recovering so well in qualifying. He was disappointed with a small mistake on his second quick lap but looking beyond that he did the best job possible under the circumstances today and should be proud of the way he has responded to the challenges we’ve presented him with. Jules has also done his customary solid job and I think we can look forward to strong performances from both of them tomorrow. We now have a better understanding of the problem we experienced in the garage today with Jules’ car. This morning, a small amount of fuel was spilt due to an issue with the fuel connector. We examined all the components and made some changes ahead of qualifying, but unfortunately there was a further small fuel spillage this afternoon at the end of the session. On both occasions, at no point did the fuel ignite. The car crew were quick to respond with extinguishers as a precautionary measure, entirely in accordance with our procedures, and this served to make the situation appear rather more dramatic than it was. Having said that, getting to the root of the issue has been our highest priority, and we are now confident that the measures we have taken will prevent a reoccurrence.”

    Caterham
    Charles Pic (19th, Q1 – 1m 35.283s)
    “I’m pretty happy with where we finished today. We’d obviously have liked to be a little higher up the grid but with the package we have here in Bahrain I think we got as much as we could today in qualifying, so we can be reasonably pleased. We have a couple of new parts here which have definitely helped us make some progress, and after a good FP3 we were well set for qualifying. Yesterday the car had quite a bit of understeer which is pretty much a direct result of putting on updates at the back of the car, but the changes we made overnight gave me a much more balanced car and the final lap time today in Q1 showed the progress we’ve made since last week. Now we need to carry that pace into tomorrow’s race and having seen relatively good degradation levels on the long runs we could have an interesting fight with a few cars ahead.”

    Giedo van der Garde (21st, Q1 – 1m 36.304s)
    “For me that was a decent qualifying session and I’m happy with where we finished up, considering the fact I’m in the same car we’ve raced since Australia without the new parts Charles has been running here in Bahrain. Overall I’m pleased for the whole team as his lap time today is a sign of what we have to come and the amount of hard work everyone’s putting in to show how we can perform. In Spain I’ll have the same updates as my team mate and that’ll obviously mean I’ll be able to compete at the level he is, but for today I got nearly everything out of the car on that final lap and I think I can play an important role in the race tomorrow on a track that we’re clearly looking okay on.”

    Pirelli
    Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director
    “Unlike China, the key to managing the tyres here is going to be thermal degradation, with track temperatures well in excess of 40 degrees centigrade. With all the traction and braking events, this challenges the rear tyres in particular and that will be the limiting factor. The track is evolving all the time so we should see the times getting faster and faster: even though this year’s pole time is already quicker than last year’s pole, which was set on a nominally softer compound. The performance gap between the two compounds is much smaller than it was in China, around 0.6s per lap, which means that there are several different possibilities for strategy – as there isn’t one obvious way to go. This is something that we already saw in qualifying, with teams adopting different approaches in each session. Overtaking is reasonably easy in Bahrain compared to many other tracks, and it’s looking like the hard tyre may be the preferred race tyre here with some teams going for the medium. The problem seen on Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes during free practice was not the result of a structural tyre failure, but instead must have been down to a piece of debris on the track.”

  • F1 Bahrain 2013: Post-qualifying press conference

    F1 Bahrain 2013: Post-qualifying press conference

    Q: Congratulations Nico, you’re first ever top four start in Bahrain and you did it in style. Were you as surprised as some people that pole was yours today?
    Nico Rosberg:     A little bit, yeah. It wasn’t really clear before who was the quickest car, especially over one lap. I was a bit closer this morning already, so I was a bit more happy than yesterday for sure, so as a team I think we worked really during the night to improve the car because yesterday we were really struggling. So that’s been going well. I’m really, really happy, that’s a fantastic result. That’s great for tomorrow. Of course tomorrow it’s going to be a tough race for sure, with rear tyre degradation especially, so a lot can still happen.

    Q: We’ll talk more about the race in a couple of moments. Sebastian, you’re qualifying today: was that the pace of the Red Bull or was it a lap that could have been better? Are you disappointed with second place?
    Sebastian Vettel:     Definitely not disappointed. I think congratulations to Nico; he put a very strong lap in. I think it was all his today. Initially when I crossed the line I saw that I didn’t go first, so I saw second placed on one of the screens but I didn’t know how much was missing, because the lap was fine. You always a little bit here or there but, yeah, when I got told the gap to P1, to Nico, it was clear that even with the perfect lap he was unbeatable today. But nevertheless, very happy. I think we managed to save some tyres throughout qualifying. As Nico touched on it will be all about tyres and tyre degradation tomorrow, once again. So, we’ll see what happens but for sure it’s good to start from the front.

    Q: Today, Fernando, was all about the dash for pole, though, and it was a lap, your second lap, that contained a couple of errors right at the end and you came back into the pits. Was that trying too hard because Nico’s lap was too fast or were you just not happy with the balance of the car or what?
    Fernando Alonso:     Well, in the car obviously you don’t know Nico’s lap, we don’t have TV in the car yet! So we tried to complete the second lap and it was very, very similar until the last corner and in the last corner the exit I saw it was half a tenth or one tenth slower than the previous lap so we decided to come in just to save one lap on those tyres. You never know if you have to use them again in the race, so very, very happy with third place. Normally in qualifying we’re struggling a lot but today the car was very competitive in qualifying and this puts us in a strong position to start tomorrow’s race with the group of the leaders and fight for the podium with a little bit more margin.

    Q: Nico, both Sebastian and Fernando have hinted at tyre degradation sorting out tomorrow’s race. It’s something that Mercedes have suffered from in the past, so is today your day for celebration and is tomorrow just a day to limit your losses?
    NR:     I really want to kick-start my season. It’s really been a rough ride in the first three races and so today’s really been the first normal qualifying up to now, so I just want to kick-start everything now, my whole season. I’m OK for the race tomorrow, you know. For sure the competition is going to be tough, definitely. Difficult to say if we have enough pace to win the race tomorrow but for sure we’re going to try and I look forward to starting first – definitely.

     

    Questions from the floor

    Q: (Abhishek Takle – Midday). Question to Fernando: you must be pretty confident heading into tomorrow because you’ve shown good long-run pace and a strong start could set you up for the win, don’t you think?

    Fernando Alonso: Well, let’s see. I think the race is very long so we need to wait and see how the pace is tomorrow. It’s true that on Sundays normally we do improve our performance and we seem more competitive on Sunday than on Saturday. Friday also the long runs were more or less OK and not a big drama with the tyres. So, let’s wait and see tomorrow. The conditions keep changing all the time here in Bahrain with the circuit running more and more categories, not only the Formula One, so I think tomorrow will be a good opportunity for us, first of all to win the podium and try to get some consistency and races in the podium and if we can fight for the win, even better.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe). Question to all three drivers: are you surprised by the times of the two Lotus’?

    Nico Rosberg: Where are they? [Ninth and eleventh] In that case, yeah, for sure, because all weekend they’ve been looking very quick.

    Sebastian Vettel: Did they run in Q3 or not? [Räikkönen qualified and ran] Yeah. Same as Nico, it’s a big surprise. I don’t know, that’s why I was asking. I don’t know what’s their plan for tomorrow but yeah, they were quite quick this morning, for sure. It didn’t matter the compound, they were quite quick all weekend so something must have gone wrong.

    Q: Fernando? Fernando Alonso: Yeah, same.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo). Nico, the race simulation you did in free practice, you have indication that you have a good pace for the race or maybe it will be like in the last races where you were very fast in qualifying, not so much in race?

    Nico Rosberg: I think it’s not going to be… we’re not going to be as quick as we were in qualifying compared to everybody else. I think it’s much closer tomorrow on race fuel but you just have to wait. There’s so many factors that influence that, you just have to wait and see. For sure it will be much more difficult, yeah.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport). Nico, when we met yesterday, we were joking a little bit with bad words in Italian about your situation.

    Nico Rosberg: What were we talking about? Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport). We were joking with a bad word… Nico Rosberg: Ah yeah. You said that, yeah? Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport). Yes, I know, my apologies. How did you improve the car? Nico Rosberg: Yesterday we were in a difficult situation. We were not where we wanted to be and not where we were in the last couple of races, so it was all bit question marks and a bit surprising. But as a team, we really did a fantastic job to turn it around and to be absolute quickest today, it’s great. That’s just down to having done really really good work last night and this morning.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport). Sebastian, can you explain to us why you saved all three sets of the harder tyres? Do believe that there will be four pit stops tomorrow?

    Sebastian Vettel: To be honest with you, I don’t know how many stops we have to do. I think you don’t have to be a genius… one stop is impossible for everybody, two stops is impossible for most, I think, and then it’s between three and four stops. I think we decided to do what we did because we think it’s the best way. In qualifying we were not exactly sure how quick we would be. We didn’t want to take any risks, we wanted to make sure that we finish in front and we believed that the soft tyre was faster, or the medium tyre, so we went for that in qualifying.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta). Fernando, are you afraid of Massa starting on hard tyres in fourth position? And after your 1m 32.8s on hard, could it have been better to qualify on hard tyres?

    Fernando Alonso: Well, I think it’s fantastic that Felipe is fourth. He finished sixth in qualifying but with (the penalties for) Webber and Hamilton he will be fourth, so it’s better to start alongside Felipe than to start alongside Lewis to be honest. I really prefer this combination of results, that I should help the first corner attack and hopefully we can both do a good start and hopefully – with these different strategies that we have – can cover some more scenarios in the race than maybe wouldn’t be in our control if we had the same tyres. It’s true that we felt comfortable on the hard tyre in Q1. He also felt comfortable on the hard tyres in Q1, but he chose them for Q3. I think they are very close together and I think that when you gain something in qualifying you can lose it in the race; when you lose in the race, you gain something in qualifying so it’s a difficult trade-off but I’m extremely happy with our strategy and I’m extremely happy that we’re third and fourth. Tomorrow, we both need to think about being on the podium. It will be really important for the Constructors’ championship as well.

    Photo: BBC.co.uk