Tag: qualifying

F1 2014: British GP Qualifying – Rosberg Takes Silverstone Pole

Nico Rosberg has secured pole position for the 2014 British grand prix.

A chaotic qualifying session in changeable weather conditions caught a fair few by surprise. From the top of the world just two weeks ago both Williams drivers, Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas, found themselves eliminated in the first session of the one-hour qualifying session.

What’s more another strategic error cost both Ferrari driver’s a chance to get out of the first 18 minute session of qualifying. Fernando Alonso was quoted after the session that making the right decision in the thick of the action is not as easy or straightforward as hindsight may suggest.

In contrast, both the Marussia’s Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi advanced to Q2 as a result of perfectly timing their run on the slick Pirelli tyres.

The drama wasn’t over as the final part of qualifying delivered more unpredictable track conditions. Towards the conclusion of the session it seemed that Lewis Hamilton had done enough to secure a popular home pole position. However, with the chequered flag already out several drivers elected to complete their final laps despite losing masses of time in the first two sectors of the lap. Surprisingly, it was the final sector of the lap where drivers were able to gain a substantial amount of laptime.

Nico Rosberg ultimately set the quickest lap ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button. All the while Hamilton had aborted his lap believing that it was not possible to improve his previous best time. The mistake from Hamilton has left him down in sixth position.

(Nico Rosberg image via @MercedesAMGF1)

July 5, 2014
Massa takes all Williams front row pole in Austria

The Williams team have been at the brink of something great for the last few races now and they have done it in Austria! Felipe Massa will lead an all Williams front row to start the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring tomorrow.

This brings to an end Mercedes’ front row streak and brings a whole bucketload of new excitement ahead of tomorrow’s race.

Massa banged in a brilliant lap for his Williams team, ringing in a time of 1:08.759, four tenths off Michael Schumacher’s 2003 lap record of 1:08.337. Williams teammate Valtteri Bottas also put in a special lap to lock out the front row with a 1:08.846. Who could have predicted this result? Certainly not Nico Rosberg who brought his Mercedes home in third place and in the post qualifying press conference said he never expected to see the two Williams drivers ahead of him.

Massa hailed a “great moment” for his Williams team stating at the press conference, “I’m so happy what’s happened today with us, our team it was such a great moment, it was a long time I had my last pole which was Brazil in 2008”.

“It’s such an incredible moment, for sure we need to concentrate on the race as it’s important but this is the best place to be, in the first place, it’s something I got the chance to be many times in all my career. Now I’m here again, after a long time that I couldn’t be on this place. I hope this is the beginning of great possibilities to be here again also in the race. It isn’t just emotional for me but I think is similar for what Williams feel as well. They had [an] incredible career in the past and they are back to the top, back to the fight. There is a way to go but I’m so pleased for me and for Williams.”

Mercedes had looked fastest throughout this afternoon’s qualifying session but it all fell apart in Q3 for both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton will start 9th from the grid following a nasty little spin with Rosberg claiming that his teammate’s spin hampered his chances of getting the pole position.

Hamilton lost the rear of his car under braking at Turn 2 which sent him into a 180 degree spin and out of contention. This after his first attempt at a pole time was disallowed after he ran wide at Turn 8 and left the track which the stewards had warned before the race would result in times being deleted.

Bottas also made a mistake on his final lap which could very well have been the difference between himself and Williams teammate Massa.

Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest in his underwhelming Ferrari ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat. Kimi Raikkonen opted not to set a competitive time in Q3 and qualified 8th. Nico Hulkenberg rounds out the Top 10 behind Lewis Hamilton after deciding not to set a time at all in Q3.

Your full timesheets are below. Tomorrow’s race is all set for action and we can only wonder how the Williams duo will hold back the Mercedes team for the race. Join us for live commentary on Twitter and don’t forget to enter to WIN A VIP EXPERIENCE AT THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX!

June 21, 2014
Canadian GP Qualifying: Rosberg narrowly beats Hamilton to pole

Nico Rosberg secured pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix after putting in a rocket fast final lap in qualifying denying teammate Lewis Hamilton the pleasure of his fifth pole position.

Hamilton dominated the entire weekend in Montreal but a mistake heading into Turn 8 on his final lap meant the Briton had to settle for second place on the grid. Rosberg beat Hamilton to pole by less than a tenth of a second.

Qualifying got underway with only 21 cars after Esteban Gutierrez crashed in the final practice session today, forcing Sauber to change his chassis. Valtteri Bottas was first out on track and posted the initial benchmark at 1.18.270 but teammate Felipe Massa went half a second faster to occupy the top spot on the timesheets until Rosberg came around to put his Mercedes up in first place.

Pastor Maldonado dropped out of Q1 once again – for fifth out of six times this season. He pulled his stricken Lotus over into an escape road ending his session. Things just aren’t going right for Maldonado at all this season and his Venezuelen sponsorship is already rumoured to be at risk.

With 16 seconds left on the clock, Marcus Ericsson brought out the red flag on the session when he binned his Caterham at turn nine. The session did not restart and Maldonado, Chilton, Bianchi, Kobayashi and Ericsson were eliminated from the proceedings.

Q2 got underway with Adrian Sutil first out on track with the entire field heading out on the supersoft tyres. Felipe Massa was the early leader in the session ahead of his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, and former Ferrari teammate, Fernando Alonso. The two Mercedes drivers only headed out a little later in the session but neither could shift Massa off the top of board with their initial efforts. It became clear that the Mercedes duo were not as strong on the supersofts as the Williams drivers were.

Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Adrian Sutil were all eliminated at the end of Q2.

Q3 saw Bottas first out on track for a bit of clear air, setting the first benchmark at a 1.15.550. Rosberg was the first of the Mercedes to cross the line, going six-tenths quicker than Bottas. Hamilton also managed to go quicker than Bottas but fell just short of Rosberg’s time putting the German on provisional pole.

Both Rosberg and Hamilton made slight improvements on their final runs but Hamilton just couldn’t find the pace to match his teammate and a small error into Turn 8 likely cost him the pole position. Sebastian Vettel pulled a rabbit out of the bag and pushed out a flyer to qualify third ahead of the two Williams drivers, Bottas and Massa respectively.
Daniel Ricciardo qualified sixth ahead of Alonso and Vergne, with Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top ten.

Hamilton will no doubt be frustrated to not have been able to convert his dominant performance throughout the weekend into a pole position but the Briton seemed to take it in his stride today and seemed pleased to have another all-Mercedes front row. “Let’s go make history tomorrow,” Hamilton said at the post qualifying press conference.

History will indeed be made whatever happens tomorrow. We’re all set for a crack-a-lacking race and the stage is all set for a good battle upfront between Rosberg and Hamilton. The Williams drivers are looking exceptionally strong and they are definitely making a mark on the grid this weekend.

Please join us on Twitter for live chat and commentary as we watch it all pan out at 8pm GMT+2.

Full timesheets and your chance to win a VIP trip to the Belgian Grand Prix are below.

June 7, 2014
F1 2014: Free Practice 3 – Hamilton Leads the Way In Monaco

The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton ended the third and final practice for the Monaco grand prix fastest.

Teams are drivers were left with a lot of work to do on Saturday morning as they played catch-up after Thursday’s washed out second free practice session. The Mercedes pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg traded fastest times throughout the session.

However, it was Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo who sprung the biggest surprise. The Australian set a laptime of 1:16.808 on his SuperSoft tyre run to split the two Silver Arrrows. Most signficantly, Ricciardo set his fastest time amidst a relatively long run. Teammate Sebastian Vettel, caught up in traffic during his attempt on the SuperSoft rubber, was fourth fastest.

Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen ended the hour long session in fifth and sixth respectively. The Ferrari however does not look like matching the pace of the front-running teams around the streets of Monte Carlo. BBC commentator and three-time Le Mans winner Alan McNish reckons that the Ferrari looks more like a “bucking bronco than a prancing horse.”

While SuperSoft tyre was the obvious choice for the qualifying simulation runs; it was significant to note that the Pirelli tyres took up to three laps to come into their own and deliver a lap time. This will be an especially significant issue during qualifying as drivers and teams will have to guard against getting caught in traffic.

May 24, 2014
Mercedes domination continues as Hamilton secures pole

After a three week break, Formula One is back with the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. It was a sunny, hot day for the second dry dry qualifying session of the season, and the Mercedes drivers were set to battle it out between themselves for the pole position. Nico Rosberg took pole in the dry back in Bahrain but was not able to do the same today as team mate Lewis Hamilton put in a stonker of a qualifying lap to take the pole position ahead of the Spanish GP.

Daniel Ricciardo claimed third place behind the Mercedes pair but Red Bull’s challenge was stunted by more car problems for Sebastian Vettel who has had a torrid weekend all round. Ricciardo’s time in third was a full second off the pace of the Mercedes drivers as Hamilton and Rosberg continue to dominate the season.

Qualifying had hardly begun when Pastor Maldonado made his way into the wall on the inside of Turn 3, bringing out the red flags. “I lost the car,” was his message to his team after replays showed he lost the rear of the car into the turn and planted his car in the wall, destroying his front right suspension.

The session resumed with 13 minutes left on the clock and it was full steam ahead. Fernando Alonso bravely chose to not do a second run and his gamble paid off – he made it through to Q2 by just a few tenths but with an extra set of new mediums in the bag.

Adrian Sutil, Max Chilton, Jules Bianchi, Kamui Kobayashi, Marcus Ericsson and of course Pastor Maldonado were eliminated at the end of Q1.

Jean-Eric Vergne, who was handed a ten place grid penalty for a loose wheel during FP2, did not set a Q2 time and Kevin Magnussen also failed to set a time after McLaren found a problem with his car’s power unit.

Rosberg stayed ahead of Hamilton in Q2, the two of them separated by a tenth of a second.

Alonso was very nearly knocked out ending the session in tenth, less than a tenth of a second ahead of Nico Hulkenberg who was eliminated along with Sergio Perez, Daniil Kvyat, Esteban Gutierrez and of course Magnussen and Vergne.

The final qualifying session began much the same as the first, with a red flag early on. This time, caused by Sebastian Vettel who simply lost all drive. The Red Bull driver was unable to select second gear after leaving the pits and stopped at the next corner. A gearbox replacement could be on the cards which will cost him a further 5 places on the grid if that were to happen.

Once the session got underway again, Hamilton regained the edge over Rosberg and took the pole position and claimed the pole position over his team mate.

Valterri Bottas put in a brilliant effort to finish fourth and Romain Grosjean claimed an awesome fifth place for Lotus. Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button rounded out the Top 9 with Vettel left in 10th place.

We’re all set for what’s bound to be an exciting race tomorrow but unless the F1 gods themselves step in you can almost certainly put your money on either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg claiming the top step on the podium.

Below is the full time sheet for the qualifying session. Please join us for live chat and commentary during tomorrow’s race on Twitter @F1_Madness

May 10, 2014
F1 2014: Qualifying Results – Rosberg Romps to Bahrain Pole

Nico Rosberg has secured pole position for the 2014 Bahrain grand prix.

In celebration of its tenth year on the Formula 1 calendar thousands of floodlights lit up the Sakhir International Circuit in the middle of the Bahrain dessert. The dominance of the Mercedes team remained intact around the floodlit Sakhir circuit as Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton locked out the front row of the grid. Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo was the best of the rest in third place but will drop ten places on the grid due to a penalty incurred in the Malaysian GP.

The first part of qualifying relegated the usual suspects to the back of the grid. Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi out-qualified teammate Marcus Ericsson and both Marussia’s of Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi. Sauber driver Adrian Sutil and Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado were the other drivers who failed to advance to the second part of qualifying.

Romain Grosjean, who had snatched a spot in Q2 by nine thousandths of a second was unable to better than 16th overall. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel were the high profile drivers who did not advance to the top ten shoot-out. Hulkenberg had threatened throughout the practice session but was unable to make it count. Sebastian Vettel reported an issue on the downshift of his gearbox before being eliminated from qualifying. Nevertheless, Vettel will start tenth due to teammate Ricciardo’s 10 place grid penalty.

Despite having two bites at the cherry Nico Rosberg’s first lap in the third part of qualifying was enough to secure the German’s fifth career pole position. A mistake on his second attempt meant that Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second. Daniel Ricciardo’s relegation means that Williams’ Valterri Bottas will start the Bahrain GP in third place. Mexican Sergio Perez delivered a stunning performance in his Force India and will share the second row of the grid with Bottas.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen will line up fifth while McLaren’s Jenson Button, celebrating his 250th GP, share the third row of the grid in sixth. Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen will start seventh and eighth respectively. Fernando Alonso was unseen for the majority of the final minutes of the qualifying session and will start tomorrow’s race in ninth place.

It seems highly unlikely that the Mercedes duo will be troubled on Sunday. Who will be the best of the rest is anyone’s guess.

April 5, 2014
Malaysian GP Qualifying report: Hamilton makes it 2 in a row

Lewis Hamilton clinched his second pole in a row during a very wet and rainy Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying session this afternoon. He edged out Red Bull’s Sebastian by just 0.055 seconds.

Nico Rosberg took the third place away from Fernando Alonso in his final flying lap and Daniel Ricciardo got the second Red Bull into the Top 5.

The start of qualifying was delayed by 50 mins today with heavy rains hitting the Sepang circuit after three days of dry practice sessions. Many felt it should have started sooner, since all teams except McLaren started the qualifying session on intermediate tyres. After starting late, the Q1 session also ended early following a crash by Caterham’s Marus Ericcson after the rookie lost control of his car exiting Turn 3.

Kimi Raikkonen finished in 6th place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.

Q2 also never went off without incident. The session was stopped shortly after it had started after contact between Daniil Kvyat and Alonso. Kvyat tried to dive up the inside of Alonso into turn nine but made contact with the Ferrari, damaging the front suspension on the F14T. The Ferrari mechanics put on a real show by fixing the F14T in no time a all and sending Alonso back out immediately after the red flag was lifted.

Valterri Bottas has had to take a penalty though. The driver will lose three grid places as well as two penalty points for impeding Daniel Ricciardo.

Below are the full results of the session. Follow us @F1_Madness on Twitter for live race commentary and F1 chit chat during the race tomorrow.

March 30, 2014
Hamilton snatches Australian pole from Ricciardo in wet Qualifying

Lewis Hamilton claimed the pole position, snatching it from home favourite Daniel Ricciardo, in the final moments of the season opening Australian qualifying session.

The F1 weather gods thought it would be a good idea to spice things up a little – as if they weren’t already complicated enough with all the 2014 regulation changes. The session started in dry conditions but the heavens opened before the end of the first 18 minute phase of qualifying. The weather deteriorated to the point that full wet tyres were required in the final shootout.

With very little wet running during the winter testing, it was a whole new challenge for the drivers. Despite it being his first time driving on the limit in the wet, Lewis Hamilton brought home the pole, snatching it by a solid 0.3s! Ricciardo so nearly had it in the bag, but the Australian will be more than happy with starting on his first ever front row on his first outing for the Red Bull team. Nico Rosberg rounded off the top 3.

Ricciardo’s team mate, four time world champion Sebastian Vettel, did not make it through to the final part of qualifying – despite a valiant effort after his final lap was affected by Kimi Raikkonen crashing his Ferrari into the wall. A little too much throttle and the Finn’s Ferrari headed off the track, bringing out yellow flags in the first sector to compromise Vettel’s lap. Raikkonen will start from 11th, and Vettel from 12th.

McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen put in a very impressive performance and will be starting from 4th place. His team mate Jenson Button was another surprise casualty of the Q2 session and will only start in 10th place (promoted from 11th due to a grid penalty for Valterri Bottas).

Fernando Alonso will start in 5th position, only just making it ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne. Toro Rosso team mate, rookie Daniel Kvyat, also made it through to Q1 and will be starting in 8th place.

Here’s a look at your full time sheet for the session. Join us tomorrow morning on Twitter (@F1_Madness) for live coverage of the Australian Grand Prix! If the final stages of today’s qualifying session are anything to go by, we’re in for a VERY exciting race!

March 15, 2014
Vettel claims Brazilian GP pole at wet Interlagos Qualifying

Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position at Interlagos after rain delayed the start of Q3 during qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Rain fell on and off during most of the session but a heavier, sustained downpour of rain forced a delay of around 40minutes before Q3 could commence. But once the final part of the session got underway, Vettel was once again in a class of his own.

Nico Rosberg will join Vettel on the front row of the grid tomorrow, followed by Fernando Alonso who claimed the third grid spot for Ferrari.

Qualifying for the Brazilian GP got underway on a fairly damp track with drizzles of rain around and nobody wasted any time heading out for the session. All 22 drivers headed out very quickly to get their initial laps in.

Lewis Hamilton was first to get a timed lap in and the earliest drivers out joined him in being in the best position to get through to Q2. Drivers who started further back however, found themselves struggling a little with traffic and worsening conditions. As conditions worsened, drivers headed back into the pits – all bar those who were in danger of being eliminated. The only driver who managed to escape elimination on his final effort though, was Jean-Eric Vergne who had voiced his dissatisfaction with his team sending him out a little too late in the session.

Pastor Maldonado was eliminated from his final qualifying for the Williams team at the end of Q1 along with Esteban Gutierrez, and the Marussia and Caterham drivers.

Q2 held much of the same for the drivers and they again headed out immediately as the session got underway but the rain seemed to hold off pretty well for most of the session.

Both Toro Rosso drivers claimed spots in Q3 but it was the McLaren drivers who took yet another blow to their already lacklustre season.

Jenson Button failed to make it through to the third part of qualifying and his team mate Sergio Perez touched the white line in Turn 4 and could not recover through Turn 5 to keep his car on track, banging it into the barrier.

He climbed out of his car unhurt – but clearly disappointed in his final qualifying performance for the team.

While Perez’s car was being recovered, the rain intensified and the start of Q3 was delayed several times for a total delay of around 45 minutes. The final three postponements were due to the standing water on the track.

After only one run on the full wet tyres, drivers opted to head back into the pits and go back to the intermediate tyres, raising questions as to whether it was indeed necessary for such a lengthy delay.

Romain Grosjean did not even complete his first flying lap before heading back in for intermediate tyres.

Ferrari held their drivers back between their runs to give them the best possible running positions and it worked fantastically for Fernando Alonso who managed to qualify in third position. Alonso however felt he could have done better to manage second and apologised to his team at the end of the session.

When all was said and done though nobody had an answer for the relentless Sebastian Vettel who was a full second faster than his rivals with his first run, and finished 6 tenths of a second ahead of Rosberg at the end of the session.

Here are the full timesheets for the qualifying session today and your starting grid for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Remember to join us on Twitter @F1_Madness for live updates and interaction with other Formula One fans.

November 23, 2013
F1 2013: Post-qualifying press conference – US GP

UNILATERAL

Q: Sebastian, you saved the best ’til last there. A satisfying pole I imagine here in America, in very difficult conditions it looked like today, and also on a special day for your team boss Christian Horner, his 40th birthday.

Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, happy birthday to Christian. Obviously a good result to have both cars in the front row for tomorrow. It was a tricky session because the wind, I think, picked up quite a lot from this morning and… yeah, it does influence the behaviour of the cars so, not that easy, especially around the high-speed corners. I wasn’t that happy with my first run in Q3 but I think I had a solid run at the end which I think was enough to put the car on pole. I think it was very close with Mark, he seemed to get closer and closer the longer the weekend went on. Fortunately I could just manage to stay ahead. I think he might have had a mistake in his final shot but yeah, obviously very happy with pole position today. I really like this place, I like the circuit and looking forward to tomorrow. I think it’s important as well to start on the clean side, so we’ll see what we can do.

Q: Mark, did you think you’d done enough after that first run? A tenth and a half over Sebastian in Q3, doesn’t happen all that often. Where did it go wrong in that final run?

Mark Webber: No, I didn’t think I’d done enough, you need to improve. Obviously there are two shots, we both had two sets of options. The first part of the lap was very good, I was happy with that. Didn’t quite get 19 and 20 as I wanted. If I just repeated what I did initially in Q3 probably it was going to be enough but tried to squeeze a bit more out. It’s easy to unload the car a little bit in these conditions, so yeah, sometimes you’re happy that you’ve given your best and you’re on the front row but today one slipped through the fingers. But anyway we’re up there and well done to Seb, obviously. He put the three sectors together so… I put two-and-half together and just dropped it in the last sector, so, yeah, it’s not satisfying when you do that. It’s not your job to do that. Pushing the boundaries and overall, yeah, pretty happy to be there.

Q: Romain, pretty consistent form from you, your third top-three qualifying in the last six grands prix, already five podiums in this season. Some good momentum behind you at the moment.

Romain Grosjean: Yeah, I think we are doing a good job. It wasn’t an easy weekend for us. We struggled a little bit yesterday and this morning. I think conditions are not so easy starting early in the morning – and I don’t like to wake-up early as well so it doesn’t make it easy. And then I think quali went pretty good. We did manage to go through Q1 on prime. That wasn’t the plan but we were quick enough and then, quickest of the rest but it seems that those blue guys are very, very quick. We have to still try to catch them, the race is long and, y’know we will see what we can do with the strategy and everything but it’s good to be here and good to show that we are still in the front row.

Q: Sebastian, looking towards tomorrow’s race. Are you someone who feels a sense of unfinished business, given what happened in the way you lost the race here last year? Is it important for you to tick this one off?

SV: Ah, well, I think no regrets to last year. Obviously it was a tight battle with Lewis. I think in the end he was just a little bit quicker so we were having a hard time to stay ahead of him. Obviously the way he then passed was not the nicest way with traffic but, y’know, it’s a long time ago, so looking forward to tomorrow and, as I said, I like the circuit. Yeah, definitely, if you have the chance to win then you want to go for it. At the moment things are looking good. We did the job right today, focus on tomorrow but we go step-by-step. It’s a long race, tyres could be tricky. I think the strategy should be more or less clear but then again with these tyres you never know.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: So Sebastian, obviously you made it through Q1 only using the harder tyres, a tactic that all three of you adopted. I’m interested though in your final run in Q3. It’s not the first time that we’ve seen you do this where you perhaps hold back a fraction in the first sector in order to have more performance in the final sector which is where you seem to make the difference today. Is that a conscious tactic or just the way things worked out?

SV: Well, I think first of all Mark is quick in the high-speed stuff, so I knew it will always be close. I think he was a little bit quicker in sector one. But you’re right, obviously, it’s a long lap. Especially the first run in Q3. I started to feel a little bit uncomfortable with the rears at the end of the second sector and then in the last sector, so… yeah, I think I got it a little bit better the last time around but also tried to… well, you can’t look after the tyres that much on one lap but just tried to keep it clean, get a clean lap. I knew I had more pace than the first run, so managed to do that and fortunately managed to get pole.

Q: Mark, twice pole, once second in the last four races. A very competitive run of form at the very end of your Formula One career. Not having second thoughts about retiring, given how well you’re going?

MW: No, that’s why it was so frustrating to not get pole today. Would have been good to get another one off Seb at the end with a few grey hairs – but didn’t happen, he did the lap. Anyway, I’m having no second thoughts. Good timing for me. Hand over to quicker guys.

Q: You seem to be driving with a lot of confidence. Is it because you’re feeling very relaxed, heading for the exit door?

MW: I don’t think so. I think the tyres, when they’re fresh-ish I can still turn not a bad lap. So, confident we can have a good race tomorrow. It’s a pretty nice circuit with some nice, fast sections at the start. All in all my form this year in terms of pace hasn’t been ridiculous. Obviously Seb’s been still pretty strong in quali overall but we know we’ve performed pretty strong in terms of pace in general. Obviously we’ve lost a huge amount of points for other reasons but want to finish the year strongly and hopefully we can do that again tomorrow.

Q: Romain, you too got through Q1 using only the harder tyres. It’s not the first time that you’ve done that. It’s a fairly confident thing to do, given that the cut-off is quite marginal sometimes. It’s caught you out at other times. Can you talk a little about the confidence you’ve felt going into this session – and did you always feel throughout Q1 that you were going to get away with it again?

RG: To be honest, it wasn’t the plan today. After India I think we had to take a little bit of caution, the team constructors’ is very important to us so it wasn’t the plan to go… we were prime and option but basically the car felt very good on prime, lap time was good enough and when I came back they told me “that may be good enough”, and then it was. So an easier time that what we knew previously.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, what does it mean for you, this pole position, after such a tough fight against Mark?

SV: Well, I think both of us would like to have the upper hand. I think two weeks ago I felt like Mark probably feels now and I feel like he felt two weeks ago, so obviously very happy for myself. I had a good run in the end. I think it’s always tricky to go with the track on Saturday afternoon, as the track is changing, I think you are able to extract more and more from the tyres, given that you set up the car in the right way. It’s not that simple but I think it’s the same for all of us, so happy that we did the job today and as I touched on earlier, I think it’s important for the race, so now focusing on the start.

Q: (Peter Hubbard – COTA PR) Mark, during qualifying and practice three there were several spins on turn 19; was it wet down there? What seemed to be the problem, several drivers went off at that point?

MW:Turn 19 is quite blind, you can’t quite see the apex, you have to imagine that our eyes are very low in the cockpit so when you go there in a Formula One car it’s not easy to see the apex so you have a little bit of a leap of faith in terms of how accurate you can be in the first part. Sometimes you run out of road, sometimes you don’t. I was in that club in the last part of Q3. It’s easy to not get that right just because of the blind nature of the corner.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Seb, can you explain the shake ‘n’ bake reference that we heard over the radio messages at the end of qualifying between you and your engineer?

SV: Well, he started it! Yeah, I think there was a movie a couple of years ago which was about racing and I think it was more a piss-take than an actual movie. It was a nice quote, I think it suits. Obviously we’re in America… especially my engineer has a lot of history here, knows a lot of people, he did a lot of racing (here) early in his career. You need to ask him whether it’s what he used to say when he secured pole position in the US.

Q: (John Sturbin – Ft. Worth Star-Telegram) Sebastian, if you win tomorrow, will you continue the doughnut celebration thing, very American?

SV: Well, to worry about that is a nice problem to have but first of all we have to focus on tomorrow’s race. I’m sure Mark will try everything to get past as well as the people behind – Romain and so on – so it will be a long race, there are a lot of things that can happen. I think we always push the car to the limit so you never know what might happen, therefore I don’t think it’s the highest priority to be honest to worry about that right now. I think it has to happen very spontaneously.

Q: Because you are going for your eighth consecutive win tomorrow which would be a new record if you pull it off? Do the numbers matter to you at this point?

SV: Well, I think maybe I’m not that clever so I’m not trying to think that much about these things. Lately I seem to have succeeded so I think it’s not the right mindset to go into the race thinking about a higher target than just the race. So I think we’ve done pretty well with that kind of approach so far, the last couple of years, so I don’t see a reason to change.

November 17, 2013