Sebastian Vettel (1st, Q3 - 1m 23.919s)
“A great result for the team. It’s obviously Mark’s home race here - but he got pole in Germany, so it’s kind of revenge (laughs)! But, it’s a long race tomorrow. I think we made a good step with the car ahead of today’s qualifying. The final session was all about if it would rain or not, so we waited a little bit at the start. My first lap in Q3 was the quickest and it was spot on until the last three corners. I was on the edge through Turn 14, but then I lost a little bit in last corner going on to the main straight. It was a very good lap up until that point though and the result says it all. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Mark Webber (2nd, Q3 - 1m 24.035s)
“I would prefer to be on pole position of course, but second is still a good result and it’s great for the team to have a one-two. It would be nice to be one place further up, but Seb did a good job. It was a good battle - with about 800ths between us in the end. I wasn’t mega-concerned about the weather today, as it’s the same for everyone and whatever happens, happens! I think tomorrow will be enjoyable - but I would prefer a dry race, as the track can get slippery with intermittent conditions.”
Fernando Alonso (3rd, Q3 - 1m 24.111s)
“I am pleased with the way qualifying went. You always want to be on pole, but third place is still a good result. We knew the Red Bulls were very strong, but we are close to them and can count on having a good race pace. Our aim is to get to the finish, not making any mistakes and getting a good result, maybe making it to the podium. Of course I want to fight for the win but it is not worth taking risks as it is too important to bring home points. After yesterday’s free practice, we were not worried because we knew our work had only focused on being ready for Sunday’s race. Anything can happen here and we must be ready for any eventuality. A new engine? Yes, it brings luck to change it…but joking apart, it was part of our engine management plan to have a new unit for this race.”
Jenson Button (4th, Q3 - 1m 24.675s)
“After our strong performance yesterday, this morning the car didn’t work as well as we’d expected. We lacked grip, and it looks as though the cars ahead of us here have more downforce. Nevertheless, qualifying this afternoon was good. I felt pleased with the car on every lap except the final one in Q3. I don’t know whether it was the wind picking up, but I didn’t feel the car was working quite as well as it had in the first two sessions. I didn’t have the balance I’d had previously - there was a lot more understeer in the car - but it only cost me a tenth or two. So, the best lap we probably could have done was a 1m24.4s - which is still half a second off the pacesetters. We’re not there yet, but this is an improvement because we’re a lot closer to the front than we were in Bahrain. I’m happy with the performance of the team this weekend. We pretty much got the best out of the package we have at the moment.”
Felipe Massa (5th, Q3 - 1m 24.837s)
“Not the qualifying I was expecting, going into this Grand Prix. Ever since the temperature dropped, I have always struggled to find the best way of getting the tyres up to temperature, while yesterday morning for example, when it was hotter, the situation was much better. With today’s temperatures, I had no grip, which is not particularly encouraging. Let’s hope it’s a bit warmer tomorrow. In FP3 I really found it difficult, but come the end of qualifying I still managed to get a reasonable result. It’s definitely not ideal in terms of looking for a win, but all the same, I will try and bring home a good number of points. This race is very tough, partly because, as we have often seen in the past, anything can happen here.”
Nico Rosberg (6th, Q3 - 1m 24.884s)
“It was a disappointing qualifying today as I had made really good progress during practice with my engineers but didn’t do the best job when it mattered. I made a couple of mistakes on my best lap on the option tyres which cost me three or four tenths. There was more in the car today so it’s always frustrating when you don’t get the most out of it. It’s not typical for me to make such mistakes in qualifying. But that’s the way it goes sometimes and sixth position is still a good place to start. We should be stronger in the race and anything can happen tomorrow.”
Michael Schumacher (7th, Q3 - 1m 24.927s)
“We had a reasonable qualifying session today and I am ok with the outcome even if I was a bit handicapped by traffic, especially on my final quick lap. We made some changes with the car after practice this morning which did not work out perfectly. But in general I would guess the ranking that we see now reflects the situation well and our performance is probably the maximum for our car at the moment. Anyhow, we still have a lot in hand for tomorrow’s race, and I am on the clean side of the grid for the start. As we all know, a lot can happen over the course of a race.”
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