Question: Mark, a very different tyre strategy between you and the Red Bull team and the McLaren team. Tell us about your thinking, about how you approached today and particularly tomorrow.
Mark Webber: Well, we thought we could still do a pretty good job today in qualifying on the harder tyre and that turned out to be the case. We knew we would still try and have a crack at the front row. We knew that the McLarens were still very strong on the option tyre if they elected to take it. Obviously it’s a long race tomorrow. We were planning to do the best job we can and we think this is something which hopefully will be beneficial to us. We are also mindful of the fact that there might be the odd safety car here and there, so there are many different ways tomorrow’s race could unfold. But we have stuck to our guns and the guys have done a great job all weekend and here we are with both Seb and I in the top three again.
Question: Mark, obviously quite a margin between yourself and McLaren but you must be happier with the different tyres. Are you still pretty confident for tomorrow?
Mark Webber: Today is a very good day for me. I am very happy. It was a good fight as I predicted yesterday for the front row. McLaren were expected to be strong here and it has turned out to be the case. Lewis did a very good lap for pole, obviously with a different compound. Everyone is free to choose what tyre they want for qualifying and that’s the grid that we have today, so to be on the front row with a tyre that I think is going to be for us a little bit more stable and we will just see how the race unfolds. It is always an interesting grand prix here and I am certainly looking forward to it. I am very happy with how today went. My guys worked very hard and got the setting very well on the car and it was good enough to get second on the grid. It is good.
Question: How do you read the conditions as yesterday the track seemed to be dirty and then we had rain overnight. Obviously it is going to be more support races as well, so perhaps there will be more rubber down. How do you read that?
Mark Webber: It is a good question. These cars are very sensitive to the track conditions, particularly the tyres. I think all the competitors were very surprised yesterday when we went out in P1 and it felt like we were driving in the rain even though the track was dry. The grip that was offered to us was very low and generally as the weekend goes on it is only going to go one way in the case of improving. It took a little bit of a blow this morning with the rain and it came back to a reasonable level at the moment. It is a little bit of an unknown for tomorrow. I think we all know how the track will be. It should be fine. It is just a question of what the tyres will do and there is absolutely nobody who knows what is going to happen. Some people are guessing. We might have done the wrong thing, we might have done the right thing. Let’s see tomorrow.
Question: There is a lot of guesswork. Not just that but also the potential of safety cars as well tomorrow.
Mark Webber: Yes, there is a big history here of those. We are mindful of the fact. We are not just trying to get one-off results these days for Red Bull Racing. We are trying to get a very, very good result throughout every grand prix and sometimes that means making the slightly conservative choices here and there to make sure you have a better Sunday. Let’s see how it goes. It is going to be an interesting grand prix.
Question: How much lap time did you sacrifice by going out on the prime tyre compared to the soft one and was the race strategy the only reason for that or did you generally feel better on the prime?
Mark Webber: The tyres are pretty close, actually. It’s always really hard to get an absolute comparison until you really get to qualifying, because we only have two sets in P3 and you always run the prime first. The track was pretty green, so then you put the option on and it’s always going to be better because the track is better. That’s the way it goes normally in P3. So we basically made the decision for the race, really. We thought that there wasn’t a huge amount (of difference) in qualifying. Of course, if we had 25 points today, I’m sure we would have qualified on the option, but in the end we think it was the better option for us to start the race on this tyre tomorrow, and that’s why we chose it for race strategy.
Question: Mark, as far as you know, in the last race your engineer asked you to reduce the revs in order to economise fuel. Here is a circuit which has higher fuel consumption than Turkey. Are you comfortable with the situation?
Mark Webber: Yeah, we’ll put a bit more fuel in the car.
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Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton Claims Pole For Canadian Grand Prix
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