Sebastian Vettel (1st, Q3 - 1m 36.975s)
“There was a lot of talk going into this GP about the regulation changes and there will be a lot of talk before the next one. I think everyone will lose out on something, but people expect us to lose more than other teams and that is where I disagree. Overall it was a very good day for us - it’s good to have the front row for our team, but it will be a long race tomorrow. It’s always tough here. It’s a tricky circuit, as there are so many corners - I think there are 25 before we cross the line again, so to get all of them right is very difficult and to get the perfect lap is quite tough. I think my first lap was quite good, I was very happy and Mark was obviously with his second run. So, it’s a good result and a good place to start from tomorrow, we’ll see what we can do.”
Mark Webber (2nd, Q3 - 1m 37.163s)
“That was a pretty good lap. There are so many corners here that you’d like to put them all together perfectly from all of your runs, but that’s not the case and you have to try and put them together when it counts. I didn’t have the smoothest build up in qualifying, so the guys did a good job to recover with me. I knew there was more to come on the last lap, I just had to put it all together. Still, it wasn’t easy, but it was a good lap and it was good to go a bit faster in the last sector. Seb was strong in the first two, but in the end it is a great day for the team off the back of all the talk. Of course, there are no points today, so we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s race and we’ll go from there.”
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Formula 1: Sebastian Vettel Nabs Pole For European Grand Prix
Formula 1: European Grand Prix - Race Line Up
Lewis Hamilton (3rd, Q3 - 1m 37.380s)
“I’m excited to be in the fight: we can win from this position. Of course, we’ll need a bit of luck with the strategy and the pit stops, but our guys are on great form. You’ve got to be fortunate and maximise absolutely everything to get ahead of the Red Bulls - and, hopefully, that can happen tomorrow. I tried to push a little harder on my final lap - but it’s a very fine line between being too greedy and getting it just right - and, unfortunately, I locked up into Turn One and that’s where I lost time and bailed out. The team did a great job as always. The guys back at the factory have been working as hard as ever to bring the updates to the track. They’re pushed to the limit, but they are delivering, so I’m very thankful for everything they’re doing. Our race pace has been pretty good over the past three races and we should be fast tomorrow too - so keep your fingers crossed!”
Fernando Alonso (4th, Q3 - 1m 37.454s)
“I don’t think this was a disappointing qualifying, because even if there were those outside the team who built up expectations, within it, we were well aware of the situation. The aim was to fight with the McLarens and we did just that. Maybe we had hoped to be ahead of both, but instead we find ourselves splitting the two drivers. I did not expect that the very slight change introduced to the rules would change the order of things and that was the case: Red Bull was and still is the favourite. We will see if at Silverstone, where there are more significant changes coming, something will happen, but we need to keep in mind that everyone or almost everyone will suffer a drop in performance. On my second run in Q3, I was giving it my all to try and improve, but once I realised that my time was slower than on my previous one, I chose to pit and save that set of Options as much as possible. I reckon that tomorrow we could see different strategies in terms of pit stops. Our aim is to finish on the podium and we are in with a chance. The development work on the car is progressing well, but we are a long way behind in terms of aerodynamics, which to put a time value on it means two or three months. It will not be easy to catch up but we will do all we can to succeed.”
Felipe Massa (5th, Q3 - 1m 37.535s)
“It wasn’t an easy qualifying, even if fourth and fifth places is definitely not a bad result. Maybe the others, especially McLaren, managed to find a little something extra between practice and qualifying, while Red Bull continues to be very strong, as was predictable. We have become more competitive over the past three races and our aim is to keep going down this path. We must push on the development of the car, especially as next year’s regulations will be more or less the same, therefore any work we do now could be helpful in the long term too. With the new Medium compound, today we struggled more than yesterday: maybe there is more rubber on the track and the higher temperature did not work in our favour on this front. It will be interesting to see what strategies will be chosen for the race: I don’t think doing a one-stop is possible, as was the case last year.”
Jenson Button (6th, Q3 - 1m 37.645s)
“Sixth position is a bit frustrating because the car felt pretty good in Q2, and I didn’t have to push it too much. So I don’t know why that changed for Q3. I had quite a bit of oversteer and I couldn’t get enough rear grip or traction, particularly in the first two sectors. And that was something I wasn’t expecting. The car felt really good this morning in practice, though. Maybe in this heat, the balance didn’t work quite as well as it did this morning due to the higher track temperatures. It was the same with the prime tyre: a bit more oversteer than there was this morning. Still, I’m sure we can change the tyre pressures and aero balance for tomorrow, so we can still have a good race.”
Nico Rosberg (7th, Q3 - 1m 38.231s)
“Yesterday was very busy with a lot of set-up changes but the team and I did a decent job today to improve the car, so I’m quite pleased. It is difficult out on track this weekend and we have to be careful of overheating the rear tyres - that will certainly be something to watch out for tomorrow. I was able to save one set of soft tyres, by running used options in Q2, and this can be important in the race as we aim to score some nice points. I’m looking forward to it.”
Michael Schumacher (8th, Q3 - 1m 38.240s)
“I am ok with today’s qualifying result which I would say was an average one. I might have improved by one place but in the penultimate slow corner, I attacked a bit too early, got oversteer and had to lift for a moment which cost me the place to Nico. But all in all, we came in where we had expected to finish. It would be optimistic in my view to expect that we can attack the cars in front of us tomorrow because I think our starting positions realistically reflect where we stand at the moment. So let’s see how the race develops and what we can make out of it tomorrow.”
Nick Heidfeld (9th, Q3 - no time)
“In third practice we tried a few small set-up changes, and it went according to plan with no major incidents. When I reached Qualifying, my Q1 did not go as well as I would have liked because I’d planned to do just one lap in order to save the tyres. Unfortunately, I experienced a bit of traffic during my flying lap, which slowed me down somewhat and so I had to carry on and do more laps than I wanted to try and bring the time down. Q2 was ok, but we knew we needed to improve to get through, so we did another lap on new options which was successful as I managed to squeeze into the top 10 by finishing ninth fastest. Then, when I went out in Q3, we saw that Sutil was not going to do a lap time so we quite rightly came back in because the cars ahead had posted times that were considerably quicker. Of course, when you’re in the car and you are called back, you want to stay out and have a go! But, it was the right decision because we’ve saved tyres. We were targeting higher than P9 and P11 but realistically, on today’s pace, that’s where we were so we will now look forward to a strong race tomorrow.”
Adrian Sutil (10th, Q1 - no time)
“The car has been working pretty well all weekend and I felt that we had a good chance to make it through to Q3 today. But I knew that we would have to get the lap just right. That’s why this result feels great because I got the maximum from the car. We didn’t go out in Q3 because we felt it was better to save another set of soft tyres for the race. Also, we saw in Q2 that Heidfeld was three tenths away and that it would be difficult to improve on P10. So it’s a good grid position, but the race is what counts so hopefully we can convert this into points tomorrow.”
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