Question: Sebastian, you had a problem on the first run in the final part of qualifying. But where did it get away from you in the end?
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it was a pretty messy qualifying for us. I think we had a very smooth practice yesterday and this morning. This afternoon never really got into the rhythm, always a little bit in traffic and I just did not get it into one lap as I did in practice. In the final qualifying session, Q3, the first run I misjudged the gap to the car ahead. You don’t want to let your tyres cool down too much and then after four or five corners I was already in the back of Michael (Schumacher). Therefore the first run was lost. Second run I was on a good lap, then in sector two, 11, 12, 13 I was slightly in the wall in the exit and lost too much time there. I could recover from it in the last sector but not enough. In the end I think we had the car to be on pole but unfortunately only second by a little amount of time. But anyway I think we have a very quick car for tomorrow and we should be in a very strong position, so good start. I don’t know about the weather. I think no-one knows. Then we see.
Question: Is this a bit of a surprise for you as everybody up and down the pit lane thought Red Bull had a big advantage here?
Sebastian Vettel: Well, I think we have an advantage, yes, but as it turned out in qualifying the others were a little bit closer and we did not get it all together. Probably we should have gone quicker but would, should, could. Can’t change it now. Obviously I am not the happiest today to go to sleep. Fernando is probably a little bit happier. But it was tight. They did a very good job and as he said they got the maximum out and this is what we and I didn’t do today, therefore we are only second.
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Question: Sebastian, what happened on the first run?
Sebastian Vettel: I caught Michael up quicker than I thought. Misjudged the gap a little bit. Probably took it a little bit quicker in the last couple of corners than he did and ended up already close when I crossed the line. I started the lap and thought ‘okay, we will be okay’. I counted to the first corner. It was around three seconds, two-and-a-half and caught him quicker than I thought I would, so I was stuck behind him. Not much I could do. Then for the second run I had a good beginning of the lap. In the middle sector I lost quite a lot of time in the complex 11, 12 and 13. Slightly hit the wall on the exit, so lost out. I tried obviously to finish the lap as I didn’t get a lap in before, so couldn’t risk too much in the last sector and missed pole by a little bit. Obviously we should have been on pole today by a little bit, so didn’t achieve our optimum. It was not a very smooth qualifying session with traffic here and there. Too many mistakes. But that’s how it is. Tomorrow is more important and starting second is not a bad thing considering that they did quite a good job on cleaning the circuit. Looking at other races, second is not as bad as the last couple of years, so we will see. As Fernando said if it rains tomorrow then anything is possible. I think we have a very strong car no matter the conditions, so we will see.
Question: You started second last year, what’s the difference?
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, I lost the position to Nico (Rosberg), I think, who was starting third. Obviously it’s not ideal, I would have loved to have been on pole but that’s not the case, so we have to be happy with second and I still think that if we go second or third into the first corner, depending on the conditions, we have a very good car and we are able to win, so we will see. Tomorrow is much more important than today.
Question: Usually qualifying means 90 per cent of the race result on street circuits. Do you think that’s also the case tomorrow?
Sebastian Vettel: I don’t think there’s more to add. It’s a long race here. The weather situation is completely open at this stage, so depending on when it will rain tomorrow it will be wet or half wet but surely it will be tricky. This is one of the longest races at nearly two hours, so it’s a very tough one too and a lot of things can happen. Sure, the further you are up in qualifying the more it helps but obviously the race can still change a couple of things. I think Fernando started here from 15th on the grid and won the race two years ago.
Question: Sebastian, you started from second last year. Is there a way not to repeat the same start, and how is the grip on the bad side of the grid?
Sebastian Vettel: You’ve said it: it’s the bad side of the grid with probably less grip, we will find out tomorrow. But I think judging around the track and also the pit exit, obviously they have a new cleaning machine here for the asphalt which helped a lot throughout the weekend. OK, the water doesn’t disappear, but in terms of dust, I think it’s much better than it used to be for the last two years, so it should be fine. I think there’s a picture right outside here where you can’t even see the last five cars starting into the first corner because there was so much dust. It will be similar tomorrow but probably not as bad which should give us a good chance and we hope for a good start, see what we can do.
Question: Sebastian, I would like to know if you have some new updates on your starting system?
Sebastian Vettel: If we have the same system as Ferrari? No, I understood! Yeah, lately our starts were not as good as they used to be at the beginning of the season. We struggled a little bit to put consistent starts together, but we’ve done a little bit of homework and I think we should be more resistant tomorrow, even if the grip isn’t that good. I think that all in all, there’s nothing wrong with our starts, just the last couple of races, if you sum it up, sometimes we were a bit unfortunate. In Hockenheim we had some problem with the clutch, Hungary was OK. Silverstone I think we had the same start as the Ferrari behind us, just on the worse side, so therefore I don’t think there’s much to worry about. As I said, we have some improvements - nothing big, we don’t come here with new parts, so pretty much as we have been, just the set-up is slightly different.
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