Team reaction after qualifying in Valencia (part 1)

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel: “Valencia isn’t usually - or shouldn’t be - our strongest circuit so it’s good that we are able to put the car on pole and I think our pace is looking very good. It was a tight qualifying session, and a tough one especially as we reintroduced the F-duct and I think some of the mechanics had maybe an hour or two’s sleep last night, so it’s good to say thank you by putting the cars on one and two. We’re now in a very strong position to start tomorrow’s race.”

Mark Webber: “It would be nice to be the other way around but you can’t do it all the time! I’m pleased to be on the front row with Seb, and all credit to the team. This isn’t one of our strongest circuits and the track is like a Tesco car park, but we’ve had a good day and let’s see how tomorrow goes. I’m very optimistic we can have a good race.”

Christian Horner: “The one-two was completely unexpected at a track that might have exposed some of our weaknesses. The team has put a lot of hard work into the new duct, and that combined with other bits and pieces and perfect laps from both drivers has produced a great result to start tomorrow’s race. We know the McLarens are quick in straight-line speed, but we are confident of a good race.”

Fabrice Lom (Renault): ”We are back on the front row with is very good. We made a big step forward with the new parts and with the engines behaving well on this track we can expect a good result tomorrow.”

McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton: “Ahead of this weekend, we didn’t expect to be quick enough for third on the grid. It’s a complete surprise, but it’s a fantastic result.

“I thought my first Q3 lap was good, but you just never knew what the others were doing. On my final lap, I was two tenths up, but I was way over the limit, locked the rears into Turn 17 and had to bail out of it. Fortunately, my previous lap was an awesome one, so I’m so happy to be third.

“I’m very happy with third, actually – you’re on the clean side, so it’s a better position to start from than second, and you get the clean line on the inside, so I can make it hard for Mark [Webber] to get into the first corner ahead of me.

“Today’s qualifying could prove crucial for us; we came here determined to minimise the damage because we knew a lot of the other teams would be quick because they’d brought updates to this race. And, for tomorrow, anything’s still possible – there’s a long straight around the back of the track, and, if we can stay close enough, then there’s a possibility to use the F-duct and overtake.

“I’ll be relying on the guys to do the best job possible during the pitstops tomorrow – as they usually do – and I think we’re going to have an exciting race.”

Jenson Button: “Things were looking good until the last corner of my last lap in Q3. I was pretty happy with the car, but then I got a bit of oversteer through the quick right-hander before it, and I think that set the car up poorly for the last corner. I locked up, ran wide, and lost two tenths. And that’s massive – it could have been fourth on the grid. So, very disappointing.

“But I can’t do anything about it, and I’ll be pushing for a better race tomorrow. It’ll be very difficult – I just want to get a good start and not get stuck in traffic, because the pace of our car is good.

“It’s disappointing, as I say, but hopefully we can gain some places at the start, execute some quick pitstops and make the most of our strategy – the pits really are the only place where you can overtake around here.

“I’m a little surprised at the final grid – it’s very similar to what we’ve seen at a lot of other races, despite several teams bringing upgrades to this race. And that’s another positive for us.”

Martin Whitmarsh: Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“Fast and committed qualifiers that they both are, Lewis and Jenson pushed as hard as possible in Q3 today. However, they both made small errors on their final laps. Lewis’s mistake probably made no difference to his eventual grid position, because the single-lap performance gap to the Red Bulls is quite significant here, but Jenson looked to have P4 in the bag had he negotiated the final corner of his last lap as well as he’d driven the previous turns.

“Even so, Jenson is an extremely smooth yet very combative race driver – and, bearing in mind that he and Lewis have notched up 86 world championship points in the past two races, we think they’re well set to score significantly again tomorrow.”

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso: "I am happy with this result. Here, so many teams, including Ferrari, have brought new parts and so it was important to show we are capable of fighting for the top places. We managed it and we must bear in mind that, without the updates we have on the F10, we would probably have struggled to make it into Q3. Tomorrow, we have the potential to fight for a podium place: it will be important to get a good start, choose the right strategy and not make any mistakes because the walls here are not forgiving. Obviously, reliability will be very important as this track is very tough on the cars. With the harder tyre, our car was more competitive as its behaviour inspired more confidence over the flying lap, but to have done Q3 with this compound would probably have compromised our race."

Felipe Massa: "Today, we had a good car and the potential was there to do better than this fifth place. In Q1 and Q2, I was very pleased with the handling of my F10, but in Q3 I was not able to improve, mainly because of traffic that prevented me from preparing the tyres properly. It’s a shame, because I could have been starting from third place tomorrow: from fifth it will be harder to fight for a podium finish, but the chance is still there within our grasp. The updates the team has brought here contributed to making the car more competitive and they lived up to our expectations: we must continue down this route for the rest of the season."

Stefano Domenicali: "We are reasonably pleased with this result. The car proved to be competitive and everything was in place to secure an even better result but, for various reasons, we never managed to put together the perfect lap with either of our two drivers. All the same, we know that as always, the points are only given out tomorrow. We can expect a long and difficult race for the drivers the teams and the cars and, as I usually say on Saturdays, reliability will be the key. The technical updates we introduced this weekend have seen us take a step forward in terms of performance, but we must continue to push on the development front, because the other teams are doing the same."

Chris Dyer: "There is a hint of disappointment at this result. After this morning’s third free practice session, we saw that our car was very competitive on the harder tyre, while it struggled a bit more to get the best out of the softer one on the single flying lap. In the two hours before qualifying, the team worked on trying to find the right compromise and the situation improved, but not enough to put us in the fight for the very top positions, which was also down to the fact that neither driver managed to get a clean lap in Q3. That explains why Felipe and Fernando ended up where they did. All the same, it’s not a bad position for the race: from what we have seen so far, the F10 seems to be very competitive over a long run."

Renault

Robert Kubica: Nous avons disputé de bonnes qualifications et la voiture était particulièrement rapide avec le type de pneumatiques prime (mélange medium, le plus dur ce week-end). Avec le type "option" (gomme ultra-tendre), la voiture me semblait moins précise et son équilibre était différent. Je n’ai donc pas noté de réel gain de temps. Nous avons déterminé, cependant, qu’il serait meilleur d’utiliser les pneus "option" dans la première partie de la course. J’ai terminé plus haut dans le classement en Q1 et Q2, mais le résultat final reflète davantage notre réelle position. Les développements techniques apportés ce week-end sont efficaces, mais nous devons encore y travailler pour en extraire le maximum, ce que nous devrions arriver à faire lors des prochaines courses.

Vitaly Petrov: C’est fantastique d’arriver en Q3 parce que les performances étaient très proches aujourd’hui.
Malheureusement, j’ai fait quelques erreurs dans mon tour rapide. Sans cela, j’aurais pu terminer encore un peu plus haut sur la grille. En course, tout pourra arriver. Mon objectif sera de gagner des positions au départ puis de préserver mes pneumatiques. La voiture bénéficie de nombreuses
nouveautés techniques ce week-end et j’ai dû adapter mon style de pilotage pour en tirer le meilleur. Cela dit, j’ai senti une réelle amélioration des performances.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: Nous sommes satisfaits de voir nos deux voitures figurer parmi les dix premiers sur la grille, c’est une situation qui ne s’est pas présentée très souvent cette saison. Après Q1 et Q2, nous nous attendions à un meilleur résultat en Q3, mais nous n’avons pas tiré la performance espérée des pneumatiques les plus tendres. Nous pensons avoir une bonne stratégie de course et notre ambition est de marquer avec les deux voitures demain. Cela nous permettrait de reprendre des points à Mercedes.

Alan Permane, Chef ingénieur de course: Je suis satisfait de voir nos deux voitures dans le top10 pour la deuxième fois en trois courses. Etre
devant Mercedes, notre plus proche rival au championnat, est également une bonne chose. Nous espérions pouvoir nous classer un peu mieux avec Robert aujourd’hui, mais nous avons souffert plus que nous l’avions anticipé avec le type de pneumatiques "option". Bien qu’il s’agisse du
mélange le plus tendre, la voiture était moins stable lorsqu’elle en était équipée. On pourrait penser qu’un pneu tendre offre davantage d’adhérence mais celle-ci n’est pas utilisable si la voiture n’est pas facile à conduire. Dès lors, nous avons pensé qu’il serait préférable de prendre le départ avec ce mélange, de manière à ne pas devoir effectuer un long relais en tendres en course.

Williams Cosworth

Following a succession of recent development upgrades, the team enjoyed some tangible progress at Valencia today as both AT&T Williams drivers secured top ten grid slots for tomorrow’s European Grand Prix. Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello set competitive times throughout this
afternoon’s three qualifying rounds, with Nico just edging into P8 ahead of Rubens’ P9 at the end of Q3.

Rubens Barrichello: It was a good qualifying session for the team. Ninth is a strong position to be starting from, but I could have done better than that if it weren’t for a problem with brake warm up in Q3. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and certainly feel we can achieve a top sixth finish as the car is looking competitive. We are quite happy with the improvements we’ve brought here this weekend. We still need to keep pushing, but this demonstrates that we can be fast.

Nico Hulkenberg: A positive Saturday; that wasn’t a bad qualifying! No one expected me to be ahead of Rubens today because he’s been quicker than me all weekend. Somehow I pulled out a good lap in Q3 and beat him by a fraction. We’re obviously happy that we have both cars in the top ten, which was the aim. Hopefully we’ll have a good race and get some points tomorrow.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: To get both cars into Q3 is good progress with the whole car package. Rubens had an issue with glazed brakes, which was a shame as that pushed him down the order. Nico did a good job in qualifying today. We do still have to improve across all areas of the car, and if we do that quickly we’ll feature in the top ten more regularly. Rubens will be racing the blown rear wing tomorrow while Nico
will run a standard version.

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Sebastien Buemi: “It’s my best qualifying result of the season and I did not expect to do so well before the start of the session, which is a reason to be pleased. On the other hand, I am a bit disappointed because Barrichello was ahead of me going into the final corner on my last flying lap and he really slowed me down. He was on his slowing down lap, but it cost me two tenths which should have seen me finish higher than eleventh. To be honest, I’m not sure why the car worked so well today, because we have not changed anything since Canada. It proves the team is doing a fine job. It’s good to start from further up the grid than usual, right in the middle of the pack, which means I have every chance of having a good race, even if it will be very difficult to overtake.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “I’m not sure what happened as we seemed to lack pace this afternoon. I tried to push as hard as possible, but the speed did not come, so we will need to look at the data to understand what went on. Maybe my tyre pressures were a bit too low and I struggled especially on the soft tyres, maybe I did not have quite the right feeling from the brakes, which are very important here but for whatever reason I was very slow. Today, my team-mate did a better job than me, so we will have to try and improve in order to catch up in the race tomorrow.”

Giorgio Ascanelli: “The times were very close this afternoon and Sebastien had a particularly good qualifying session, although there is some feeling of regret because he could have done slightly better than eleventh place, if he had not been held up by traffic towards the end of his last flying lap. What I am particularly pleased about is that, on his final run in Q2, Seb decided to go for a single flying lap to gain the advantage of carrying less fuel weight and it paid off, which was the right way to do it. Jaime, who went for two timed laps on both his Q2 runs, also had a bit of a traffic problem and so he did not get it quite right today. As for tomorrow’s race, free practice demonstrated that we appear to have a good pace over a long run, which is encouraging.”