Team reaction after qualifying in Barcelona (part 1)

Red Bull Renault

Mark Webber: “It’s always tight between Seb and I, it’s a good battle. Seb’s had a solid run recently, but today was my turn. The car is performing really well, but we’re taking nothing for granted. We know McLaren and Ferrari are strong opponents and will continue to be until the end of the season. It’s still early days in the Championship, but a lot can happen over the next two back to back races. I’m pleased that we’ve laid the foundations to make good all the hard work that has gone on at the factory over the last three weeks. This pole is for the team – there was a massive effort from the guys before the race and then at the track this
weekend. They have worked so hard, you really can’t believe how much work can go into two cars! It’s a great effort and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Sebastian Vettel: “Congratulations to Mark, he was unbeatable today. It was close; I had good laps throughout qualifying, especially at the end, but it was not enough. A tenth is not that much, but unfortunately it was too much for me today. Still, it was a good qualifying session from us and I think starting on the first row is a good result.
We know there are no points from today, that all comes tomorrow. At the moment it looks comfortable, but we know how quickly things can change, so we have to stay focused. There might be some rain. The team
has made such a huge effort to bring the updates here – the factory has been flat out over the last few weeks, so congratulations to them.”

Christian Horner: “A fantastic team result. It was a brilliant lap by Mark, the drivers have been closely matched all weekend and there’s literally just been hundredths of a second between them. It was a
dominant Red Bull display, which is testimony to a superb team effort. The amount of work that’s gone into the components that have been bought out here has been immense, with members of the team giving up
their bank holiday weekend and time at home. Our performance today is very much due to that.”

Fabrice Lom (Renault): “Wow, what a great result again. It was another very good qualifying, our fifth pole position in a row and our third front row start. We proved that the work we have done since China has
paid off and we are still in front, which is really good. Sunday is the most important time, so we need.

McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton: “We’ve been very competitive this weekend, and we’ve brought a strong package out here with us; but, clearly, Red Bull has made a very good step forward too, and it looks like their car is slightly more aerodynamically efficient than ours is.

“I’m still very motivated for tomorrow though. As ever, Sunday is a different story, and we generally enjoy better pace in the race than we do in qualifying. And let’s hope our reliability can top theirs tomorrow, too.

“Anyway, third on the grid is almost as good as pole position here, if not a little bit better: it’s a long way down to the first corner, and you can get a good draft and pass people. So I’m hoping to get a decent start, make good progress early on, and then drive a strong but straightforward race in which I’m able to do something good and get up near the front.

“Looking further ahead, we’ve got a fantastic team behind us, and we know that the car has a great deal of potential. We just need to try and close that gap as quickly as possible.”

Jenson Button: “We struggled a bit this morning, and yesterday we didn’t think we’d be where we are right now, so, all in all, this afternoon wasn’t too bad. On my final lap in Q3, I ran over one of the green sections of Astroturf; there wasn’t much grip there, so I got wheelspin and hit the rev limiter, which lost me a bit of time.

“Even so, I’m fifth and I’m satisfied with that. Okay, I’d rather be a bit further up, and I think I probably could have been, but it’s not a bad place to start. I still I think the Red Bulls are going to be pretty tough to beat tomorrow, though.

“We came here hoping to close the gap, but instead it’s gone slightly in the other direction, which is surprising. So we’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I know that everyone in the team will be digging as deep as they possibly can to make that extra effort, and that we’ll get there.

“For tomorrow, if we’re good off the line, we might be able to pass some cars into Turn One. It’s a bit more difficult for me, but there’s definitely a possibility for Lewis. And our race pace is usually better than our qualifying speed, so I’m still extremely hopeful for another good showing tomorrow. If all goes well, I hope to be able to maintain my position at the head of the drivers’ world championship points standings – and hopefully Lewis and I will score heavily enough to keep Vodafone McLaren Mercedes at the top of the constructors’ world championship table, too.”

Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal:
“Both Lewis and Jenson drove really well in qualifying here in Barcelona, and the result was an uneventful session for us. Ideally, we’d been aiming to sew up the second row, but in the end we narrowly failed to achieve that, finishing up third and fifth.

“Even so, we’re in a strong position from which to launch an ambitious race effort tomorrow. We expect to be closer to the Red Bulls on race pace than we were today – and, spearheaded by the proven ability of our two world champion drivers to deliver superbly gritty race performances under pressure, we’ll be pushing as hard as ever to bag as many world championship points as possible tomorrow.”

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, while Felipe Massa ended up ninth at the end of the third and final part of qualifying.

Stefano Domenicali: “First and foremost I want to congratulate Fernando. He drove a really fantastic lap, getting every last thousandth of a second of performance out of the package he had today. Felipe never managed to find the right feeling for the car this weekend and today he did the best he could: we have to analyse the reasons that led to this situation. On this track, so far one team has been untouchable, while the other top three teams are all very close. We will see if this will still be the case in tomorrow’s race, especially in terms of tyre performance. Points are handed out on Sunday and before jumping to conclusions, it’s best to wait for the chequered flag.”

Fernando Alonso: “I am pleased with this result. We knew the Red Bulls would be untouchable, so to be fourth is more or less what we expected. As usual, tomorrow’s race will be long and we must try and get the most out of what we have to work with. Something unexpected can always happen, as was the case for me this morning when I got a puncture coming out of the garage for my first run. I don’t think we lost any valuable time, concentrating on the development of the blown rear wing: here and in China, we had so many other new components that we have been able to gain a few tenths in performance terms, without which we would be much further back on the grid, because the others are also working very hard. We are moving in the right direction and we have to continue like this. Tomorrow, it will be very important to get a good start: recently they have not gone so well for me and so this would be just the right moment to get one!”

Felipe Massa: “In qualifying I had a lot of trouble finding the right grip level, especially in the second and third sectors, which contain the slowest corners on the track: I felt as though I was rally driving, always understeering. Already yesterday, I realised this would not be an easy weekend and so I was not surprised at what happened today. We worked on different set-ups for the car and chose the best one, but it was not enough: we have to work out why, but without panicking, but by calmly analysing the situation. Maybe I didn’t put together the best possible lap, but even so I don’t think I would have been in the fight for the top places. The Red Bulls are much quicker than everyone else here and we will have to do our best to try and get a good finishing position.”

Chris Dyer: “We cannot be happy to find ourselves almost a second off pole position, that’s for sure. Both Felipe and Fernando have struggled all weekend, especially in terms of grip levels. On his last qualifying lap, Fernando produced an exceptional lap and getting the car at least onto the second row was down to his talent. Tomorrow, it will be vital to manage to get a good start, given that, on this track, overtaking is very difficult. One unknown factor is tyre behaviour: from what we have seen so far, there might be some surprises over the long runs.”

Mercedes GP

Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona saw the Mercedes GP Petronas pair of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg qualify in sixth and eighth positions respectively for Sunday’s race.

Michael and Nico progressed easily through Q1 with each driver using the prime tyres for two runs. Michael completed just one run on the options in Q2 for sixth place with Nico completing two runs and going through in tenth position.

Q3 saw both drivers complete two three-lap runs on the options to end the session with Michael in sixth place on the third row of the grid, and Nico in eighth position which will see him start directly behind his team-mate on row four.

Michael Schumacher: “Today’s qualifying was straightforward in my view. We had a good car yesterday meaning that conditions were quite ideal for us in terms of balance and so on. Today admittedly, the car was not as perfect. It is little things that can trigger that change one way or the other, and whatever happened today just triggered us to fall over the edge towards the downside a little. Nevertheless, I feel a lot more comfortable driving the car that I have in my hands now. But there is a maximum that you can get out of it and that is what we have achieved today.”

Nico Rosberg: “It’s been a difficult weekend for me and we need to look into the reasons for this and understand why. The changes that we have made with the car are obviously good and we have made a step forward but I haven’t really been able to use the improvements so far. Considering that I have found the car difficult to drive and haven’t had the best of set-ups, our performance today was acceptable but it’s not where I wanted to be fighting this weekend.”

Ross Brawn: “I am pleased with the performance of our drivers today with Michael and Nico doing a good job. Michael has continued the progress that we saw in the first three races whilst Nico hasn’t been completely happy with the car this weekend and that reflects in his position. I am comfortable that we have made progress but other teams have also moved forward so we have further work to do. I’m not happy with the overall performance, but I am confident that if we hadn’t done all of the work that we have, we would have been much further back. It’s evident that this has happened to the teams who have not made progress since the last race. There are some positive signs but we need to be faster.”

Norbert Haug: “We have certainly improved our car considerably since the beginning of the season but other teams have improved as well and the third and fourth rows are not where we hoped to start this important first race of the European season. Michael has done a very good job since the first lap here in Barcelona with Nico closing the gap to his team-mate from half a second yesterday to just over a tenth today. But of course sixth and eight places are not where we want to start a race from and we will be working very hard to improve that position as soon as possible.”

Renault

Robert Kubica: Overall it was a good qualifying session for me. Seventh is a strong place to start and I think I got the maximum from the car. We don’t have a big package of updates for this race so it’s encouraging to be ahead of one Ferrari and one Mercedes, which is not what I was expecting. I know that it will be a tough race tomorrow and it will be interesting to see how the soft tyres cope with the heavy fuel load in the opening laps. I think our race pace will be similar to our qualifying pace so I’m hopeful of a strong race and scoring some good points tomorrow.

Vitaly Petrov: It was a very close session today and I only missed out on Q3 by three tenths, which shows that we have improved again this weekend - both myself and the team. To begin with it wasn’t certain that I would make qualifying after my accident this morning when I ran wide onto the kerb and hit some standing water on the approach to turn four. So I have to say a big thank you to my mechanics because they did an excellent job to repair the car in time. I know the race tomorrow will be difficult because it’s not easy to overtake here, but anything can happen in the race and I will try my best to move forward.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: Robert did an excellent job to qualify in seventh and if somebody had told us before the weekend that we would qualify ahead of a Ferrari and a Mercedes, we would have been very happy. Obviously our expectations are changing with every race and we are now aiming even higher up the grid compared to the start of the season. Vitaly was unlucky to get caught out with his accident this morning, which affected this preparation for qualifying. Even so he only missed out on Q3 by three tenths and without losing the track time I’m sure he could have made it into the top ten. So it’s encouraging to know that both cars have the potential to make it into Q3. Again I want to say a big thanks to the team for their hard work to get Vitaly’s car ready in time for the start of Q1.

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: A lot of the teams have brought updates to this race, but overall our relative position remains similar to the first four races. Robert is in seventh, ahead of one of the Mercedes, which is good to see because we thought they might move away from us this weekend. Vitaly had an accident in final practice this morning, but the crew put in a tremendous effort to get the car ready for the start of qualifying and Vitaly was very close on pace with cars around him in Q2. For the race tomorrow we don’t have any particular concerns with the car in terms of tyres or brake wear, so we’re looking forward to a strong performance and hopefully scoring another good haul of points.

Sauber Ferrari

For the second time this year Kamui Kobayashi made it into the top ten qualifying. In the end he qualified tenth for the Spanish Grand Prix. Team mate Pedro de la Rosa was sixth fastest in the first qualifying session, but in Q2 the local hero had to make do with 12th. Both drivers are happy with the improvements made to the car.

Kamui Kobayashi: “I already knew from the morning session that my pace here was good enough for Q3. The team did a really good job – not only in qualifying, but also over the last three weeks. We have changed the direction for the car’s development and as a reward we made it for the second time this season to Q3. The performance of the car is a lot
better. We have aero updates and also an engine upgrade for reliability. I won’t set myself targets for tomorrow. I just hope to finish the race and everything else, I believe, will be okay then.”

Pedro de la Rosa: “I’m not happy. In Q2 I was sixth and it obviously was possible to get into Q3. I don’t really understand what went wrong. I had a bit of understeer here and there and out of turn two I was sliding. However, the positive thing is we have made a big step forward
since the Chinese Grand Prix, and we are a lot more competitive.”

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “If you want to move forward on the grid, you have to take two steps, because the competition is not standing still. And that’s exactly what we achieved. A great compliment and thank you to the whole team. We can be happy with what we achieved today.”

James Key, Technical Director:
“That was an excellent qualifying result for our team, along with a genuine pace from both drivers, which was very encouraging. We weren’t sure how far we could push forward in qualifying, but I think after Q1 we realised we had a good chance of doing well, and I think in Q2 that proved to be the case. Pedro was just a few tenths of a second shy of Q3, but Kamui put an excellent single lap together to get through. We didn’t have any new tyres for Q3, but we decided nevertheless to give it a go. A great performance from both drivers, and a well deserved result for the team. The updates
worked, which was very much a team effort, and we can be proud of the step we made. Now we have to keep it going.”