Team reaction after qualifying in Hockenheim (part 1)

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel: “That was extremely exciting, especially in Q3. I knew that both times I went out I only had one timed lap, so I had to get it right. It’s difficult here, there are some places that can easily lead you into a mistake on this track. If you push too much then you can lose the edge of the tyres and some time. My final lap wasn’t 100% perfect and there were a couple of places where I went over the limit, which cost me some time. But, in the end, it was enough – although only just – to stay ahead and get the pole. I am extremely happy – thanks to the team. It is the first time I am on pole at home, but the main challenge will come tomorrow.”

Mark Webber: “I made a mistake into Turn one on my final timed lap. I turned in a little bit late and cut the kerb, which took
me out wide so I had to abandon the lap. It was a shame I couldn’t take advantage of the improving track
conditions at the end of the session; it wasn’t the best day for me. I let the boys down a bit, but Seb did a
good lap for pole. Fourth is still not too bad – let’s see what we can do from there in tomorrow’s race.”

Christian Horner: “It was a fantastic lap from Sebastian to get pole at his home race, albeit by the tightest of margins. Mark was right up there throughout the two qualifying sessions and again the drivers were split by very little. Unfortunately he ran wide at Turn one at the start of his last timed lap, but first and fourth is still a strong team result and it promises to be a good race tomorrow.”

Fabrice Lom (Renault): ”What a nice feeling to have a pole position at Sebastian’s home race. It’s so good for him, I imagine he’s very happy. Also to get pole by the tiniest margin, two thousandths of a second,
is a very good achievement. Mark is a bit further back behind the Ferraris, but first and fourth ahead of the McLarens is a strong qualifying result. We need to capitalise on this tomorrow in the race in order to close the
gap in the Championship.”

Ferrari

Stefano Domenicali: "We are very pleased with this result, even if there’s just a hint of regret that pole escaped us by a whisker. This result is down to the whole team, both at the track and at the factory, which over the past weeks, has put in an incredible effort to improve the performance of our car. Already, for the past three races, we could see we were getting better but, for various reasons and events, we did not pick up the results that were within our grasp. Now we have to remain focussed and prepare for tomorrow, down to the smallest detail. Above all, we hope we can finally have a normal race. The time has come to reap the rewards of all the work we have done so far."

Fernando Alonso: "I am happy to be back on the front row after such a long time! We have been competitive all weekend, so this result is not a surprise: although perhaps the small gap to the Red Bull is, given that so far, even when we were close in free practice, or in Q1 and Q2, then in Q3, they always seemed to have that little bit extra. For a few races now, the F10 has improved a lot and that has finally led to us being in the fight for pole position. We have had a good Saturday, but now we have to do the same again on Sunday, as the points are only given out tomorrow. I am happy that Felipe is also in a good position as that means we can defend ourselves, particularly from the McLarens on the opening lap, because with their top speed they could pose a real threat. Tyres could be a significant unknown factor tomorrow: the track has improved so much over the past two days and we are using them much more than yesterday, so we could expect some surprises on the strategy front. The start? At Silverstone, the theoretically slower dirty side was actually cleaner and I hope the same will be true here! We will give it our all in trying to win, because looking at the classification, we need to bring home as many points as possible."

Felipe Massa: "I am pleased with this third place, as it means I am in a good position for the start of the race. It gives us a chance to score a lot of points for the team and that is our objective for tomorrow, as we have lost too many in recent races! Therefore, we hope that the negative run that dates back to Canada will end here in Germany. The gap between my time and that of the first two is due mainly to the fact that I never managed to produce a perfect lap on my last run. Tomorrow, we will do our best: yesterday, we saw that our race pace is competitive and we will try to make the most of that. On this track, with so many slow corners and where it is important to have a car that is good under braking, the F10 seems to be working very well."

Chris Dyer: "A great result which confirms what a good job the team has done in improving the F10. I think everyone now realises that. Clearly, missing out on pole by just two thousandths is a slight disappointment, but that is far outweighed by the satisfaction of getting one car onto the first row and the other on the second, something we have not managed for quite some time. For several races now we have seen signs of progress, but we did not manage to turn it into points, but now the time has come to do so."

McLaren Mercedes

Jenson Button: “It took a little bit of time for us to get used to the balance of the car this weekend. I was pretty happy with my final lap, so I don’t know where the extra seven tenths [to pole] is. And that’s the slightly worrying thing: it was a good lap, and I don’t really think there was anything else I could’ve got out of the car.

“But we’ve definitely made a step forward with the blown diffuser – it’s still not quite enough in qualifying spec, but, hopefully, we’ll see some more performance tomorrow.

“From fifth on the grid, we can still have a good race, and this is a fun place to go racing. The first lap is usually pretty hectic, so I’ll be hoping to pass some cars early on.

“I definitely think we can get a great result tomorrow.”

Lewis Hamilton: “My qualifying pace wasn’t great today – there was definitely a bit more time to be gained somewhere. I did the best job I could – it’s just that the two teams in front did a slightly better job.

“We’re the fastest down the straights, but we don’t have quite enough downforce at the moment. We’ll keep on pushing, but we know we have more work to do.

“Still, I think there’ll be an improvement in our performance relative to the others tomorrow, because our race pace is generally better than our qualifying pace. Hopefully, the weather will be good, too, so we can push the guys in front and try and make up some places.”

Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal: “No-one at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is ever going to be fully satisfied by a qualifying session that results in our cars qualifying only fifth and sixth – but we have reason to be confident that our race pace will be stronger.

“Our straight-line speed is impressive – perhaps more than we needed for an optimal qualifying set-up – but it’s likely to pay dividends tomorrow.

“As ever, both Jenson and Lewis will be looking to make up places early on, and thereafter they’ll approach the race with their usual combination of combative ambition and disciplined adherence to a race strategy that we hope will bag them another decent haul of world championship points. And, having scored 149 points out of a possible 172 in the past four races, we’re focusing on maintaining our consistency above all else.”

Renault

Robert Kubica: I am reasonably happy to be seventh on the grid and I think that, for now, we have to realise that we could not have qualified any higher than this. My lap could have been better, because I was held up by a Red Bull in the final sector, but I don’t think it would have changed my position. We have had a couple of issues with the car here and in
Silverstone, and I have not felt as confident with it, so we know that it’s important to keep working to improve the feeling because that will give us more consistency. As for tomorrow’s race, we saw in Silverstone that anything is possible but we need a good start and a good first lap. We hope that our race pace will be strong, too, but we saw today that the gap to the teams in front is pretty big so I’m expecting a tough afternoon.

Vitaly Petrov: It was another tough qualifying session for me. The lap times around the top ten were very close and I was still learning how to get the most from the car and the tyres at this track, then trying to put it all together in a single lap. In the end, getting it right is a question of experience, and I know that better results will come when I can bring the pieces together – even though I wasn’t far from the top ten today.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: I am pretty pleased with our qualifying performance today, considering that all of the teams ahead of us – and some behind – are running with the F-duct. It’s good to be the leading
team without that system, and particularly nice to have Robert ahead of the two Mercedes – although he could have gone quicker had he not hit traffic on his fastest lap. Of course, our ambitions are greater than P7, but this was a good result today. On the other side of the garage, Vitaly didn’t quite make the cut for Q3 – but in his defence, the times were very
close today and he was just a few tenths away.

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: At the moment, we know that we are a step away from the three teams ahead of us on the grid, so it’s pleasing to see Robert qualify ahead of both Williams and both Mercedes. It was a shame that Vitaly wasn’t able to get closer to the top ten, but he did a good job after two disjointed days of practice. It hasn’t been the easiest of weekends for us overall, and it’s fair to say we struggled with the car yesterday, but we got on top of the situation this morning and during qualifying. Looking to Sunday, the changeable weather conditions have been a feature of the weekend so far, but we are not currently expecting any rain for the race.

Williams Cosworth

At his home Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg lent on his local knowledge to produce his third top-ten qualifying performance this season; consistent with his eighth–placed team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, both drivers felt that the car had more to offer and neither enjoyed a completely optimal Q3. However, both Nico and Rubens share the optimism that the team has a solid basis for a strong race in the German GP tomorrow from the grid positions achieved today and the inherent pace of the FW32.

Rubens Barrichello: It was a good day all told. In Q2, I set my best time and it was a fantastic lap, and in Q3 for some reason I developed a bit of understeer and lost some balance. So it was a bit of a shame not to be able to repeat the performance as I thought we were capable of P7. That said, we have to be happy with two cars in the top ten and it gives us confidence for good points tomorrow.

Nico Hulkenberg: It was positive to get both cars into the top ten; I think there was a bit more there time-wise at around about Rubens’ pace, but I didn’t have the greatest run right at the end of Q3. All that said, we have a good platform for a strong race tomorrow.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: Today was another good qualifying performance by the team and it is great to have both cars in the top 10. We believed we could get up to 7th, but we just missed a bit of time in the last sector relative to Q2. Looking to tomorrow’s race, our target is to put away more points with both cars. The weather here this weekend has made things interesting so far, but it’s still clear on the tyres and other items.

Mercedes GP

In today’s qualifying session at Hockenheim, the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS drivers, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, qualified in ninth and 11th positions respectively ahead of Sunday’s German Grand Prix.

Just 0.06s separated the pair at the end of Q2 with Nico progressing to the final session and Michael just missing out in 11th position. Nico went on to compete in Q3 with his quickest lap good enough for ninth place on the grid.

Nico Rosberg: “I was hoping for a strong weekend here in Hockenheim in front of our fans but unfortunately I struggled a lot in qualifying today. It’s really disappointing and it seems that we are just not making our developments work as well as we hoped this weekend which we need to look into. I hope that we find the problem with the car otherwise it is difficult to explain why we are not closer to the front. I had a lot of oversteer and that made it really difficult as I had to keep coming down on the front wing levels which did not help. I will do my best tomorrow to achieve a good result but it will be difficult from this position.”

Michael Schumacher: “There isn’t much more to say about qualifying other than the result was what was achievable for us today. Clearly it was disappointing because we had expected to be able to fight for fifth or sixth place but from the difference between our two cars, you can see our results are what the potential was. If I want to find something positive, it is that at least I will be starting from the better side of the grid and in the end, I prefer 11th to 10th place because of that. I had some issues with my brakes during qualifying but I do not rate that a real factor for the performance today. We are a bit stronger in race pace than in qualifying but we clearly wanted to achieve more for our fans. Let’s hope that tomorrow the race will develop in a way that we can still show them something.”

Ross Brawn: “We obviously had a disappointing qualifying today at one of our home races, particularly considering the promise that we showed over the practice sessions. With the changeable weather conditions over the weekend and a new aero package on the car, clearly we haven’t understood how to get the best from it here. That’s eventually shown in qualifying today and the drivers were not able to extract any more performance from the car than their respective positions. We will look at all of the data available and understand what is happening to ensure that we make better use of the package in the future.”

Norbert Haug: "Ninth place for Nico and 11th place for Michael are not what we hoped to achieve for the home race of Mercedes-Benz. Our team has worked very hard to get the upgrades on our cars in time for Hockenheim but we must admit that after the limited amount of dry running, we could not make best use of them. But that is the price that sometimes you unfortunately have to pay when the team needs to accelerate its development process from race to race. We had a similar qualifying outcome in Valencia and a fortnight later, the upgrades delivered at Silverstone. I am convinced that with more running and more knowledge, we will make our latest development step work. Disappointment and frustration will not be in our minds right now but quite the opposite and let´s see what the race will bring tomorrow. Nico, Michael and everybody in the team will be fully focused on achieving the best possible result.”