Team reaction after qualifying in Interlagos (part 2)

After free practice three took place in difficult conditions, with an unpredictable track that was drying slowly and still had lots of very wet patches, the weather conditions remained changeable with rain on and off. The intermediates were the tyre choice for qualifying. In Q1 Kamui Kobayashi and Nick Heidfeld were fifth and 15th respectively. In Q2 Kobayashi finished 12th, missing Q3 by less than two tenths of a second. Heidfeld was unhappy with his timing and qualified 16th.

Kamui Kobayashi: “I was very close to making it into Q3, but I could feel on my last lap the tyres were gone. The timing for the tyre change on my car was alright for me. Perhaps one lap later would have been ideal in terms of track conditions, but on the other hand it is good to go for safety in case of a yellow flag or anything else like this. In Q1, when it was wetter, I found the conditions were very good for the car and the tyres. I remained on the same set and in the end I was fifth, but obviously the result of Q2 is what counts. For tomorrow we expect dry conditions and I believe this is good for us.“

Nick Heidfeld: “I must admit I am a bit annoyed. Dry conditions would have suited our car better, but that’s not under our control. What we could have done better was the timing in Q2. My tyre change was two laps too early, which meant I wasn’t on the track when the conditions were at their best with a set of tyres in good shape. However, as I said, in dry conditions we can be strong here and the forecast for the race tomorrow says it will be dry.”

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “It was a typical Interlagos weekend with an unexpected grid. Congratulations to the Williams team and, in particular, to Nico Hülkenberg, who did a fantastic job to grab pole position.”

James Key, Technical Director: “As predicted the rain came today. This morning we went through a programme trying to understand the different conditions and, in particular, the cross over between extra wet and intermediate tyres. We seemed to lose some competitiveness in wet conditions compared to yesterday. The main issue seemed to be warming up the tyres. We made some changes for qualifying, where it was crucial to hit the track and tyre conditions at the right time. Kamui did a reasonable job to get close to Q3, after he had some difficulties in the morning. Nick was a little less happy, and he also suffered from some traffic. It’s unfortunate we didn’t get through to Q3, but equally it’s going to be a dry day tomorrow, so we should be more competitive and we will fight hard. Finally congratulations to Williams and Nico Hülkenberg on the pole position.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “I am reasonably satisfied with this qualifying performance, as I think we got pretty close to the maximum we could get out of our package in difficult conditions. The track conditions were very changeable but we were able to confirm that we had found a solution to the problems we had in the wet this morning. With a wet qualifying, but the prospect of a dry race, we went with a set-up that was halfway between the two, which will hopefully serve us well tomorrow. I was not expecting to be this high up the order, so I hope that, with a good strategy and depending on tyre wear, we might be able to get some points tomorrow.”

Sebastien Buemi: “I am very disappointed with the way this qualifying went, especially after I had been quick in the morning session. I think that maybe we made the switch to Intermediates a bit too early in Q2 as the track was drying out. By the time the track had dried more, my tyres were no longer in the best condition, so I could not exploit the dry track.”

Laurent Mekies, Chief Engineer: “14th and 15th means that overall, this was an okay qualifying for us. It is always more interesting for everyone, when the conditions are tricky which makes life difficult for both drivers and the crew. We can be pleased with the fact that our two cars outpaced both Force Indias and one Sauber. However, the fantastic job done by Williams and Hulkenberg today shows that there was probably more potential to come from all of us, so congratulations to them. Tomorrow we can expect a dry race and we will be pushing very hard to try and get some points.”

Unsettled weather and changeable track conditions conspired to produce a frustrating qualifying session for the Force India F1 Team in Brazil today. Tonio Liuzzi made the grade for Q2 but struggled with grip throughout the session and will start 17th, while Adrian Sutil was eliminated in the first segment, qualifying in 18th.*

* Adrian will start from P23 when his five place grid penalty from Korea is applied
Adrian Sutil (car 14)

Adrian Sutil: I had an untidy Q1 today. On the first run I lost out when I came up to Tonio just as he had gone off and that was probably when the track was at its best. Then the grip was just not there on the last outing. The track came up a little bit at the end but then the rain started and I had a lot of graining on the tyres at that point and couldn’t do a reasonable lap time. With the penalty we are starting quite far down the field, but I’m definitely not giving up. We’ve got a very strong race pace and our pit calls in changeable weather this year have been good. We’ve achieved too much this year to let ourselves go at the last jump so I’m massively motivated to go out and give it everything.

Tonio Liuzzi: It was a strange session as we were really positive about the car in the morning and everything was working very well. The car seemed balanced and we didn’t change very much from FP3 to qualifying as we were pretty confident we could be very close to Q3. But then in the afternoon the car seemed to lose grip and we were really struggling in braking, particularly in sector two where the car was sliding all over the track. We tried but in the end we couldn’t get higher than P17. But we are fighters, and we just come back stronger when things are hard.

Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer: This was obviously not the session we were looking for, or what we were expecting. But as we know the race can be unpredictable. Last year at this very track we started P3 and didn’t finish, at the last race in Korea Tonio started P17 and finished sixth: there’s still everything to play for. We are going to go away tonight, refocus and look at every possible scenario so we’re well prepared for anything that might come in tomorrow’s race. That is going to be the key to doing well.

Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock brought his VR-01 race car home in the top new teams slot today in the qualifying session for tomorrow’s 71 lap Brazilian Grand Prix.

The track was damp at the start of the session following heavy rain last night, which continued into this morning. The early part of Q1 was key as further rain was heading for Interlagos and Timo got a solid first run in the bag which the Lotus cars were unable to match. He ended the session in 19th position after 13 laps.

Taking part in his first F1 qualifying on home asphalt, Lucas di Grassi had a less satisfying session and ended the day 21st after 13 laps.

Timo Glock, Race Driver: “It was a pretty good qualifying session for us today. I had a very good first run which was already enough to stay in front of the Lotus cars. I had a little bit of a problem with the second set of tyres and I had to switch to the third set, which cost us a lot of time and I was only able to do one timed lap. There was more to come but the tyres were not up to temperature. It’s good for us to be the best of the new teams and we are looking forward to tomorrow’s race.”

Lucas di Grassi: “A very wet Saturday at Interlagos. Overall the day went okay, apart from the changeable conditions in qualifying, and we were not on the track when it was at its best. Because of that I am not very happy with the qualifying result as for sure there was more to come. Tomorrow is another day though and I am optimistic about our performance in the dry conditions expected and in what will certainly be a very exciting first Brazilian Grand Prix for me at Interlagos.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “Both drivers were pretty happy with the behaviour of their cars in the wet conditions this morning. In qualifying Timo struggled with the balance on his second set of intermediate tyres but did a good lap on his first set which enabled him to be the fastest driver of the new teams. Lucas gambled on the rain arriving earlier than it actually did, which meant he wasn’t able to get the most out of his package today. However, he is confident in the performance of the car in the dry conditions expected tomorrow. Congratulations to our engine partner Cosworth on an excellent pole position.”

Traffic played a big part in Lotus Racing’s Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying session with both Jarno Trulli and, in particular, Heikki Kovalainen being unable to extract the maximum times out of their cars in the damp conditions. Jarno Trulli starts tomorrow’s race in 18th place with Heikki Kovalainen just behind in 20st.

Jarno Trulli: “There was a lot of traffic out there because of the weather which meant I couldn’t really put together my best lap. At the end I managed to get a decent time in but it felt like it was wetter than at the start of the session and obviously that meant I couldn’t get ahead of Timo. Despite that the car has felt good all weekend in the wet and the dry conditions, and I think tomorrow we’ll be strong. We kept a dry setup on the car today and that should put us in a good position for the race.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “That was a disappointing session for me. I was held up by traffic each time I went for a quick run and definitely didn’t get the most out of the car, but I think we’ll be ok tomorrow. It’s a short track here and it’s pretty normal that traffic plays its part in qualifying but yesterday we worked hard on making sure we have a good setup for the race and it will be good to get back in the car tomorrow and show what we can do.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “A fascinating qualifying session but slightly disappointing for us. Both drivers lost their quickest laps to traffic and Heikki in particular was held up by Heidfeld on a couple of occasions. However, with the dry forecast for tomorrow and the performance of our car in dry conditions we will look to have a strong race and get both cars home across the finish line.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “Firstly I want to say congratulations to Nico for such an outstanding performance today. That is the first Williams pole since 2005 and the very first time AirAsia can celebrate a pole position - the whole team deserves every plaudit coming their way today and I am very proud to be part of the Williams dream. For Lotus Racing it was a decent job today from both Jarno and Heikki who were obviously held up by the traffic. It is still very pleasing that we keep taking the fight to our direct competitors even though we have been focusing on next year’s car since back in July.

“It is also satisfying to see that all of the off-track attention that is being paid to the team has not distracted any of us from what is important. I will be making an official statement about the off-track situation in due course but for now we are focusing on being a professional race team that is gaining more experience with every lap and turning that into long-term success.”

At a wet and rainy Interlagos circuit, Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team completed qualifying for its first ever Brazilian Grand Prix today. Christian Klien will start tomorrow’s race from 23rd position (1.23.083) and Bruno Senna, who will race for the first time in a Formula 1 car in front of his home crowd, will do it from 24th position (1.23.796). The rain was present the whole day, so in the morning, during the third practice session, both Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team drivers did 39 laps between them and were able to get used to driving in the rain.

Dr Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “We are quite happy with the qualifying result under these difficult conditions. The gap to our competitors was quite small and we showed a solid performance today. We even could have been within half a second from the other new teams but unfortunately Christian Klien lost some time on his last lap when it started to rain again. For Christian, it was the first time in our car on a wet track and he did well. He will start tomorrow from 22nd position due to a five position penalty for Adrian Sutil. Now we hope to go on like this and we want to have good fights in tomorrow’s race, which for sure will be a special one for Bruno Senna as he is racing at his home track in Brazil for the first time.”

Christian Klien, Race driver: “I am very pleased about the qualifying outcome today under these difficult conditions. This morning was the first time I was driving this car in the rain and especially in qualifying it was very important not to do any mistakes. But I managed to stay on the track and could improve my lap times at the end of the session. We hope to fight for positions in the race tomorrow and we are well prepared for it.”

Bruno Senna, Race driver: “We could have done better today if we would have changed the tyres during the session. The track got quicker at the end of qualifying but unfortunately we couldn’t use it. We hope to have more luck tomorrow, when it is expected to be dry again. It is going to be a long and tough race and I am looking forward to compete in a Formula 1 car here at home in Brazil.”