Team reaction after qualifying in Sepang (part 1)

Red Bull Renault

Mark Webber: “It was tricky today. When you look at the amount of standing water there was in places during Q1 and Q2, trying to get everything right and a clear lap was difficult, especially as there is a fair difference in pace between some of the cars. My Q2 lap on intermediate tyres was a bit of a three point turn round Pedro (de la Rosa) and that was my quickest, so you knew you had to keep pushing; the conditions were changing so
quickly. A few big names went out in the first session, which was a surprise, but it just goes to show how sensitive everything is to timing. The pole goes to Ciaron, my engineer, as he made the call for inters in Q3. I said ‘have a look at the track, what do you think?’ and he said ‘yeah let’s go for it’. It was tricky in places, in the last corner there was a bit of aquaplaning, but I kept it on the black stuff and got the job done.”

Sebastian Vettel: “Good job to Mark today. It was very tricky at the start of Q3, there was a lot of water and it was the right thing to call the red flag – it was just impossible. I think there was too much water – the cars are quite low, so you end up swimming more than driving. In Q3 I think we did the right thing putting on extremes. The water disappeared quicker than the majority of people thought and Mark was on the better tyre in the end, but I think third is a good result for the team. It was a tricky session – it was important to get into the next round and then qualify as high up as we could, which we did. It’s a shame as I had some moments on my fastest lap – I was close to Nico (Rosberg), only about one tenth off I think, but if you look back there wasn’t that much margin. I think we can be very pleased with third today and everything is possible tomorrow.”

Christian Horner: “A very tricky qualifying, as there was a lot of opportunity to get it wrong rather than right, but both drivers kept cool heads, along with their engineers and car crews. In the end there was quite a lot of risk associated with splitting the strategy for the last run in Q3, but it was the right thing to do. The option of the intermediate tyre had a one lap window that Mark fully exploited and first and third is a great job from both drivers.”

Fabrice Lom (Renault): “What a great pole position. It was a very difficult session in the wet – Mark made a good call on tyres and along with his good skill, he claimed pole. He erased the issue from yesterday when his engine blew, so we’re happy he could recover and get pole. Sebastian is third, which is a good team result. Now we concentrate on the race tomorrow.”

Mercedes GP

Nico Rosberg achieved his best ever grid placing today in a rain-soaked and eventful qualifying session for the 2010 PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit as he put his MGP W01 on the front row of the grid in second position. Team-mate Michael Schumacher qualified in eighth place after the rain-interrupted Q3.

With rain arriving prior to the start of qualifying, Nico and Michael waited in the garage for the opening minutes of Q1. They completed one run on intermediate tyres and headed straight back into the pits for wets as the rain intensified, leaving their best laps quick enough to go through in 16th and 14th positions respectively. With a lessening of the rain, intermediates were the right choice for Q2 where Nico and Michael finished in 5th and 10th places to progress.

Q3 began in heavy rain which quickly brought out the red flag. Once the action had resumed, Nico and Michael completed three flying laps on wet tyres, setting their quickest times on the first lap before the tyres began to degrade. Nico had a great lap for second place, bringing the first front row grid slot for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team, with Michael finishing in eighth position.

Nico Rosberg: “I’m really pleased with my first front row start and it’s great for me, the whole team and PETRONAS to have such a good qualifying result in Sepang for one of our home races. It was very difficult out there today and hard to keep it on the road at times. My run in Q3 was definitely my best of the day and I put in a good time on the first quick lap. By the second lap, the tyres started to degrade so it just wasn’t possible to go any quicker from there. As soon as we went out, I thought intermediates were the way to go and maybe I should have come in but in the end it worked out well for us. Im confident that we can have a strong race from here tomorrow, if it is wet or dry, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Michael Schumacher: “I am obviously a little disappointed with my result today as it was evident from the earlier qualifying sessions that we looked pretty good and I clearly could have achieved more. On my last run in Q3, I wanted to secure a lap time and then go for the second lap but after I finished my first quick lap, the tyres were already gone so I could not go for it anymore. Though it is good to know the limits of the wet tyres for tomorrow, now I have to concentrate fully on the race. Congratulations to Nico today for scoring our first front row qualifying result.”

Ross Brawn: “An excellent performance from Nico today to achieve his first front row grid start in what were very challenging conditions for all of the drivers. In these situations, it is important to keep a cool and calm head and I’m very pleased with how the team worked together to ensure that we competed in all three sessions. It was a bit close on occasion but we reacted well and the drivers did the most important job of keeping the car on the track. In Q3, Nico had a great first lap to achieve his time for second position, however the wet tyres degraded very quickly and Michael suffered particularly on his second quick lap and was not able to improve. It’s very pleasing to have achieved our best grid position of the season here in Sepang for PETRONAS’s home race.”

Norbert Haug: “Today was a qualifying session where anything was possible and we saw some surprising results like three World Champions starting the race from 17th, 19th and 20th positions. Michael did the best job amongst the Champions finishing in eighth place whilst Nico was superb in posting the fastest time of the drivers on wet tyres in Q3 and finishing the session in second position on the front row. Michael decided to do a ‘safe’ lap and wanted to push hard on the lap afterwards but the wet tyres unfortunately only lasted one lap at their peak. I am particularly pleased that five German drivers finished this thrilling and challenging qualifying session in the top eight. All of them have, in one form or another, been supported by Mercedes-Benz during their junior careers, be it in karting like Nico and sportcars like Michael, or in the Formula 3 Euro Series. Well done to all of them! It gives everybody in our team great pleasure to start from the front row for the PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix and our target is to achieve a similar result tomorrow.”

Force India Mercedes

The Force India F1 Team’s Adrian Sutil will start tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix from fourth on the grid following a faultless drive and a well-played strategy in qualifying at the Sepang International Circuit. Tonio Liuzzi completed the team’s strongest qualifying performance this season by passing through to Q3 for the first time this year. The Italian will start tenth.

The team and drivers interpreted the ever-changing weather conditions perfectly, with both drivers going out for early runs in Q1 on the intermediate tyres, so when the rain worsened both were easily through to Q2, with Adrian P8 and Tonio P10. As the rain increased a mid-break switch to extreme wets beckoned but when the track dried out both returned for intermediates: again, a canny decision that allowed Adrian to set the third quickest time and Tonio the eighth.

Heavier rain fell in Q3, causing a red flag with seven minutes remaining. On the restart, Adrian and Tonio were the first cars out on extreme wets and were for a time the quickest cars out on track. As the conditions bettered the pair were just edged down the order with Adrian claiming fourth position and Tonio tenth, the team’s best combined starting position since the 2009 Italian Grand Prix.

Adrian Sutil: "It was a great qualifying again for us. As I expected it rained at 4pm, I said that yesterday I think! It was challenging and the conditions changed a lot over the sessions. Sometimes it was a lot of rain, sometimes half wet, half dry so it was very important to choose the right tyres. I think we did a great job in those conditions and every session we did the optimum. I am so happy to be in this position now. It’s a great achievement and my team really deserved it. They did a fantastic job: being there on the right time on the right tyre was very important. My time in the end was good for P4: a great job all round."

Tonio Liuzzi: "We can be happy about getting through to Q3 as this was our target for this weekend. It was a good qualifying, Q3 started very wet, very similar to Brazil last year, and then it dried up very quickly at the end. I had a problem on the last lap with a locking front brake and lost the last run but that’s how it is in these conditions: you have to get the right spot at the right time. Tomorrow will be a tough race from where we are. We have a lot of quick cars around us but as we’ve seen today we are strong in all conditions. I’m looking forward to it."

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: "Today was a really brilliant team performance, not just from the drivers but from the pit wall and the garage. The interpretation of the data and weather forecast, the implementation in the garage and the calls from the drivers all came together beautifully to give our best qualifying performance this season. It sets us up well for the race, but as we know tomorrow’s result is all that counts. We’ve got to keep this spirit up, keep our heads down and go for the maximum we can. I don’t want to tempt fate with predictions, but I would hope we could convert this into a serious points haul."

Williams Cosworth

Rain once again played its part on the track today as this afternoon’s qualifying session for the Malaysian Grand Prix was dominated by showers to the point where Q3 was red flagged after just three minutes. The team used the weather to its advantage, however, with the pitwall making some decisive strategy calls which ultimately converted both drivers’ strong performance in the wet into P5 for Nico Hulkenberg and P7 for Rubens Barrichello.

Nico Hulkenberg: "Finally we had a bit of a breakthrough today. It was very tight out there and my lap wasn’t perfect so I could have done a little better, but I’m happy where I am and I’m happy for the team as well. The car has proved to be good in wet conditions and I like driving in the wet, so I’m looking forward to the race. A lot will depend on what the weather will do tomorrow though."

Rubens Barrichello: "There are two ways to look at qualifying. The positive is that we are happy as a team, but I don’t think we would have achieved P5 and P7 in a dry session. In hindsight, I should have chosen intermediates for my last run, which would have given me a better lap time. I’m still pleased as we are better prepared for tomorrow."

Sam Michael, Technical Director: "That was a great qualifying result for the team. Both drivers drove well in the conditions and it was encouraging to watch. Furthermore, the engineers made good calls with the windows that they chose to send the cars out in. We’ll now look to converting our position to a good race result tomorrow."

Renault

Robert Kubica: ”Today’s weather made for quite a challenging qualifying session, but the car felt good in the wet and I made it easily through Q1 and Q2. For the final part of qualifying we thought the rain would get heavier so I pushed really hard on my first timed lap in Q3, which destroyed the tyres and made it difficult to improve as the track continued to dry. However, sixth place is a good place to start and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. I think the weather could play a big role, and if it’s like today the race could become a lottery.”

Vitaly Petrov: “It was difficult to predict the weather today, so we decided to go out as early as possible, which was the right decision because the rain kept getting heavier in Q1. In Q2 the car felt good on the intermediates and I pushed hard throughout the session, but I just missed out on Q3, which is a shame. Still, 11th is a good place to start and if we get more rain tomorrow, anything could happen. I will be aiming to finish the race and hopefully score some points.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “With the changeable weather today it was a difficult session to call with lots of possible strategies going through our minds. Overall the team made the right decisions with the tyres for both cars and the drivers did a great job. For the race tomorrow the forecast suggests we can expect some more rain so it’s good to be starting towards the front of the grid. This is our best qualifying performance as a team this year and I think we have a good opportunity to get both cars in the points tomorrow.”

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: “Today’s session was great fun from the pit wall and I’m pleased that we got the tyre choice right for both Robert and Vitaly in the first two sessions. Robert made it easily through to Q3, but Vitaly just missed out, which is a shame because he has been quick today. With quite a mixed up grid for tomorrow, we should be in for an interesting race and I think we are well placed to score some good points. The weather could play its part again, but as we have seen today our car works well in the wet and the dry, and the team has reacted well to the conditions. We’re probably a bit more competitive in the wet, but I don’t mind if it’s wet or dry.”

Sauber Ferrari

Under difficult conditions the team got the timing and the tyre strategy right and achieved its best qualifying result so far this year. Kamui Kobayashi qualified ninth for the Malaysian Grand Prix. This is the first top ten grid position of his F1 career to date, and the first one for the team this year. Pedro de la Rosa, who shone with the second fastest lap in Q1, just missed making it into Q3 when he got stuck in traffic. He qualified 12th.

Kamui Kobayashi: “I am very happy to have made it into Q3 for the first time. Last year in Brazil, also in wet conditions, I was close but then I spun on my last lap in Q2. I learnt this lesson. In dry conditions our performance seemed to be rather difficult, therefore I am even happier with my position. It is not easy to drive in the wet because of aquaplaning, which obviously will get worse if it rains tomorrow because of the heavy cars for the race start. But I am determined to score points tomorrow.”

Pedro de la Rosa: “It was a quite difficult qualifying because of the changeable conditions. You never knew how much water to expect when braking into a corner. The car was pretty good in the wet, and I could have made it into the top ten if I just had a single clear lap. But even on my fastest lap I had to overtake two cars in the last sector. However, certainly we can look forward to a very exciting race tomorrow!”

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “It’s nice to have one car in 12th and the other one in the top ten. The engineers and drivers did a good job today. This result is motivating for the whole team. We are looking forward to a thrilling race.”

Willy Rampf, Technical Director: “After free practice three we made some changes to the cars. We decided not to run the new rear wing system on Kamui’s car. Due to the constantly changing weather conditions it was an exciting qualifying in which we made the best decisions with regard to strategy and timing. The team was rewarded with a solid result. Kamui’s performance was strong and he managed to make it into the top ten.”