Team reaction after qualifying in Singapore (part 1)

One car at the head of the field, the other at the bottom of the time sheet: that is the bitter-sweet outcome of qualifying for Scuderia Ferrari in the Singapore Grand Prix. On the one hand there is great regret because of the gearbox problem that meant Felipe Massa was unable to complete a single timed lap in Q1, on the other there is delight at a fantastic pole from Fernando Alonso, the second of the season for the Spanish driver and the Scuderia. This brings the Scuderia’s total number of poles to 204, two of them set at this track. For Fernando, this will be the twentieth time in his career that he starts from the number one grid slot.

Stefano Domenicali: “This was a day of truly contrasting emotions. We are very disappointed that a technical problem meant Felipe basically took no part in qualifying: tomorrow, he will face a very difficult race, as indeed will Fernando, although the outlook for him is very different, starting from pole position. He put in an exceptional qualifying performance, getting the very most out of the car and finding that little something extra to go quickest in Q3. Tomorrow, it will be important to get a good start and to make the right choices, especially with a question mark over the weather and the safety-car: above all, we have to bear in mind that reliability is the crucial element.”

Fernando Alonso: “Every pole position is important, but clearly, starting from the front in a race like this and at this point in the season is very important and gives one hope of being able to bring down the gap in the classification even more. Setting two pole positions in a row, at circuits as different as Monza and Singapore is a real boost, because it means that the car can be really competitive at every type of track. It was certainly not an easy day, but in qualifying we managed to get the very best out of the car, while I don’t think our main rivals could say the same. Honestly, I thought that the Red Bulls, which had dominated the weekend so far, would be out in front and that third was a realistic target but instead I am on pole: it’s almost like an Easter surprise! There was a tense moment in Q2 when something did not work as it should have done with the engine mapping, but once it was reprogrammed, everything was back to normal. The start will be very important tomorrow, but even more so will be the need to maintain total concentration for the 61 laps of a very long race that will be extremely demanding both physically and on the car. Track conditions will play a key role, because we have seen that some sections remain damp for a long time, so just a bit of rain even a few hours before the start, could change the situation. We must run our own race and I am sure we can bring home a good result: we are in the best possible position to succeed.”

Felipe Massa: “I had a problem with the gearbox which seized unexpectedly, without giving any warning and so I had to stop out on the track: now we have to understand exactly what happened. We will change the engine as a precaution, also taking into account the fact I am last on the grid. I’m expecting to have a very complicated race, especially as we are at a track where overtaking is very difficult, but it’s true that anything can always happen: rain, safety car, who knows! I am very disappointed of course because today we had a very competitive car, as Fernando proved. I like this track but it seems that it does not bring me much luck…”

Chris Dyer: “What happened to Felipe is very disappointing. Fernando demonstrated the full potential of the F10 and it would have been nice to see both cars fighting for the top places. Unfortunately, there was a problem on the gearbox, the cause of which we have not fully identified yet, which meant Felipe had to stop out on track on his first timed lap. Fernando was really fantastic in qualifying: in Q3 he did two timed laps, both of which would have been good enough for pole, that were exceptional given what had happened up until the start of qualifying, as he had never managed to put together a clean lap on the soft tyres. The team did a great job to produce a car capable of fighting for pole. Tomorrow we can expect a very tough race on a track that does not pardon any mistakes. The management of the tyres will be interesting, as the degradation seems a bit more marked than in recent races, which means we might see some different strategies to usual.”

Sebastian Vettel: “I think we could have been on pole today, the car was good enough. Unfortunately Q3 was a bit messy, my first run was a waste of time as I misjudged the gap to Michael, I caught him very quickly and lost grip.
On the second run the most important thing was to get a lap in, as I didn’t have a proper time yet. The second sector was not great, through Turns 11, 12 and 13 and I hit the wall slightly. I tried to recover in the final sector, but unfortunately it wasn’t good enough and that was it for today. We are second, but it’s a very long race tomorrow. No one knows what will happen with the weather, if it rains after midday, the track won’t dry completely, so we will see.”

Mark Webber: “I knew the front row was going to be very competitive today, but I’m disappointed to be off the second row. I don’t think I could have done a lap to get on the front row; so it could be worse, but it could be better. We will keep hanging in there as it’s a long race tomorrow and we’ll see how it goes. I was having trouble getting the rhythm around here; there are a few places where I know I lost time on most of my laps
because I wasn’t fast enough. Ferrari did a good job and Sebastian has been fast all weekend. Fernando got the pole and fair play to him. Let’s see what we can do from there tomorrow.”

Christian Horner: “Second and fifth is a good starting position for tomorrow, but ultimately it’s frustrating after we showed such promise in the practice sessions. Sebastian was on a good lap, but dropped time on the exit of Turn 12, which left him with a lot to do in the final sector. We missed the pole by the smallest of margins today. Mark didn’t have a particularly clean first run, which left him with a lot to do on the second run and unfortunately fifth was his optimum today. It’s a long hard gruelling race tomorrow; we know we have a competitive race car, so we look forward to tomorrow’s race.”

Fabrice Lom (Renault): ”This qualifying result is a disappointment after the performance we showed yesterday and in P3 and we expected better. Second and fifth are not bad positions, but they’re lower than we expected. We now have to focus on the race and bounce back from this position to secure the maximum points and not lose too many to our opponents.”

Lewis Hamilton: “I guess I’m pretty happy with third place on the grid. However, you can always do better, and I reckon we had a decent chance of pole today.

“My first lap in Q3 was a good, clean lap – but I was too close to Jenson. I could feel his wake ahead of me, so I lost a little bit of downforce, particularly in the last sector. On my final lap, I got the gap, but I didn’t get the lap – but that’s motor racing.”

“Still, it’s great to know we’re a real force here in Singapore. We didn’t know how fast we’d be this weekend – so to find out that we’re only a couple of tenths off pole is a great result for the whole team.

“Our starts have been pretty good too, so we can both hopefully jump at least one guy ahead of us tomorrow. In other words, we can fight for a win from where we are.”

Jenson Button: “Q3 was very tough: I pushed very hard, because I was the first car out of the pitlane and we wanted to make sure we were able to fit two runs in; but in the first sector I damaged the rear tyres a little. After that I struggled a bit.

“So, for the second run, I thought I’d take it a bit slower on the out-lap, and drive the first sector a little easier, but I didn’t have enough tyre temperature when I got to the first sector – so I struggled. But the second and third sectors were both very good – I just didn’t nail the first sector, and that cost me a few tenths.

“But fourth isn’t too bad; we’re a lot closer to the Red Bulls than we feared we might be. The Ferrari looks quick, but I’m reasonably happy – much happier than I was after my qualifying here last year [Jenson qualified 11th for the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix – ed].

“For tomorrow, the start will be the key. My aim will be to pass Sebastian [Vettel]. The Red Bulls’ pace off the line hasn’t been great recently, and I also think we can have a good race because our pace on high fuel has looked good around here.”

Martin Whitmarsh Team principal: “Both Lewis and Jenson performed brilliantly here in Singapore tonight.

“We’re within a couple of tenths of the pole, we made a lot of good progress yesterday and today, and we feel we’ve got a very good race car for tomorrow.

“Bearing in mind our comparatively lacklustre pace at Monaco and the Hungaroring, two relatively slow circuits, I’m very encouraged by our performance here in Singapore, which is also a comparatively slow circuit. That improvement is the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of very good people, and I thank them all.

“As for the race, we now feel we can take the fight to anyone, and that’s what we intend to do tomorrow.”

With dependable progression for both AT&T Williams drivers into Q3 in recent races, today’s session was positive for Rubens Barrichello and frustrating for Nico Hulkenberg in equal measure. Rubens achieved his season’s best qualifying performance by claiming P6. Nico, who has been consistently quick all weekend on the Marina Bay circuit, endured a difficult pair of runs in Q2 that saw him unable to make the cut into the final session for the first time in five races.

Rubens Barrichello: First of all I’d like to say thanks to the team for bringing new components to this race which have worked. Of course expectations were pretty high, but I think we have matched our ambition today and we have the basis for a good race tomorrow.

Nico Hulkenberg: It was a totally frustrating session for me tonight. It’s pretty inexplicable, the car has been good all weekend long and we have been consistently in the top ten very comfortably. On the first run in Q2 on prime tyres, I got backed up by Sutil, then there was a yellow flag. So when I boxed for options I was still confident we could bank a good lap, but the car balance was like night and day. I am not sure if we had a problem, but we will fight on. Although overtaking is not easy, incidents do occur here, so possibilities still exist and the car remains fast.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: It was a great qualifying performance from Rubens tonight, showing that the improvements that we have on his car are working well. Unfortunately Nico missed Q3 by less than a tenth - such a shame because he’s been quick all weekend. But it’s not over yet and a street circuit can throw up many surprises in the race.

Mercedes GP drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher qualified in seventh and ninth places for the Singapore Grand Prix following this evening’s qualifying hour at the floodlit Marina Bay Circuit. The pair will line up on the fourth and fifth rows of the grid for tomorrow’s 61-lap race which starts under the lights at 8pm.

Nico Rosberg: "I feel that we should have done slightly better in qualifying today however seventh position is still ok, especially as I found the soft tyre quite difficult to drive and lacking rear grip. We are starting from the clean side of the grid so it will be important to have a good start. We need to keep scoring points in the remaining races so that will be our aim."

Michael Schumacher: "Our target was to get into Q3 which we achieved so I’m reasonably happy with our qualifying performance today. We tried various set-ups throughout the sessions and whilst they paid off at some points, they did not at others. But it was a lot of fun driving the track at this time of night and it really is a special experience. It is definitely different to drive in the artificial light but it doesn’t compromise your performance at all.
Starting from ninth place means starting from the presumably better side of the grid so the plan must be to try and gain some positions at the start and go from there."

Ross Brawn: "We’re reasonably happy with our performance so far this weekend. We weren’t as comfortable with the car yesterday but the engineers and drivers did a great job overnight to find some improvements and we have probably qualified where we should be with the car that we have. We could perhaps have squeezed a little more out of Q3 but it is still a decent result. Nico and Michael are starting from the good side and the car is handling fairly well and seems to be pretty easy on the tyres. So we’re in a good position to have a strong race tomorrow and well done to the team for getting the most out of the car today."

Norbert Haug: "Seventh place for Nico and ninth position for Michael with both drivers split by less than three tenths of a second is a respectable team effort with the technical package that we currently have and the team did a good job overnight to resolve the issues that we were struggling with yesterday.
Michael did well on his first visit to this special and challenging street circuit and Nico again achieved the best possible qualifying result for us.
The race will be very long and tough with the five World Championship contenders starting in front of us. Our drivers will be positioned on the clean side of the circuit where more grip is available so hopefully this will help them to gain places at the start."

Robert Kubica: I think we need to stay realistic at this stage of the season because the top three teams are still pushing very hard to develop their cars, while we only brought a small upgrade here. Mercedes and Williams have also been at a very similar pace to us for several races, so we knew we would be fighting in the second half of the top ten today and that meant it was difficult to achieve much more than P8. The car is lacking overall grip, and sliding front and rear, but I was quite happy with my lap. Our timing meant we only did one timed lap in Q3, so it was all or nothing, and I think I got nearly all the potential out of the car.

Vitaly Petrov: Looking at the times, it would have been possible for me to get into Q3 today, but I made a mistake on my first run in Q2. I had gone through Q1 on the prime tyres, and was pushing hard on the options when I went too deep on braking for turn five, lost control of the car and hit the wall with the right rear wheel. The corner was still damp from the rain this afternoon, like it has been most of the weekend, and it just caught me out: it was my mistake. I know that it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, especially because overtaking is so difficult here in Singapore.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: We endured a frustrating qualifying session this evening. With Robert, our approach to Q3 was too conservative. We didn’t feel that there was time to do two runs, which meant everything rested on a single timed lap, and that certainly cost him some lap time - although we cannot hide from the fact that our package does not seem ideally suited to this circuit. Vitaly had done a good job this morning to recover from a tricky first day of practice, and it was a shame to see him hit the wall because he had a realistic chance of sneaking into the top ten.

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: Ultimately, our car didn’t have the pace to deliver the results we had hoped for in qualifying. Robert once again delivered a mistake-free qualifying session that took the car to its maximum, and did an excellent job. It was a shame to see Vitaly make a mistake when he was pushing hard in Q2. He experienced a tough time yesterday, but had improved a lot in third practice and was looking stronger. We know it’s a long race tomorrow so we will have to make the most of every opportunity that presents itself.