Team reaction after qualifying in Suzuka (part 1)

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel: “Friday was a good day for us and after yesterday, with the horrible conditions, we didn’t know what to expect today. We were thinking the track might be wet, but the sun was strong this morning and so the track was dry. The car feels fantastic around here, especially in the first sector. It’s always very enjoyable so, all in all, a good start to the day – but obviously the race is still to come.”

Mark Webber: “I had a good battle with Sebastian, there wasn’t much between us. The car worked well in qualifying and we’re looking pretty strong. I’d like to be on pole of course, but starting on the front row is not a bad way to start the day and I can get some good points from there. It’s a pretty compressed programme with the important part still to come; I’m looking forward to it.”

Christian Horner: “It’s unusual to have qualifying on a Sunday morning, but both drivers did an excellent job and the session was well executed by the team. A Red Bull one-two is a great start to the day and hopefully we can convert it this afternoon.”

Fabrice Lom (Renault): ”It’s good to be back on the front row with our two cars and, with Kubica third, it’s a very good result for Renault. It was a good idea to postpone the qualifying from yesterday, as it meant the session was dry, so we were able to show the pace of the car. Now the race is this afternoon, so we have to work really hard to prepare the car and hopefully get a very good result.”

Lewis Hamilton: "We knew this weekend Red Bull would be competitive and it’s not been the best of weekends for us. The guys back at the factory are working so hard to bring updates and unfortunately one of them we were not able to work with today, it needs a bit more time, but the guys did a fantastic job to get updates here."

"It was difficult for me to come here today, I only had five or six laps on track. I am happy to come this far at least, I’m starting eighth but hopefully we can have a good race.

"It’s been one of the worst weekends we’ve had so far. It feels like it’s all come over one weekend as well.

"The mistake on Friday didn’t help and then of course the gearbox change was a bit frustrating for us all. The guys did a great job to put the car back together and I am just happy I got out and did a good job in qualifying. I have been fighting this ear infection all weekend and so it has not been the best of times."

Jenson Button: "I felt better on the prime. Obviously when you get more and more soft tyre rubber down, maybe it doesn’t work as well, but I was pretty happy. It’s possibly a gamble. I don’t think it’s a big one. The soft tyre for us on Friday was a bit difficult to handle, so we’ll see what it’s like on the prime. Everyone else is on the soft tyre and overtaking is always difficult around here, but we’ll give it a shot.

"I couldn’t find any more with the tyre and I tried to do a third lap, which didn’t work. Looking at it, we should’ve just done one lap with the tyre, and then you save six kilos of fuel, which is about 0.2s, so that’s a little bit frustrating really. But it’s not too bad, I’ll be starting the race from fifth and on a different strategy to everyone else, so we’ll see how it works."

Information avalaible later

It was a rather difficult qualifying session for Scuderia Ferrari, which ended with Fernando Alonso in fifth place and Felipe Massa in twelfth. Predictably, Red Bull made a clean sweep of the front row with Sebastian Vettel ahead of Mark Webber.

Felipe was rather unlucky in Q2, especially on his second run with soft tyres. Fernando also struggled a bit in Q2 on the softs, but was more competitive in Q3, securing a position that, thanks to Hamilton’s penalty, will see him start from the second row.

Stefano Domenicali: “We expected a complicated session and that’s how it turned out. Now, the most important thing is to concentrate and prepare as well as possible for a race that gets underway in just a few hours and which could be long and stressful.”

Felipe Massa: “I had traffic, especially on my first lap on soft tyres and specifically at the Spoon corner. I am disappointed but we have to stay totally focussed on the race, trying to do the best job possible. Anything can always happen in a race.”

Fernando Alonso: “It was a case of damage limitation. At this track, the Red Bulls seem unbeatable and McLaren are also very competitive. Others are also very close, given that there are seven cars all within four tenths. Maybe if I’d had one more lap I could have found the tenth or a bit more that I needed to get ahead of Kubica, but this is not bad, especially with Hamilton’s penalty.

“I think a podium is still possible. I will try and attack at the start and then maybe with a good strategy we can put the Red Bulls under a bit of pressure. Now we are focussing on the race and it will be important not to make any mistakes.”

Nico Rosberg: "I’m ok with seventh place and it was a good lap. The car felt well-balanced today after our issues on Friday so we need to look into that. It was very
tight in qualifying but the car just couldn’t go any quicker so we can be satisfied with what we achieved. We can have a good race from here and try to make up places."

Michael Schumacher: "10th place was probably about the maximum from my side in qualifying. I am not totally happy but I am also realistic about our performance. I will concentrate on the start and hope to make up positions as overtaking is quite difficult here. Moving forward through our start and strategy is where we may gain places so let’s see how it goes."

Ross Brawn: "A good performance from Nico and Michael during today’s delayed qualifying session at Suzuka. We achieved probably the maximum potential of the car so
the focus will now be on our race strategy to see how we can make up positions and continue our good run of points-scoring finishes."

Norbert Haug: "Another solid effort from our team and drivers with the technical package we currently have. Nico posted a very good Q3 lap which was just over
seven-tenths down on Sebastian Vettel’s pole time. Three of the five drivers fighting for the World Championship are positioned within three-tenths of Nico and Michael is another three and a half tenths down which is again a good qualifying result at this track."

Postponed to Sunday following torrential downpours at Suzuka Circuit on Saturday, qualifying for this afternoon’s Japanese Grand Prix finally got underway at 10:00 local time this morning. The AT&T Williams team delivered a competitive performance throughout the three qualifying sessions, making it through Q1 and Q2 with top ten times in both. Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg closed out Q3 with the eighth and ninth quickest times respectively.

Rubens Barrichello: It was very nice out there today. It looked like we were quicker when the track was greener though! We were looking really fast and then the others found a little bit more time later on in the sessions. It was a good performance by the team and I’m happy with where we are.

Nico Hulkenberg: It was certainly different to do qualifying on Sunday morning, but it was dry and this circuit is great to drive in the dry. We did a good job this morning, but my last run of Q3 was destroyed by Hamilton. I don’t understand why he backed off into me because there wasn’t a car in front of him. You need all the downforce you can get here so to be only a second behind the guy in front isn’t going to help you get a good lap and it didn’t help me today.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: It was a good qualifying effort by both drivers to get into the top ten. It shows that the development parts are working well and we should have a strong race this afternoon.