Formula 1 News

2010 Singapore GP, qualifying: Team quotes 

Mike Gascoyne: “A pretty disappointing qualifying session today. Jarno has not been happy with the balance on the tyres all weekend and that carried through to qualifying. Heikki was generally happier on the option tyre but unfortunately he was held up on what would have been his quickest lap. Despite that I think the race pace of the car is strong and we look forward to a better performance in the race tomorrow.”

Tony Fernandes: “I don’t think we got the best out the car today, but it is what it is. Honestly, I’m reasonably happy, as I thought we might not have been quite as close to Timo as we ended up – he goes very well here and I think that if the traffic hadn’t played its part Heikki might have been able to get past him. As development on this year’s car stopped back in July and we put our resources into the 2011 car, we always knew the competition would become closer as the season drew to an end, with our closest rivals continuing to bring upgrades to each race. With that in mind, the fact that Heikki is as close as he is to Timo means we can not be too disappointed. Jarno also did a good job today, after a tricky weekend for him on a track he does not favour, and they are both pumped up to fight tomorrow, so there’s all to play for in the race.”

John Booth: “A very satisfying day. Both car crews worked well to solve the issues of yesterday and tune the car balance for qualifying despite the tricky conditions today. Timo has been on top form all weekend and put in a great qualifying session to head the new teams throughout. Lucas also did a great job to make up for lost time yesterday and was unlucky to be pipped by Kovalainen right at the end. Both cars have run reliably this weekend and we look forward to an exciting race tomorrow.”

Otmar Szafnauer: “Overall it’s not been a great day for us. We were expecting more based on the form we showed yesterday and the general balance of the car, but we hit a couple of problems that took us by surprise in Q2. We start further down the field than we would have hoped so we will have to look at all possible strategies for tomorrow’s race. As we’ve seen in previous years anything can happen with the walls so close so we still hope to be able to make up some ground.”

Giorgio Ascanelli: “Jaime missed out on Q3 by what I estimate was two milliseconds per corner! I think the team has done a good job and, first in Monza and now here, the car has made a step forward. That is not because of new developments, but rather that we have worked out how to run it better. The drivers did a decent job and Jaime drove fantastically well: he could have made Q3 but he still has a bit to learn, in terms of managing to get the most out of the car and therefore set his time on the first lap of a run, although I am sure it will come for him soon. This is our best qualifying performance of the season, so I cannot be unhappy and for tomorrow, we should have a good race pace, particularly with Jaime.”

Eric Boullier: “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: “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. ”

James Key: “Overnight we made several set-up changes to the car, with these mostly being mechanical to try to improve the balance we had yesterday, which seemed to be inconsistent for both drivers. There was an improvement to the cars this morning, but we still had a few issues on Kamui’s car to address. That was dealt with for qualifying. Nick was happier with the car but was struggling a bit with traction, which, as well as the kerbs, has been our biggest problem. We weren’t too sure where we were after third free practice. Kamui put in an outstanding lap in Q2 to make it into the top ten qualifying. It was always going to be tough to do that here today, but he extracted the full potential out of the car and the tyres, so it was a great lap. For Nick it was fairly close, but he only had a single lap to get his time because he had a problem on his first lap. He had to learn incredibly quickly this weekend, so the way he got back into qualifying after such a long time was a good job. We saw great work from the team and a fantastic lap from Kamui. I expect we can fight for points tomorrow.”

Peter Sauber: “For Nick it was the first qualifying in this car and with these tyres, neither of which he knew. The result is okay. Tenth for Kamui was a surprise for all of us after the first three practice sessions. Congratulations for a great result! This was the “overture” to Kamui’s home race in Japan in two weeks time.”

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.”

Martin Whitmarsh: “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.”

Colin Kolles: “Today we are quite happy with the qualifying result. Christian Klien got more and more used to the car and felt more comfortable than yesterday. He could improve continuously all over the weekend and due to traffic on his fastest lap in third practice, he could even have done better. He did a very good job. Bruno Senna could use the option and prime tyres well and was pushing very hard today. I am sure he will show a good performance again during the race. Tomorrow is going to be a tough as it is very hot and humid here and the drivers need to be very concentrated not to do a mistake.”

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: “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.”

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.”

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.”

Sam Michael: “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.”