Formula 1 News

2010 Spanish GP, qualifying: Driver quotes 

Sebastien Buemi: “I expected to get a better grid position than this, as we could have got more out of the car, but I had a lot of traffic, including one incident with Rosberg on my very last lap. It was very close with myself and the three cars that qualified ahead of me all in about one tenth of a second. So, in general, I am not very satisfied with my performance. However, now we must just focus on tomorrow, when we can expect a long tough race. My first aim is to finish the race without any crashes, as has happened to me so often this season and then my next goal is to bring home some points.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “We have to be happy with this position, as we knew some of the other teams would have upgrades for this race and we had to be realistic in terms of what we could achieve. This is a long season and we know we too will get upgrades at some point. I did my best and at the end of Q2 I tried for just a single lap run and got a good time, maybe good enough to get me into the points tomorrow as our race simulation in free practice on Friday went well. So I am confident for tomorrow and hope the weather stays dry.”

Nico Hulkenberg: “Personally, I’m happy with my qualifying laps. We are of course aiming higher than P13, but that is where our performance is at the moment. I went off in Q1 which caused some minor damage to the car but the mechanics fixed it really quickly, and thanks to everyone at the factory who worked so hard to get the updates out in time for my qualifying session.”

Rubens Barrichello: “Unfortunately, I didn’t have a clear run during any of my outings; I just kept getting caught out by traffic. It’s going to happen to everyone at some stage this season; it was obviously just my turn today. It’s disappointing because I thought we had a shot at Q3 this afternoon. I was also carrying some car damage from stones thrown up by other cars which we will have to fix tonight.”

Jarno Trulli: “A pretty good qualifying session today. The result itself hasn’t changed, but we have significantly reduced the gap to the cars in front. Yesterday I had better pace, so I’m not that happy with my performance today, but we now have a good gap to our direct competitors, and can start thinking about taking on those in front, which is thanks to the guys in the team. We still have a lot of work to do, and I think there’s even more to come from the car, so let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “I think it was a good session today and I’m happy. We achieved all the targets we set ourselves and we can see the gaps growing in the right direction – nearer those in front, and further away from the other new teams. We won’t have these kind of upgrades every weekend, but I think the car will get quicker and quicker and we’ll keep improving all the time. For the race tomorrow I think we can do well and I’m looking forward to being out there and seeing what we’re like on a long run.”

Fernando Alonso: “I am pleased with this result. We knew the Red Bulls would be untouchable, so to be fourth is more or less what we expected. As usual, tomorrow’s race will be long and we must try and get the most out of what we have to work with. Something unexpected can always happen, as was the case for me this morning when I got a puncture coming out of the garage for my first run. I don’t think we lost any valuable time, concentrating on the development of the blown rear wing: here and in China, we had so many other new components that we have been able to gain a few tenths in performance terms, without which we would be much further back on the grid, because the others are also working very hard. We are moving in the right direction and we have to continue like this. Tomorrow, it will be very important to get a good start: recently they have not gone so well for me and so this would be just the right moment to get one!”

Felipe Massa: “In qualifying I had a lot of trouble finding the right grip level, especially in the second and third sectors, which contain the slowest corners on the track: I felt as though I was rally driving, always understeering. Already yesterday, I realised this would not be an easy weekend and so I was not surprised at what happened today. We worked on different set-ups for the car and chose the best one, but it was not enough: we have to work out why, but without panicking, but by calmly analysing the situation. Maybe I didn’t put together the best possible lap, but even so I don’t think I would have been in the fight for the top places. The Red Bulls are much quicker than everyone else here and we will have to do our best to try and get a good finishing position.”

Adrian Sutil: “It was still a good qualifying for us. Force India has done a great job all year, we have brought some updates to this circuit that work really well and we’re very consistent. I believe we have a top 10 car and I think we could have got through to Q3 again today, but you need to have a perfect lap and I got a bit of traffic with a Renault in the last sector and lost a couple of tenths, which was all we needed for Q3. I’m not really disappointed but obviously it could have been better. Eleventh is good for the start though as from there we can still have a good race tomorrow.”

Tonio Liuzzi: “For me it was a really difficult day as we lost 90% of the earlier free practice session with a throttle problem so we couldn’t improve our set-up. Then we jumped straight into qualifying with a lot of expectations, but we couldn’t get the right balance and struggled a bit with overall grip, which is why we are where we are. It was a shame as we expected a lot from Barcelona, it’s an important race at the start of the European season. There’s still a lot we can do from where we are though and if we get a wet race, which we could do, there’s still everything to aim for.”

Lewis Hamilton: “We’ve been very competitive this weekend, and we’ve brought a strong package out here with us; but, clearly, Red Bull has made a very good step forward too, and it looks like their car is slightly more aerodynamically efficient than ours is. I’m still very motivated for tomorrow though. As ever, Sunday is a different story, and we generally enjoy better pace in the race than we do in qualifying. And let’s hope our reliability can top theirs tomorrow, too. Anyway, third on the grid is almost as good as pole position here, if not a little bit better: it’s a long way down to the first corner, and you can get a good draft and pass people. So I’m hoping to get a decent start, make good progress early on, and then drive a strong but straightforward race in which I’m able to do something good and get up near the front. Looking further ahead, we’ve got a fantastic team behind us, and we know that the car has a great deal of potential. We just need to try and close that gap as quickly as possible.”

Jenson Button: “We struggled a bit this morning, and yesterday we didn’t think we’d be where we are right now, so, all in all, this afternoon wasn’t too bad. On my final lap in Q3, I ran over one of the green sections of Astroturf; there wasn’t much grip there, so I got wheelspin and hit the rev limiter, which lost me a bit of time. Even so, I’m fifth and I’m satisfied with that. Okay, I’d rather be a bit further up, and I think I probably could have been, but it’s not a bad place to start. I still I think the Red Bulls are going to be pretty tough to beat tomorrow, though. We came here hoping to close the gap, but instead it’s gone slightly in the other direction, which is surprising. So we’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I know that everyone in the team will be digging as deep as they possibly can to make that extra effort, and that we’ll get there. For tomorrow, if we’re good off the line, we might be able to pass some cars into Turn One. It’s a bit more difficult for me, but there’s definitely a possibility for Lewis. And our race pace is usually better than our qualifying speed, so I’m still extremely hopeful for another good showing tomorrow. If all goes well, I hope to be able to maintain my position at the head of the drivers’ world championship points standings – and hopefully Lewis and I will score heavily enough to keep Vodafone McLaren Mercedes at the top of the constructors’ world championship table, too.”

Michael Schumacher : “Today’s qualifying was straightforward in my view. We had a good car yesterday meaning that conditions were quite ideal for us in terms of balance and so on. Today admittedly, the car was not as perfect. It is little things that can trigger that change one way or the other, and whatever happened today just triggered us to fall over the edge towards the downside a little. Nevertheless, I feel a lot more comfortable driving the car that I have in my hands now. But there is a maximum that you can get out of it and that is what we have achieved today.”

Nico Rosberg: “It’s been a difficult weekend for me and we need to look into the reasons for this and understand why. The changes that we have made with the car are obviously good and we have made a step forward but I haven’t really been able to use the improvements so far. Considering that I have found the car difficult to drive and haven’t had the best of set-ups, our performance today was acceptable but it’s not where I wanted to be fighting this weekend.”

Robert Kubica: “Overall it was a good qualifying session for me. Seventh is a strong place to start and I think I got the maximum from the car. We don’t have a big package of updates for this race so it’s encouraging to be ahead of one Ferrari and one Mercedes, which is not what I was expecting. I know that it will be a tough race tomorrow and it will be interesting to see how the soft tyres cope with the heavy fuel load in the opening laps. I think our race pace will be similar to our qualifying pace so I’m hopeful of a strong race and scoring some good points tomorrow.”

Vitaly Petrov: “It was a very close session today and I only missed out on Q3 by three tenths, which shows that we have improved again this weekend – both myself and the team. To begin with it wasn’t certain that I would make qualifying after my accident this morning when I ran wide onto the kerb and hit some standing water on the approach to turn four. So I have to say a big thank you to my mechanics because they did an excellent job to repair the car in time. I know the race tomorrow will be difficult because it’s not easy to overtake here, but anything can happen in the race and I will try my best to move forward.”

Mark Webber: “It’s always tight between Seb and I, it’s a good battle. Seb’s had a solid run recently, but today was my turn. The car is performing really well, but we’re taking nothing for granted. We know McLaren and Ferrari are strong opponents and will continue to be until the end of the season. It’s still early days in the Championship, but a lot can happen over the next two back to back races. I’m pleased that we’ve laid the foundations to make good all the hard work that has gone on at the factory over the last three weeks. This pole is for the team – there was a massive effort from the guys before the race and then at the track this weekend. They have worked so hard, you really can’t believe how much work can go into two cars! It’s a great effort and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Sebastian Vettel: “Congratulations to Mark, he was unbeatable today. It was close; I had good laps throughout qualifying, especially at the end, but it was not enough. A tenth is not that much, but unfortunately it was too much for me today. Still, it was a good qualifying session from us and I think starting on the first row is a good result. We know there are no points from today, that all comes tomorrow. At the moment it looks comfortable, but we know how quickly things can change, so we have to stay focused. There might be some rain. The team has made such a huge effort to bring the updates here – the factory has been flat out over the last few weeks, so congratulations to them.”

Kamui Kobayashi: “I already knew from the morning session that my pace here was good enough for Q3. The team did a really good job – not only in qualifying, but also over the last three weeks. We have changed the direction for the car’s development and as a reward we made it for the second time this season to Q3. The performance of the car is a lot better. We have aero updates and also an engine upgrade for reliability. I won’t set myself targets for tomorrow. I just hope to finish the race and everything else, I believe, will be okay then.”

Pedro de la Rosa: “I’m not happy. In Q2 I was sixth and it obviously was possible to get into Q3. I don’t really understand what went wrong. I had a bit of understeer here and there and out of turn two I was sliding. However, the positive thing is we have made a big step forward since the Chinese Grand Prix, and we are a lot more competitive.”

Timo Glock: “It wasn’t an ideal Qualifying for us today as we were unable to secure the position of best of the new teams. In Qualifying the car didn’t work quite how I expected and so while it is a good basis there is still more that we need to bring to the car through our development plan with the revised VR-01. We’re getting good at sorting out our problems and we’re starting to go in the right direction, so we just have to keep pushing very hard to see the return we need.”

Lucas di Grassi: “I had a reasonably positive Qualifying session today. Although it isn’t ideal that I don’t have the new car also, I was pleased that I was able to get a good lap and end the session just a tenth away from Timo. Generally I’m pretty pleased with my performance so far this weekend and I’m confident that we can have a strong race tomorrow.”

Bruno Senna: “The qualifying today was not as good as planned. In the morning we could not finalize our preparation as much as we would have liked as we had some hydraulic problems. So, we only had a little test this morning session. The gap to Karun’s car was big today in qualifying. We hope to understand what problem it is for a better race tomorrow and try to improve it. We want to finish the race again and of course finish well at our home Grand Prix. We will push for it.”

Karun Chandhok: “Qualifying went as expected so we are quite happy. Our deficit to the other two new teams was what I thought it would be after FP3. For me personally, I’m pleased with the job I did and I think there was potential to be a bit quicker. I really have to thank the mechanics and engineers on my car who worked till 5am to get us out on track today. However we have a penalty for changing the gearbox which will put me back behind Bruno but I look forward to another strong race like the one we had in Sepang tomorrow.”