Red Bull expected a tough qualifying
Red Bull Racing Formula One Team driver Sebastian Vettel will start in fourth position on the European Grand Prix grid tomorrow as team mate Mark Webber secured ninth place at the Valencia street circuit.
Car 15 Sebastian Vettel, Position 4th
“I would like to be further forward on tomorrow’s grid, but I think that’s the most we could have hoped for, so I’m quite happy – especially after not doing many laps this morning. I’m quite confident about tomorrow, as we made a step forward for this morning and then another for qualifying. McLaren look strong and it’s hard for the other cars to get close to them. We will see how quick they are in the race tomorrow, but starting in first and second position they have a good chance to win the race. We want to win too though, so we will see. I like this track, it’s a bit more difficult for us to be at the top here – but it’s a long and hot race tomorrow, so let’s see.”
Car 14 Mark Webber, Position 9th
“We expected to have a tough qualifying session today and it turned out to be the case. We thought we would be in the top six or top eight, so it’s not been the best day for us. It’s one of our worst qualifying sessions for a long time, but let’s see how we go from here. We’ll fight like hell as normal, Red Bull knows how to do that, I hope we can get some points.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal: “After a difficult P3 for Sebastian, when he lost an engine, it was a great effort from his side of the garage to get the engine changed and produce a competitive qualifying. The McLarens are too quick, their power advantage with the KERS here is significant, but we can be happy with P4. One tenth of a second for Mark would have made a big difference to his grid position – it would have been the difference between sixth and ninth – but with a bit more fuel in hopefully he can have a good run from there tomorrow. The key for us is obviously to finish ahead of the Brawns.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support: “It was a very tough Saturday, beginning with the engine failure on Sebastian’s car, which is very bad for us. We changed the engine for him ahead of qualifying. We are not as quick as usual on this track and it’s difficult for us. We did our best in qualifying and we know we have to focus on getting the best possible result in tomorrow’s race. It will be a tough Sunday.”
