It could've been a pole for Red Bull
The opinions after today's qualifying session were mixed among Red Bull's drivers. Sebastian Vettel was disappointed to miss out on pole after a messy two laps, while Mark Webber knew much better than 5th was hardly possible for him today.
Sebastian Vettel, 2nd:
“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, 5th:
“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.”
