Red Bull happy, despite missing out on pole
Both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were happy with their qualifying performance today, even though none of them is on pole position. They are however ahead of all other title contenders and are positioned ahead of the competing cars for the constructors championship.
Sebastian Vettel, car 5, chassis 5, position: 2nd:
“It was a tricky session. It was a tough call in Q3 after the first run on intermediate tyres, the circuit looked dry, but the last sector was very tricky. In the end I think everyone decided to go on to dry tyres. The track was getting better and better, but it was still slippery. At first I thought I had missed pole by only a tenth, but then I saw that there was another digit and Nico had a second lead over us! Congratulations to him, it’s very easy to make a mistake in these conditions. We were targeting for pole today, but it could have been worse in the difficult conditions, so I’m happy to start from second.”
Mark Webber, car 6, chassis 6, position: 3rd
“I enjoyed that, it was a challenging session for all of us. It’s easy to get things wrong in those conditions and not qualify, so I’m very happy to get that position near the front. It was really tricky to get clean laps in Q3, but I did my best. It was pretty close between Sebastian and I and we’re both up there. It was a good team performance today and both Seb and I have laid good foundations for the Constructors’ Championship, so there are a lot of positives from today. We’re in a good position for tomorrow. Nico (Hulkenberg) got his car working very well, he was very confident and got the most out of it when it mattered, so congratulations to him for pole, it was like he was driving on a different track!”
Christian Horner, Team Principal:
“It was a very, very strong team performance today from both drivers to finish second and third on the grid, ahead of our main components. It was quite an amazing couple of laps from Nico Hulkenberg, so congratulations to him and Williams. It sets up an interesting race for tomorrow.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault:
“Firstly I would like to say I’m very happy we have extended Renault’s partnership with Red Bull Racing for another two years – we have developed a great relationship with them over the last four years. To come back to today, it was a messy qualifying, but the car proved to be good in the wet as it was yesterday in the dry. We have a very good package and all our main contenders are behind us for tomorrow’s race. We have to congratulate Hulkenberg and Williams for their incredible pole position lap – so well done to them.”
