Vettel's record underlines Red Bull's season
With his 15th pole of the season, Sebastian Vettel improved Nigel Mansell's pole record in one season from 1992. Adding Mark Webber's earlier pole positions, the feat underlines the successful season that Red Bull as a team are enjoying this year.
Sebastian Vettel, P1, (3rd Practice – P1, 1:12.460):
“It’s pretty special to get the record. Nigel obviously took three or four races less to achieve it, but nevertheless it’s been an incredible year for us and an incredible journey and it’s not yet over, we’ve got another chapter tomorrow and I’m very happy. It’s hard to believe. I didn’t feel that happy yesterday, but this morning I was much happier with the car and how it felt, it was much more to my liking and I was able to go from there and improve to get the pole. You know what you can do and the time you should be able to get ahead of the lap, but when you cross the line – you know if you have done it or not, without looking at the time. There wasn’t much left today and that gives extreme satisfaction – and it gets even better when the engineer comes on the radio and tells you you’ve done it.”
Mark Webber, P2, (3rd Practice – P3, 1:12.597):
“Qualifying was a good effort today from the whole team. It was very close with Sebastian, he did a great lap again, but there wasn’t much between us. It was a good session today and we know there’s going to be some weather coming in, which will mix things up a bit. That’s very good for the people at home watching on TV, but it means a few grey hairs for us sitting in the cockpit. I’m looking forward to the race, it’s a good challenge here and it would be great to finish the season with a good result.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal:
“An awesome achievement by Sebastian and the team today. It’s a new record in Formula One, which is a small piece of history for Sebastian and is thoroughly deserved. He shared the record with Nigel for two weeks and he now has some fairly illustrious names behind him, so a great performance. A great performance also from Mark Webber today to lock out the front row ahead of what I’m sure will be a really exciting final Grand Prix of 2011.”
Cyril Dumont, Renault:
“So another record today for Sebastian with fifteen pole positions. He broke the last record from Mansell, which is fantastic. It’s also fantastic for Mark to lock out the front row and for the team to finish it’s Saturday season with a one-two – it reflects the performance of the car, which was been amazing. I hope that tomorrow we will transform it into a strong finish, it would be great to finish the season with a one-two.”
