Webber impresses, Vettel keeps options open
Red Bull Racing had an interesting qualifying with very different starting positions as a result. Mark Webber has been impressive all weekend and will start from pole during the race. Sebastian Vettel meanwhile had more trouble getting in front, but he will still have the possibility to choose the tyres on which to start the race.
Mark Webber, Position: 2nd, (3rd Practice – P10, 1:16.219):
“It was a strong day, particularly this afternoon. It’s normal around here that the momentum has got to build before qualifying and then you have to start putting it all together and the guys did a really good job on the car. I felt comfortable, which is important, you need to go to the absolute limit everywhere to get the maximum out of the car and squeeze everything you can. It’s a great effort from the whole team; we had a lot to do on Thursday night, but the team reacted really well. It’s Michael’s day and he did a great lap, but we are right there and will have a good race tomorrow. It’s been a happy hunting ground for me in the past – Monaco is a very special, unique challenge for the drivers.”
Sebastian Vettel, Position: 10th, (3rd Practice – P3, 1:15.209): “It was a bit mixed up for me. It was looking very good this morning, but then I think we took a step in the wrong direction and ended up with a difficult car for qualifying. It’s a bit of a disappointment, as Mark showed what the car can do around here, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. It’s Monaco and everything is possible here. We could be on a different strategy tomorrow as we’re able to start the race on hard tyres, slightly different to the cars ahead, so we’ll see how the first stint goes and go from there. It’s hard to predict, as it’s a long race.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal: “A very interesting qualifying. Mark looked competitive in all three sessions and had a great last lap where he made up a lot of time in the last two sectors to take second place, which will become pole with Michael’s penalty. It was a great performance by Mark and it’s the best possible place to be starting the Monaco GP from. Sebastian appeared to struggle for pace through qualifying. He was never particularly happy with the car compared to this morning, which required him to run on options in Q1. He progressed through to Q3 on his second set of options, but based on what we could see pace-wise, we felt that it was better for us to have freedom of tyre choice to start the race tomorrow. So, he carries a new set of options into the race, plus primes, so hopefully that gives some good strategic options.”
Cyril Dumont, Renault: “Fantastic! Like the last two years, a Red Bull will start from pole position at the Monaco GP. It’s really good for Mark, he did a really solid lap, so congratulations to him. For Seb, it was a bit more difficult. He struggled to get a good lap in and so we decided to put him on the harder tyres for Q3, in order to have the option to start the race on either tyre tomorrow. It makes the start wide open and should be an interesting race.”
