Red Bull baffled by lack of pace in Q3
Red Bull Racing were extremely strong throughout the free practice sessions and the early part of qualifying, but when it really mattered, the team lacked the little extra to fight for pole. Sebastian Vettel will start from 3rd while Mark Webber qualified in 7th place.
Sebastian Vettel, Position: 3rd, (3rd Practice – P1, 1:47.947)
“It’s hard to say what happened. I was happy until the end of Q2, but then in Q3 we weren’t able to go with the track and improve. In Q3 I couldn’t feel the grip so well and convert it to the lap time. The most important day is tomorrow and we have got pace in the car. We have been competitive this weekend and our target is to have a good race tomorrow; P3 is still a good place to start from.”
Mark Webber, Position: 7th, (3rd Practice – P11, 1:50.110)
“We expected to be higher than that. It was a tricky session and on every run the car felt a bit different. We didn’t have the rear-grip that we had in the other sessions; normally the super soft tyres give us a certain balance, but it was difficult to chase it in that session. It’s disappointing to be seventh, but it’s a long race tomorrow and we have a chance to get something from it.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal:
“After being competitive in FP1, 2 and 3, third and seventh is a strong result here, but perhaps not as strong as we would have hoped for. Our rhythm in Q3 seemed to be slightly interrupted, but it’s still close and it’s a long and hot race tomorrow. I’m sure we can race well from third and seventh on the grid.”
Cyril Dumont, Renault engine support:
“It was surprise today; we were expecting to be higher than P3 and P7 looking at our pace in the previous sessions. I think tomorrow will be long, but there are many corners, so we will try to regain our pace and see what we can do from there.”
