Red Bull impressed with Vettel's qualifying
Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel will start the Singapore GP from pole after an impressive qualifying performance that even saved him a set of soft tyres. Mark Webber meanwhile showed better pace on the medium but still qualified 4th.
Sebastian Vettel, 1st, 1:44.173: “It was a strange feeling at the end of Q3. It’s already strange when you stand in the garage with only two minutes left in the session, but much worse when you see the others making their final attempt and there’s nothing you can do! I was watching the sector times closely with Romain, Nico and Mark in particular. Mark started with a purple time in sector one, then Nico went purple in sector two and then Romain, but fortunately my last sector was fast enough to just stay ahead. It’s a great feeling as it could have gone wrong, but I’m very happy with the result. The car has been phenomenal all weekend. Yesterday the gap to the front was a bit of a surprise, but today was a bit more what we expected with the Mercedes being so close.”
Mark Webber, 4th, 1:44.906: “I’m a bit disappointed to be fourth. It’s quite tight and there were some good lap times being set. We’re on the second row, it would have been better to have been on the front row, but it’s a long race tomorrow and we can do something from there. We’ve got a very good race car. It was hard to match Seb in the last sector; he’s always been strong in Turns 20 and 21.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal: “A really impressive performance from Sebastian today. Having been quick in P1 on the prime tyre, fast in Q2 on the softer tyre and setting an incredible first lap that put him 0.6 seconds clear in Q3, we elected to take a strategic approach to tomorrow and not do the second run to save a new set of soft tyres. In the end it was very tight with Nico, but once you’ve made your decision you’re committed. Mark was tremendously quick in Q1 on the harder tyres, which he’s been fast on all weekend. He progressed through Q2 with no issue and in Q3, despite going purple in the first sector, he just missed out on the clean side of the grid. But, nonetheless first and fourth is a great place to start tomorrow’s race.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault support leader: “Sebastian took a risk sitting out the last lap, but nevertheless got pole doing only one run in Q3! The car was strong today and has worked particularly well on this city track, which features a lot of low speed corners where drivability and engine response are key. Pole in Singapore is very important on a track where overtaking is difficult.”
