United Kingdom: Qualifications Seen from the Stands

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – Pole position

Felipe Massa – 5th

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: « Points are only distributed on Sunday and we always keep that in mind… Obviously, we are happy today because it’s been a long, too long time since we had one of our drivers on pole position, but we must not get carried away, quite the opposite. We need to focus even more on our work because, once again, this afternoon, we saw how things can literally change from one minute to the next. Fernando was extraordinary and Felipe also did a good job: this is our best qualification of the year, and we must try to make the most of it in the race tomorrow. The weather forecast is quite uncertain, so we will need to be on high alert, ready to react to the slightest change. So many times this year, we have seen that grid positions have not turned out to be decisive in the final result: let’s hope that at least tomorrow it will play an important role. »

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Red Bull

Mark Webber – 2nd

Sebastian Vettel – 4th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « Incredible conditions today. Above all, I take my hat off to all the fans who stayed for three hours in horrendous conditions. Stopping qualifying in Q2 was the right thing to do, wherever we are placed, as it was too dangerous for these cars with the aquaplaning. Getting both our cars into Q3 and ultimately qualifying 2nd and 4th is a really strong team result. Mark was very close to taking pole; the rain started to intensify just as he was finishing his lap and he lost a few tenths because of the rain, but still, it was a great lap from him at the end of Q3. Sebastian is roughly at the same level in 4th place. I hope it won’t rain as much tomorrow for the race. »

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Mercedes

Michael Schumacher – 3rd

Nico Rosberg – 11th [on the grid]

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: « It was an exciting afternoon for everyone, with the long interruption and changing weather conditions. Michael delivered an excellent performance, especially in Q3 when he set a time good enough to be in third position on his first lap with intermediates. Nico didn’t reach his maximum potential today in the difficult 6 minutes after the Q2 restart. It was the kind of session where you can go from very fast to very slow in a few laps, as we saw with other drivers, and unfortunately, he couldn’t get a good lap. Overall, the car seems to work well in the rain and the balance seems good; I’m sure tomorrow’s race will be full of opportunities in changing conditions. On a personal note, thank you to all the fans for staying with us today, and it was clearly the first time I’ve done a wave in the middle of Q2. I’ve already received some messages from friends talking about my technique! »

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 6th

Romain Grosjean – 9th [on the grid]

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: « We are disappointed to have qualified 6th and 10th today. Romain made a mistake after being 5th in Q2 and was therefore unable to demonstrate his pace in Q3. With Kimi, it seems we should have used the Intermediates earlier in Q3, but it’s easy to say in hindsight and difficult to judge in the moment. It looks like there will be showers again, so we need to be prepared to run on any of four different types of tires available from Pirelli. From what we’ve seen so far this weekend, we would prefer it to dry out since we seemed competitive in this morning’s free practice with Romain on the Hard tires. If that’s the case, the Hard tire seems to be the component to favor for the race, but if it’s wet, we are undoubtedly ready for all race conditions. »

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Williams

Pastor Maldonado – 7th

Bruno Senna – 13th [on the grid]

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: « Today’s day was once again dominated by the weather. Based on yesterday’s lessons, we adjusted the car settings to protect ourselves from wet conditions. The feedback from the drivers today was good, and both drivers worked well. Bruno had to slow down in his last attempt in Q2 under the yellow flag caused by Grosjean’s spin, which resulted in him not making it to Q3 and qualifying in 15th position. Pastor pushed hard in Q3 to ultimately qualify 7th. We need to focus very hard to bring both cars into the points. »

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McLaren

Lewis Hamilton – 8th

Jenson Button – 16th [on the grid]

Martin Whitmarsh, team director: « Clearly, the 8th and 18th places are not where we hoped to qualify for our home Grand Prix, and it is therefore very disappointing.

Q1 was a bit of a lottery – it was mainly a matter of getting your tires up to speed at the right time without encountering traffic – and these variables never aligned for Jenson. But he seemed quick on numerous occasions this weekend – and, keeping in mind that we expect the rainy weather to continue tomorrow, he will be looking to move up through the field to a points position by the end of the race. He is one of the most skilled drivers in the rain, as we’ve seen him prove on many occasions before.

Lewis was very fast in heavy rain conditions, as he clearly demonstrated by being the fastest of all in Q2 – but, when it came to restarting after the interruption, and then doing Q3, to our great disappointment, we found that our car was a bit less competitive with the Intermediate tires.

So, since our car is clearly very competitive on a completely dry or completely wet track, but less so when intermediate conditions prevail, it is obvious that we would prefer the conditions to be extremely dry or wet tomorrow. I believe there is little chance it will be totally dry, so let’s hope it will be totally wet!

Speaking of that, in conclusion, I want to pay tribute to today’s spectators who came in large numbers to see the sport they love, knowing they would get soaked to the bone. I have said it before and I will say it again: British Formula 1 fans are the best in the world, hugely knowledgeable and massively enthusiastic in equal measure. So, whatever the weather, for their sake, we hope that tomorrow’s Santander British Grand Prix will offer them the spectacle and excitement they have been looking forward to enjoying all year.

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Force India

Nico Hülkenberg – 14th [after penalty]

Paul di Resta – 10th [on the grid]

Vijay Mallya, Team Director: « Yet another very rainy day for our home race and I want to pay tribute to the fans who supported us despite the rain and the session suspension.

Our car seemed competitive today but, in such tricky conditions, qualifying is always a lottery, so we can’t be disappointed with having only one car in Q3. Paul didn’t get through, but we have a good race car and we know he’ll fight tooth and nail tomorrow. In Q3, Nico didn’t manage to make the most of his last fast lap and will also have to drop five places on the grid due to a gearbox change.

I can’t wait for the race, and no matter the weather, I’m confident that we can fight for points and challenge the teams ahead of us.

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Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi – 17th [after penalty]

Sergio Pérez – 15th [on the grid]

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Race Engineers: « In hindsight, we clearly made the wrong decision. It was a good session until then. Since we had been stopped for a long time, we expected the track to be in better condition. We decided to go with intermediates, which we thought suited the situation, but it was the wrong choice. We clearly had the car to be at the front today and our drivers did a very good job. »

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 12th [on the grid]

Jean-Eric Vergne – 23rd [after penalty]

Laurent Mekies, Chief Engineer: « This morning we condensed our program to include the work generally done in Free Practice 2, which consists of carrying out race configuration stints with both types of tires, one car with the Softs, the other with the Hards.

This afternoon turned out to be a thoroughly contested qualifying session in the rain. We hoped for a bit better than what we managed, as I thought Daniel could have made it to Q3 if it weren’t for that yellow flag in his last lap. Our performance seemed quite good until the red flag in Q2, when both our cars were in the Top 10 at that moment.

At the restart, it was a difficult decision between the Intermediates and the Wets and in the end, we decided to wait a bit to see what the other cars were doing and that prompted us to put on the Wets. Unfortunately, Jean-Eric missed the opportunity to do a second lap in his stint, by just a few seconds, which makes things difficult for him.

Our performance definitely seemed better in the wet, so a race in the rain would suit us well tomorrow. For Jean-Eric, who has a ten-place penalty, it will be more difficult, but we know that in the rain anything can happen and grid positions may not make much sense.

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Caterham

Vitaly Petrov – 18th [on the grid]

Heikki Kovalainen – 19th [on the grid]

Mark Smith, Technical Director: « Qualifications like these are always a lottery and I think we were unlucky not to be able to take advantage of the weather. That said, both drivers performed well and made sure not to make any mistakes that could cost us tomorrow.

I think it’s also a shame not to have been able to really show what the new developments have brought to the car. The weather in qualifying affects everyone’s performance and when you see a McLaren eliminated in Q1, you realize how much the rain can make the ranking unpredictable.

In Free Practice 3, we also ran the cars in their new “outfits” for the first time on slick tires, and we spent most of the session setting up basic adjustments to optimize performance on both Soft and Hard tires. As soon as we found the balance that satisfied the drivers, we knew there was more to expect from the new package, so it’s very encouraging, and with the direction we have taken in the setup for tomorrow, I think we are well-positioned to deliver another strong race performance.

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Marussia

Timo Glock – 20th [on the grid]

Charles Pic – 24th [after penalty]

John Booth, Team Manager: Overall, it was a very frustrating day for us, and it seems everything was dependent on the weather here. After a difficult morning, we seemed to find our pace during qualifying, and Timo and Charles were very strong in their final runs. Timo, in particular, appeared to benefit from a very well-balanced car thanks to the benefits of the latest updates, and he was really quick at the start of the lap. We could see the weather changing in the last sector, and in the end, it affected both our drivers, with Timo unfortunately spinning, but fortunately without damage. Charles faced the same rain and lost any chance to improve. Putting disappointment aside, we at least had positive signs from our updates, so we hope to do better tomorrow with the support of all our fans.

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HRT

Pedro De La Rosa – 21st [on the grid]

Narain Karthikeyan – 22nd [on the grid]

Toni Cuquerella, Technical Director: Today’s day was very productive but also eventful because the sessions took place in very different conditions from yesterday, dry in the morning and intermediate in the afternoon. During the free practice, we had to work on dry settings and compare the tires in just one hour, but we gathered enough data in case qualifying or the race had to take place in these conditions. But that wasn’t the case, so we had to adapt to these drizzly conditions. The first five minutes were the most important, and we hesitated between a risky strategy with slick tires and opting for Intermediates like everyone else. In the end, we chose the latter, and it was the right decision because the rain intensified. The times in these conditions are not realistic because many mistakes are made, there’s traffic, you have to find the best time to go on track… But despite that, the drivers did a good job. Tomorrow’s race will be very open, and you could both win or lose a lot.

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