India: Qualifications Seen from the Pits

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Pole position

Mark Webber – 2nd

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « It’s a truly incredible team performance – three front rows in the last three races is our new record. It was very close between the two drivers in Q3. Sebastian made a small mistake on his first run, while Mark set a very good first lap and then Sebastian did what was needed on his second run, whereas Mark, after slightly compromising his out lap, lost a bit of time in the second corner and the lap was over. The drivers did a great job, and we need to make sure we can capitalize on this strong performance tomorrow. »

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McLaren

Lewis Hamilton – 3rd

Jenson Button – 4th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: « We had difficulties making the Soft tires work immediately and consequently, our first laps with them were a bit tricky. In the end, we were not able to make times as fast as those of Red Bull, our best time being 261 milliseconds slower than theirs, a difference of a quarter of a second. But both our drivers did a great job despite the circumstances, with Lewis and Jenson being separated by only a tenth, and we believe we have a very good race pace. Yesterday, our long run pace was actually very solid, so tomorrow’s race could be closer than some predict.

Furthermore, the Buddh International Circuit is fantastic and all the drivers enjoy racing there. For ours, it’s a certainty. So we hope that, collectively, we can put on a great show for the tens of thousands of people who will travel to Greater Noida to see the Indian Grand Prix, but also for the tens of millions of people around the world who will watch it from their couches.

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 5th

Felipe Massa – 6th

Stefano Domenicali, Team Director: « We hoped to be able to start from the second row, which was our goal. We didn’t achieve it, and that’s what will make our race more complicated, but that doesn’t mean we’ve given up, far from it.

As usual, tomorrow’s race will be long and challenging on a track where overtaking is possible and where perhaps we might see strategic choices that differ from the norm. Yesterday, we saw that our race pace was quite good, but the others certainly do not seem to be lagging behind in this area. Reliability, teamwork in the pits and on the pit wall, and the start will be the decisive factors. We know it’s going to be tough, and we will do everything we can to achieve a good result that allows us to continue pursuing our goals for the season.

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 7th

Romain Grosjean – 11th

Alan Permane, Director of Track Operations: It’s disappointing! Kimi had a very good practice session this morning and we were expecting strong qualifying. Unfortunately, both drivers complained of not having the same level of grip as in the morning. For Romain, it was in all corners, while Kimi had problems in the slow corners. The car was nervous on entry and lacked traction on exit, typical comments about a car that generally lacks grip.

A qualification in seventh position behind two Red Bulls, two McLarens, and two Ferraris shows that we have the fourth-best car here. We will do what we can in the race, but we have observed low tire degradation and overtaking is difficult due to the nature of the track and DRS settings. We believe that, overall, strategies will revolve around one or two stops. We will see tonight what suits us best.

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Sauber

Sergio Pérez – 8th

Kamui Kobayashi – 17th

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: First of all, Sergio did a good job in qualifying. Eighth was the maximum possible today. With Kamui, we encountered an issue. Due to a momentary telemetry problem, he arrived at the first corner with incorrect KERS settings, which led to a poor brake distribution and therefore he had to abort his last attempt in Q2.

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Williams

Pastor Maldonado – 9th

Bruno Senna – 13th

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: « Our two drivers worked well today with a car that had the pace to enter Q3. Bruno, who has been very good all weekend, easily made it into Q2 but made a mistake on his new set of Soft tires, which ultimately cost him a place in the top ten, and he finished in 13th position.

Pastor’s pace significantly improved between Free Practice 3 and Qualifying, but he locked up his brakes in the final corner, which placed him in a not very representative ninth position.

We showed a good rhythm on the long runs on Friday, and with further improvements made to the car over the weekend, we expect to have two strong races with our drivers fighting for points.

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Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 10th

Michael Schumacher – 14th

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: « It was a qualifying session where we had to choose between the temptation to run and demonstrate our speed and the realistic consideration of what the race will bring. After Q2, it was clear that 7th place was the best we could achieve with Nico, and his pace was better on already used tires. However, we preferred not to start the race with a set of soft tires that had already done 10 laps, as this would have limited our options in terms of strategy. Thinking about tomorrow, we decided not to run in Q3, which allows us the choice to use a fresh set of each tire compound for our first stint. Unfortunately, Michael did not manage to get beyond Q2, and he was less comfortable with his car’s balance than during this morning’s practice. Tomorrow, we expect to join the battle within a very tight group behind the leaders, and we will have to fight to try to climb the ranks. »

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Sahara Force India

Nico Hülkenberg – 12th

Paul di Resta – 16th

Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Executive Director: « We witnessed another tight session today, but in the end, we didn’t have the performance level to aim for Q3. We struggled to pinpoint the right settings, and it seems that the tires played a more significant role here. Their operating window on this track seems very narrow, and we probably didn’t get the best out of them.

That said, it’s only Saturday and it’s tomorrow that counts. There’s a long race ahead of us and we can still turn things around and demonstrate our real potential. It’s our home Grand Prix, and we want to have a good race with both cars to hopefully see both Sahara Force India in the points Sunday afternoon.

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 15th

Jean-Eric Vergne – 18th

Laurent Mekies, Chief Engineer: Jean-Eric has improved significantly since yesterday, where he was not happy with his car. We made several changes last night to give him better sensations, and it worked, because he was in a good rhythm this morning. It’s a shame he missed Q2 by less than a hundredth of a second, but that’s to be expected with such a tight midfield. Daniel also did a good job. Tire management is complicated here, as we saw during qualifying where teams did a lot of laps, and overall, we are average, ahead of some of our usual rivals and behind others. This means that if we can join the fight with them tomorrow and confirm our usual race pace, it should allow us to fight for points.

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Caterham

Vitaly Petrov – 19th

Heikki Kovalainen – 20th

The Caterham team has not released statements from the team’s representatives

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Marussia

**Timo Glock** – 21st

Charles Pic – 24th

John Booth, Team Director: « In the same vein as in Korea, we approached these qualifications with an eye on the race. Even if we continue to push to close the gap with the cars in front of us in qualifications, we must be realistic about the progress we can make with little fuel. Our car is clearly more performant with a lot of fuel, particularly this weekend, but the decision to have only one stint on soft tires was completely logical.

Timo suffered from a car instability issue that seems to be inherent, nevertheless, he did a good job to achieve the best laps he could today. What we know is that he is happier with the car in race configuration.

Charles did not get the best out of the soft tires today, so we will need to spend some time understanding why that is.

Overall, our position today was as good as we could hope for and we look forward to having a more exciting race tomorrow.

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HRT

Pedro de la Rosa – 22nd

Narain Karthikeyan – 23rd

Toni Cuquerella, Technical Director: « We have improved since the first practice session and extracted more performance from the car, so we are satisfied from this point of view. But during qualifying, neither Pedro nor Narain could get a clear lap due to traffic, especially in the last minutes. It’s understandable because the track was better towards the end. But even if we didn’t achieve better laps, we are confident that we will have a good pace with both types of tires during tomorrow’s race, and we also noted that the degradation wasn’t too excessive, so we are considering a one or two-stop strategy. »

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