Monaco: The Qualifications Seen from the Pits

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Pole position

Lewis Hamilton – 2nd

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: « It was a tricky session and the weather kept us on our toes the whole hour. Nico, Lewis, and the entire team did a great job during qualifying to put us in the perfect position on the front row tomorrow. We are well aware of what happened in recent races and we need to ensure we are in better shape tomorrow. I believe we have gone in the right direction and we will see tomorrow if these improvements are enough to have a good race. »

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Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 3rd

Mark Webber – 4th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « A very strong team performance with both cars securing the second row of the grid in what was a very tight qualifying session. Sebastian put in a very fast lap early in Q3 and, unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to secure pole, but nonetheless, a great performance from him and from Mark who once again did a great job in Monte Carlo. »

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 5th

Romain Grosjean – 13th

Alan Permane, Director of Track Operations: This has been a disappointing session for us. First of all, we must give a big thank you to Romain’s mechanics for repairing his car at lightning speed for the qualifiers. They were rewarded with a lightning lap from their driver. Unfortunately, at the end of Q2, traffic prevented him from entering the top 10, which is very unfortunate. Kimi’s grid position, 5th, is decent, but it’s exceptionally difficult to gain positions in Monaco, so any progress will be hard-fought.

Our car performed very well in all conditions today, the weather wasn’t really a problem. We just had to make sure we had the right tires at the right time. Finding a clear lap here is always difficult, regardless of the weather, and we experienced it again with Romain today.

In Q1, Romain completed an incredibly impressive lap. Going out in variable conditions, with the pressure of having only a few minutes and achieving the best time on his first lap, it’s truly sensational.

For the race, Monaco is a very different circuit from the others, its layout is short and traffic is an important factor, which means we have few viable options for different strategies. If you add the dry weather expected tomorrow and the fact that overtaking is almost impossible, this suggests a very difficult race for us.

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 6th

Felipe Massa – DNQ [22nd on the grid]

Pat Fry, Technical Director: Not an easy day since we encountered difficulties right from this morning when Felipe had his accident during the third practice session. The team raced against time to repair the car in time for him to take part in the qualifying session. Unfortunately, there was too much damage both at the front and rear. It was a lot of work and there simply wasn’t enough time to get it done.

Qualifying in the wet in Monaco is always interesting as you have to be aware of traffic, yellow flags, and changing track conditions, especially on days when the rain comes and goes. The drop in temperatures somewhat compromised our performance, and we had some balance issues with Fernando: these two factors combined prevented us from getting the result we wanted, even if the final standings are not very surprising compared to previous races. In Q2, the decision to switch from Intermediates to Super Softs was made at the right moment: in the end, the track was dry in places, but the pace of the Mercedes and Red Bull was very good. Tomorrow, we will fight against the statistics as the winners have almost always started from the front rows. But we will do our best to seize any opportunity that comes our way.

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McLaren

Sergio Pérez – 7th

Jenson Button – 9th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: Today’s qualifying session was tough for everyone as it always is here in Monaco, but Jenson and Checo drove faultlessly. Meanwhile, on our end, we generally managed to get both of them on track at the right time and with the right tires. Checo did an excellent job to qualify seventh, but Jenson was disappointed to finish only ninth, hampered by a loss of power that prevented him from completing a fast lap at the end of Q3. We do not yet know for sure what caused this power loss, but we had already seen signs of this issue at the end of Q2. It’s a shame because, as he always does in Monaco, Jenson drove really well. I’m sure he could have had a better spot on the grid if he had another lap to do it. Tomorrow’s race will be long and difficult and, although overtaking will remain as challenging as ever, mistakes will inevitably play a major role in the race. Jenson and Checo will try their best to drive flawlessly tomorrow in order to score as many world championship points as possible.

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Force India

Adrian Sutil – 8th

Paul di Resta – 17th

Vijay Mallya, Team Director: « It was an exciting qualifying session today in Monaco. After Adrian’s accident this morning, the mechanics did a magnificent job repairing the car for the start of Q1, and Adrian managed to make the most of it. In these tricky conditions, he did what was needed when it was needed to qualify 8th. As for Paul, I would like to apologize to him because we did not choose the right tire strategy during Q1. He was very fast on intermediates, but we missed the window to give him a new set at the end of the session. Consequently, he starts 17th. For tomorrow’s race, we know anything can happen in Monaco. We will therefore think long and hard about the strategy to ensure a good result for both cars. »

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Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – 10th

Daniel Ricciardo – 12th

James Key, Technical Director: The fact that it rained very lightly made it very difficult to judge the real situation. Additionally, in Monaco, with all the challenges of this track, it was even more difficult. The team in the garage and on the pit wall did an excellent job managing the situation, making the right decisions, and choosing the right tires. Both drivers adapted very well.

Jean-Eric did a fantastic job. He was already in good form this morning, after the numerous modifications made since Thursday. Even though the times during the third practice session were nothing special, we could see that we were in a good rhythm. He clearly deserved to go to Q3, mastering his driving superbly in these difficult conditions. He could have done even better if it had rained at the end rather than at the beginning of the session.

Unfortunately, Daniel missed Q3 because he couldn’t achieve the same grip as his teammate. But he has made a lot of progress since Thursday. We are now in a position where both drivers can fight for points tomorrow.

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Sauber

Nico Hülkenberg – 11th

Esteban Gutiérrez – 19th

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « We experienced tricky conditions during qualifying. Esteban went off the ideal line a few times, which certainly caused him to lose confidence and led to this result. Nico had a good qualifying session but we were unlucky with the timing for the super soft tires. However, it was difficult to judge when to change the tires. We will now focus on the race, which might bring us some good opportunities. »

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Williams

Valtteri Bottas – 14th

Pastor Maldonado – 16th

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: It was a difficult qualifying session where we had to manage the changing conditions, but the team did a good job making the right decisions, such as when to switch to new tires. In the wet, Pastor showed how good he can be on this circuit, setting the fastest lap in Q1. Valtteri also did a fantastic job to finish ninth in Q1, during his very first qualifying session here in Monaco. Unfortunately, as the track dried, we didn’t have sufficient pace in the FW35, and with both our cars running together at the end of the session on the Supersoft tires, they couldn’t get the most out of their last lap. We gathered a lot of useful data here and feel we have a good development direction ahead of us.

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Caterham

Giedo van der Garde – 15th

Charles Pic – 18th

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal: « These are the good days, the best since the start of the year as far as we’re concerned. Personally, I am proud of the work everyone is putting in to provide us with moments like the one that brought Giedo’s name up in Q2. He drove very well, showing how much he can continue to develop and how brave he is to be the first driver to decide to switch to slick tires when the track conditions were very tricky. Charles and he behaved very well all weekend, minimizing mistakes and attacking when necessary. Charles was unlucky not to join Giedo in Q2. However, he also showed his talent by being in the fight in Q1 until the checkered flag ended it. With the race pace he has shown all year, particularly in Bahrain and Spain, he will be in the fight tomorrow.

It’s another small step forward in our continuous development, another reason that drives us to work so hard to be in the spotlight, and I want everyone on the team to use this as a source of motivation for Sunday and for the rest of the season. The hardest part is obviously still ahead of us tomorrow, but days like this explain why we participate in this sport, and achieving our first Q2 with Tony present on the track with us makes this day even more special.

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Marussia

Max Chilton – 20th

Jules Bianchi – DNQ [21st on the grid]

**John Booth, Team Director:** « This morning during the third practice session, we decided to do more work on the long runs as we were not satisfied with them on Thursday. We gained very little information from the soft tires. Therefore, we already knew it would be a difficult qualifying session even before the weather turned against us. We needed a dry track for our two drivers, who have never driven on a wet F1 track in Monaco. We are truly sorry for the issue that prevented Jules from participating in the session. We will ensure this is corrected for the future. For Max, we weren’t necessarily at our best in choosing the right moment to put on the last set of intermediates. It’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, but we will do our best and see what happens. »

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