China: Qualifications Seen from the Stands

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – Pole position

Nico Rosberg – 4th

Ross Brawn, Team Director: « A great qualifying session for us and congratulations to Lewis and Nico as well as the team for this solid performance. It’s a nice reward for the hard work done here and at the factory during the winter and these past weeks to keep developing the car. However, no points are awarded on Saturday, and there’s work ahead of us tomorrow to convert these positions into a good result. It will be a fascinating race from a strategy perspective, so we will wait to see how it unfolds. Congratulations to Lewis for his first pole driving a Silver Arrow and to Nico for securing the 4th fastest time on the second row, despite losing track time this morning. »

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 2nd

Romain Grosjean – 6th

Alan Permane, Track Operations Director: Obviously, we are very happy with today’s result. Kimi [Räikkönen] has been comfortable in the car practically since the beginning of the weekend. A little less so this morning following a minor setup change. But the trend was reversed, and he is once again where we want him to be.

Romain [Grosjean] had a difficult morning but without any real trouble. It was only circumstantial problems that blocked his progress. He contested the qualifications with a car unchanged since the morning session, so taking into account his previous tribulations, he did a very good job to secure 6th place.

We have completed our entire preparation program for the race and we know where we stand with the tires, both the soft and medium ones. We are quite confident in our strategy and we look forward to having a great race.

Starting from second and sixth places, we will undoubtedly attack to ensure both drivers make it onto the podium, with one of them on the top step.

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 3rd

Felipe Massa – 5th

Pat Fry, Technical Director: « It became clear after yesterday’s tests that the medium tires would be the best for the race, both for their consistency and low wear. During qualifying, it was no surprise to see that all teams decided to save these tires for the race, opting to use the softs for all three parts.

In Q2, after our first stint, it was not easy to understand what time we needed to make to get into Q3, and we preferred not to take any risk by doing a second lap. Once this turned out to be the most prudent choice, our attention shifted to possible strategies for the race, and we had to decide between starting on mediums or trying to do another fast lap on softs to ensure a better position on the grid. The latter option seemed the best and it was confirmed as most teams made the same choice.

I expect an unpredictable race because the leading cars will have to pit first due to degradation, and the traffic at the back of the pack could prove dangerous.

I am really delighted with the performance of Fernando and Felipe and I am also optimistic for tomorrow, even though I expect a difficult race where strategy and tire performance will play an even more important role than usual.

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 7th

Jean-Eric Vergne – 16th [15th on the grid]

James Key, Technical Director: We made some really subtle changes here that improved what we had for the first two races, and we hoped this would allow us to take a step forward, and overall, it has. We didn’t expect to be really better here, as this circuit has been tough for us in the past. However, our performance was good all weekend, and we had calmer practice sessions on Friday and Saturday compared to previous races, and the car responds well to changes. Daniel delivered a fantastic performance, doing everything right and finding nice improvements with each new set of tires. It was great driving, and he deserves to be in Q3 and 7th on the grid. It’s also good news for the team, as we’ve been working hard at the factory and on the races because we knew we could do better than in the first two races. It was really unfortunate for JEV [Vergne, ed.] who was on the same pace as his teammate before this afternoon. However, we’ve started from 16th before and managed to score points on Sunday, so we can be optimistic. Inevitably, with the gap between our cars on the grid, we will adopt two different strategies for tomorrow. The softs are an unknown, while Friday showed the mediums held up well.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – 8th

**Sergio Pérez** – 12th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: « It was a really interesting qualifying session – for several reasons. Jenson drove brilliantly in all three parts: his 7th positions in both Q1 and Q2 showed that there’s potential in our car and that we can close the gap on the leaders. Additionally, he comfortably made it to Q3 and then completed a controlled lap, with an eye on the strategy for tomorrow’s race, finishing as the best-placed driver on mediums.

We believe that the choice of tires could be decisive in the race, and we thought that starting Jenson on mediums would give us a good strategy for the race.

Sergio was unlucky to miss Q3. It was a tough day for him, but he is a fantastic and dedicated driver, and I’m sure he’ll do everything he can to climb back tomorrow and score big points. We have seen before what he is capable of, and this weekend has shown that starting beyond the top 10 shouldn’t be a problem. He will clearly be fighting for points in the race.

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Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 9th

Mark Webber – 14th [22nd following a disqualification]

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « It was a frustrating qualifying session for the team and for Mark [Webber]. Unfortunately in Q2, the amount of fuel he needed was not fully delivered. It’s an error with our refueling system. There was 3kg of fuel missing.

When we realized what was left in the tank, we noticed there wouldn’t be enough for Mark to return to the pit. He ran out of fuel – which is very frustrating. We’re going to try to understand what happened with the refueling system. It’s a shame because we could have reached Q3 with both drivers. We had planned the same strategy. We noticed that the soft tires had a very good performance on one lap but a very limited lifespan. So we made the decision in Q3 to start on hard tires, which gives Sebastian [Vettel] the choice of tires for the start of the race. It should be interesting for the race.

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Sauber

Nico Hülkenberg – 10th

Esteban Gutiérrez – 18th [17th on the grid]

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: We are happy with this result. After the last races, our engineers have implemented new features on the car, and their effects are visible here. It’s an important step forward for the team that allows us to exploit the potential of our car. Nico did an incredible lap in Q2 and showed our progress on track. Let’s hope Esteban will have some opportunities in the race and will be able to seize them.

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Force India

Paul di Resta – 11th

Adrian Sutil – 13th

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: It was complicated to know our performance level during free practice sessions, but we hoped to be a bit more competitive in qualifying this afternoon. Paul [di Resta] and his team did an excellent job sorting out some issues with his car. He was just a hair’s breadth away from entering Q3. As for Adrian [Sutil], his lack of performance compared to the free practice is quite mysterious. We must try to understand the reason.

All in all, we are in a good position for the race knowing that the tire strategy will be essential. [Editor’s note: Force India can choose their tires for the first stint, unlike the drivers who entered Q3.] We know that our car is competitive on long stints, and with many fresh tires at our disposal, we are giving ourselves the best chance to score points.

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Williams

Pastor Maldonado – 15th [14th on the grid]

Valtteri Bottas – 17th [16th on the grid]

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: « In such a tight grid where you only have one lap to qualify, even the smallest errors are costly. We feel that we have better setups for the race with the mediums rather than the softs. Therefore, we hope for a better performance in the race tomorrow. We know there is still time to find, but we are working on it. »

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Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 19th [18th on the grid]

Max Chilton – 20th [19th on the grid]

John Booth, Team Director: « Today’s day has clearly been far from perfect for our team, although on one hand it’s interesting that we used two different strategies to get to where we are. We are disappointed with our qualifying with both cars. There was certainly room to go faster on Jules’s side, but the balance wasn’t good enough in his second attempt. With Max, I’m disappointed to say we encountered a new problem which prevented him from making a second attempt. We are currently analyzing the data to fully understand the issue and will do everything we can to ensure his car is ready for service tomorrow. Overall, I suppose we can be happy with our positions for the race start, however, we can’t help but feel we haven’t shown our full potential today. Hopefully, things will be better tomorrow. »

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Caterham

Translate: Charles Pic – 21st [20th on the grid]

Giedo Van der Garde – 22nd [21st on the grid]

Caterham did not release statements from the team’s representatives.

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