Japan: Qualifications seen from the stands

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Pole Position

Mark Webber – 2nd on the grid

Christian Horner, team principal: It’s a fantastic team performance, securing the front row for tomorrow’s race is the best result for the team. It’s a shame there was a yellow flag at the end while our drivers were on their flying laps, but the front two positions are the best places to start tomorrow.

Congratulations to Sebastian for his thirty-fourth career pole position which puts him behind two illustrious names, Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, in the list of the best [in qualifications].

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Clean

Kamui Kobayashi – 3rd on the grid

Sergio Pérez – 5th on the grid

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « Placing ourselves in 4th and 6th position during qualifying is a sensational result! We brought a new aerodynamic package to Suzuka, worked hard to test it yesterday, and we were rewarded. Congratulations to the team and, specially, to our two drivers who both did a great job. Our goal now is to convert this good qualifying result into a great race. »

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Lotus

Romain Grosjean – 4th on the grid

Kimi Räikkönen – 7th on the grid.

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: « We had the performance to place the cars higher on the grid. Kimi had a spin with a set of new tires that halted his progress and Romain did not achieve an excellent first sector on his final lap. He might have been able to gain a position. But overall, it’s been a decent weekend so far.

The performance level of the E20 with a full tank of gasoline and during long stints gives us confidence. So we are eager to start the race and we hope to move up the rankings and finish higher than our starting positions. Suzuka is very demanding on tires and we have been effective in this area in the past. So we have potential, that’s for sure.

We are familiar with these tires. There was a significant difference between the two types of rubber in qualifying, but it will likely be leveled out during the race.

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 6th on the grid

Felipe Massa – 10th on the grid

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: We cannot say that the Gods smiled on us today! The yellow flag prevented Fernando from securing a place on the first two rows: it’s part of the game, but it doesn’t lessen the disappointment, especially in the heat of the moment. It’s regrettable because neither of our two grid positions reflects our potential. Felipe could also have achieved a good result: we need to understand what happened in his second stint in Q2, because it’s strange not to improve on a lap time set with worn tires when new tires of the same compound are put on. Our race approach clearly changed after this afternoon: we will try to score as many points as possible in a race that will be tough and delicate, especially in terms of tire behavior. As usual, the number one priority will be reliability, because without that, you won’t go anywhere.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – 8th on the grid

Lewis Hamilton – 9th on the grid

Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh: Clearly, having been as fast yesterday, we are disappointed to have achieved such a mediocre performance today in Q3. Jenson put in a good lap to be the best of the rest behind the Red Bulls, but he will still start in 8th position tomorrow, much further back than his pace would suggest in qualifying. That being said, he is somewhat of a Suzuka ace, as we saw last year when he won the race after starting from the front row, setting very fast laps. So, he will be one to watch tomorrow, that’s for sure. As for Lewis, who was consistently very fast yesterday, Q3 may have been even more disappointing – mainly because in his best lap, he had to slow down with yellow flags, which cost him time and ruined his lap. But tomorrow is another day – and the Japanese Grand Prix will be as tough as all Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka seem to be, run on a track as beautiful as it is demanding. Moreover, Jenson and Lewis will do their best to move up quickly and provide a good spectacle for the always enthusiastic Japanese fans and the tens of millions of TV viewers as well.

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Force India

Paul di Resta – 11th on the grid

Nico Hülkenberg – 15th on the grid

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: « We were reasonably competitive in all sessions up to qualifying, so we thought we had a car capable of breaking into the top 10. But the priority was to fix Nico’s car during the break before qualifying, and as a precaution, we had to change the gearbox.

As always, the guys did a fantastic job to get the car ready on time and Nico immediately found his pace. A place in Q3 is a great achievement, even if the penalty means he will drop back on the grid.

Paul was chasing lost time yesterday, and was not far from being able to also move into Q3. So we did everything we could to have a chance of scoring points tomorrow and have different strategic options with the two cars.

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Williams

Pastor Maldonado – 12th on the grid

Bruno Senna – 16th on the grid

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: « We had a complicated day today with Pastor experiencing balance issues which limited his pace and resulted in qualifying in 14th position. Bruno seemed poised to comfortably progress to Q2 alongside Pastor, with six-tenths of a second advantage on his best lap, when Vergne impeded him in his lap, causing him to lose 1.6 seconds and leaving Bruno very frustrated in 18th position. There are penalties to be applied to drivers who are in better positions, which should gain places for our two drivers, and we are confident in our race pace for tomorrow. »

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Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 13th on the grid

Michael Schumacher – 23rd on the grid

Norbert Haug, Vice President of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: « We were fighting to go further than the second part of qualifying, when the best time was a little less than a second faster than Michael’s best time. He was missing two tenths of a second to reach Q3 and four tenths for Nico. As a result, we will not be in the starting positions we would have wanted to start the race. »

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 14th on the grid

Jean-Eric Vergne – 19th on the grid

James Key, Technical Director: « Today’s qualifying result is a bit disappointing. We worked overnight to try to improve performance in sector 1, where we struggled the most so far, addressing our balance issues. We worked hard with the drivers and made some progress this morning. However, we knew we needed to do more, so we took an additional step forward for this afternoon, changing the settings, which was a bit of a gamble. It seemed better, but not enough to make a real difference.

The second and third sectors of the track seem better and overall, we have improved since the beginning of the weekend. As you have seen in the last races, our race pace is better than our qualifying pace because our drivers have done a good job learning how to manage the tires. So, given our positions on the grid, we can still hope to score some points tomorrow, but it won’t be easy.

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Caterham

Heikki Kovalainen – 17th on the grid

Vitaly Petrov – 22nd on the grid

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

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Marussia

Timo Glock – 18th on the grid

Charles Pic – 21st on the grid

John Booth, Team Principal: I think we can be happy with how the day unfolded, after what was a challenging morning especially for Timo, which clearly affected his ability to be 100% during qualifying. Having performed well in the last few races, we still need to maintain this level of performance in qualifying, and today we managed to do that, with Timo and Charles finishing ahead of Vitaly Petrov. We’re not as close to the front cars as we would have liked, and Pedro (de la Rosa) did a good lap to fit between Charles and Timo. However, we are confident in our ability to shine a bit more in race conditions and we are all looking forward to tomorrow to see how the strategies will unfold.

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HRT

Pedro de la Rosa – 20th on the grid

Narain Karthikeyan – 24th on the grid

Toni Cuquerella, Technical Director: « Today, we opted for a different balance than yesterday to make the car even more neutral, with less understeer, and we were right. Frankly, we didn’t expect to be so close to our rivals on a circuit that requires so much downforce and it was a pleasant surprise and a nice reward for all the work done. Pedro’s times were very competitive and he was at 103.6% (of the best time), which is the second best result in qualifying this year. It’s a shame that Narain damaged his new floor and had to switch back to the old one. This result has provided us with new data and confirms that the aerodynamic updates introduced in Singapore are a significant step forward. Tomorrow during the race, tire wear will play an important role and we will probably opt for a two or three-stop strategy. »

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