Saturday: Red Bull bets on a different strategy
The management of the tires will be the key to the Grand Prix. At least that's the opinion of the Red Bull team, which gambled on a different strategy in qualifying, allowing them to keep more new soft tires for tomorrow's race. Vettel is not too disappointed about not having secured pole position because anything can happen in the race tomorrow. The same sentiment comes from Mark Webber, who expects an exciting race even if he would have preferred to start from the clean side of the track.
Sebastian Vettel – 9th and 2nd
« McLaren seemed very competitive yesterday, I know the conditions were completely different but you could see they were ahead of everyone, including us. They looked really fast also this morning on the dry, but I think we put pressure on them in qualifying and we finished closer than expected. So I think we did a good job. We saved all our soft tires, which will be crucial tomorrow I think. We only have a rough idea from this morning with a lot of fuel in the car but I think we are in a good position. There isn’t a long distance to the first corner so we’ll see. It’s a long race, a lot of things can happen and I believe tire management will be crucial. »
Mark Webber – 3rd and 4th
« In my last stint, I lost the rear a bit at the exit of the first corner. I tried to recover in turn 3, but I was 3 tenths down. It’s a shame because you don’t make up that time in the last sector, which hadn’t been too bad in the previous attempt. So we’ll start 4th on the grid tomorrow. It’s a pity that Jenson passed me at the end because it puts me on the left side of the track, but we’ll see how it goes in the race tomorrow.
« The tires will be interesting tomorrow because there were different strategies in qualifying. We are closer to the McLaren than we thought, and it was a nice duel between the four of us. »
Christian Horner – Team Principal
« For the first time since Brazil last year, we did not achieve pole position today, but it was a very exciting qualifying session and Sebastian produced an incredible lap to split the two McLarens and be on the front row. »
We chose to take a different approach with the tires in qualifying, which allowed us to preserve 3 sets of softs for tomorrow’s race. It will be a fascinating race with the strategies, and hopefully, we can beat the McLarens.
