Saturday: Vettel on pole, Webber eliminated in Q1
Mixed fortunes for Red Bull drivers, as Sebastian Vettel clinches pole position, while the qualifying session was a nightmare for Mark Webber. The Australian driver was eliminated in Q1, posting the 19th fastest time. He had a hydraulic problem with his DRS, and without DRS, it was impossible for him to fight for a better position.
Sebastian Vettel – 13th and Pole Position
«I think it was a good return to form after Q1 and Q2 today, as I wasn’t entirely satisfied in those two parts. It had been a good weekend up until qualifying, but the conditions changed in Q1. However, we managed to put everything together in the end. Everyone worked very hard to prepare new parts for the car, which seemingly allowed us to take a step forward. Bringing new parts is not always straightforward, as we’ve seen. Often people test things on Friday, but then revert for the rest of the weekend. This weekend, however, we seem to have made a step forward, although we won’t really see it until tomorrow. We’ve been good here in the past, so hopefully, it will continue tomorrow. The guys deserve it, they’ve worked hard all weekend. »
Mark Webber – 19th and 19th
« I didn’t have DRS, which costs about 1.3 seconds per lap and made things difficult. The car put up a good fight today, we could only do four laps today and three of them were in qualifying. In the first part, I did a lap with the Mediums and then went out with the Softs and tried to pass but it was so tight. The lap time wasn’t so bad given I didn’t have DRS, but it didn’t help in our situation. We have a lot to do tomorrow. We hoped to fix the DRS issue for Q2 but we didn’t make it; we should be able to fix it for tomorrow. »
