Abu Dhabi: The Qualifying Seen from the Pits

McLaren

Lewis Hamilton – Pole position

Jenson Button – 6th [5th on the grid]

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: Lewis drove brilliantly here in Abu Dhabi during qualifying today – he was the fastest in Q1, Q2, and Q3 – and the pole position was never in doubt, was it? It was the 25th pole position of his Formula 1 career – all achieved in Vodafone McLaren Mercedes cars – and he is now ideally positioned for victory tomorrow.

That being said, you don’t get a point for pole position in Formula 1, so we shouldn’t get carried away. There’s still a lot of work to do before the end of tomorrow’s race, and we must not underestimate our rivals. But we have a good car for the race, and Lewis loves this track.

Jenson is a little disappointed with his qualification, which is understandable, but he’s a true fighter and he can rise to the challenge of starting from 6th place on the grid tomorrow. Additionally, his pace on long runs was good yesterday – so, like Lewis, he will surely be one to watch once the five red lights go out.

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Red Bull

Mark Webber – 2nd

Sebastian Vettel – Excluded [will start from the pits]

Christian Horner, Team Principal: During the slowdown lap after the last Q3 stint, Renault instructed us to immediately stop Sebastian’s car on the track due to a fuel system issue. After discussing with the stewards, who accepted the situation as force majeure for technical reasons for stopping the car, unfortunately, for reasons that still need to be fully understood, 850 ml were extracted from the car during checks instead of one liter. As a result, the FIA has excluded Sebastian from qualifying, and we will withdraw the car from Parc Fermé for a more thorough investigation. Sebastian will start from the pit lane tomorrow for the race. We will need to make the most of Mark’s position on the front row, and Sebastian will have a very busy race ahead of him.

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Pastor Maldonado – 4th [3rd on the grid]

**Bruno Senna** – 15th [14th on the grid]

Mark Gillan, Chief Engineer in Charge of Operations: Pastor really performed strongly throughout the weekend, showing good pace on Friday. We worked hard on the balance for qualifying from the beginning of the weekend, which paid off with Pastor brilliantly qualifying in 4th position in Q3. Bruno struggled more this weekend. His first qualifying stint was marred by a problem with his car which was resolved before his second stint, but unfortunately, he didn’t have the pace to get through to Q3, finishing 15th on what was a very tight grid.

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 5th [4th on the grid]

Romain Grosjean – 10th [9th on the grid]

Alan Permane, Track Operations Director: « We are satisfied, but we might have done better with both drivers. Fifth place for Kimi is good, and it means we will be in a good position tomorrow. Romain seemed set for a very good lap as well, matching Kimi’s first two sectors. But he lost half a second in the final sector. We will analyze what might have happened.

According to the usual trend this season, we are confident about our race pace compared to our competitors. Our race simulation was promising on Friday. We have no concerns about tire wear, their warming up, or anything of that sort. So there is no reason we shouldn’t have a good evening tomorrow.

Kimi qualified higher on the grid and that will certainly make his task easier. Overtaking is relatively easy here, but Romain will have some work to do. That said, he made some great overtakes last time, so let’s hope that continues here.

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 7th [6th on the grid]

Felipe Massa – 9th [8th on the grid]

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: « Obviously, we are not satisfied, in fact, we are really disappointed with this result. We are not able to provide our drivers with a car that can fight for the front rows on the grid, despite all our efforts here and at our factory in Maranello. It is true that in the race, we have always seen that the gap with the best has been smaller, but we cannot always rely on exceptional performances like the one Fernando delivered last Sunday in India. However, it is incredible to see how much things have changed in just one week, with a hierarchy changing by almost half a second from one circuit to another. But now, there is no point in feeling sorry for ourselves; we must roll up our sleeves and focus on being ready for tomorrow’s race. I often say that points are distributed on Sunday, and the accounts will be settled at the end of the season. We have the duty to do everything possible in every area, and there is no doubt that we will do so. »

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Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 8th [7th on the grid]

Michael Schumacher – 14th [13th on the grid]

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: It was a good qualifying session for Nico today, considering the car we currently have. He drove very well, and the team did a great job of getting him out at the right time to maximize our potential. We extracted the maximum possible performance today, and this 8th place is a slight improvement over our recent performances. It was a bit frustrating for Michael because a mistake in his fast lap in Q2 prevented him from finishing higher in the standings. But overall, it was a positive day given our car, and we will wait to see what the race will bring tomorrow.

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Force India

Nico Hülkenberg – 11th [10th on the grid]

Paul di Resta – 13th [12th on the grid]

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: « After the last tests, we were quite optimistic to see at least one car in Q3, but it seems that the cooler conditions tonight did not work in our favor. Nico was a tenth away from getting into the Top 10 while Paul wasn’t too far off, and that more or less reflects our level today.

I think we have a good car and our two drivers were very strong on their long runs yesterday, so there is every reason to hope that we will be strong tomorrow. We have strategic options with both cars and we will aim for points in the race.

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Sauber

Sergio Pérez – 12th [11th on the grid]

Kamui Kobayashi – 16th [15th on the grid]

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: « Today, the gaps were so tight between everyone. We hoped to place at least one car in the top 10, but we didn’t succeed. Aside from that, I think there’s still work to be done to have the best possible race tomorrow. It was a pretty normal day, everything went well, but the performance was simply not satisfactory. »

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 17th [16th on the grid]

Jean-Eric Vergne – 18th [17th on the grid]

James Key, Technical Director: We had a problematic Friday, struggling with the balance of both cars, so the team did a good job making some changes that produced an improvement in today’s Free Practice. We opted for a stiffer direction and the car is now much more maneuverable for both drivers. However, we only really had the three runs this morning, so maybe there are more things we could have done if we had been able to drive more.

I think the result of the qualifying session is unfortunate for us: in Q1, Jean-Eric’s lap looked rather good and he was on track to qualify for Q2, but he spun at turn 20 and we will have to find out why. That ended his session while he was on new Soft tires at that time. Daniel made it to Q2 but we were lacking a bit of pace in the first corner and then in sector three, which require downforce.

From what we could see on Friday, our pace on long stints wasn’t too bad and the car’s balance was probably impacted today by the race configuration. The situation with the tires is a big unknown, so there could be interesting decisions to make in terms of strategy on Sunday. Therefore, we will try to play our cards right.

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Caterham

Heikki Kovalainen – 19th [18th on the grid]

Vitaly Petrov – 21st [20th on the grid]

Caterham has not published the statements of the team’s officials.

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Marussia

Charles Pic – 20th [19th on the grid]

Timo Glock – 22nd [21st on the grid]

John Booth, Team Principal: « Today, it is another significant step in achieving our goals for this season and a fantastic achievement for Charles, highlighting his impressive progress this season. His lap time represents the smallest gap we’ve had with the Caterham in qualifying so far, at just one-tenth. Today’s result is credit to the excellent teamwork we’ve achieved here in Abu Dhabi, as the weekend has been far from quiet – especially for the mechanics. Today is an excellent reward for all our efforts.

Regarding Timo, we have seen several times that the tires are extremely sensitive, and tonight our main concern will be to understand the sudden loss of grip we encountered in his last lap. He did a few good stints heavy with fuel in Free Practice 2, so I’m sure he’ll be keen to make a good comeback tomorrow.

With Charles and Timo alongside our main rivals on the grid, it will be our best chance to get ahead of one of them, given that we have already shown in recent weekends that our race pace was much better than our qualifying pace. We are looking forward to it!

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HRT

Pedro de la Rosa – 23rd [22nd on the grid]

Narain Karthikeyan – 24th [23rd on the grid]

Toni Cuquerella, Technical Director: « The aerodynamic improvements, with a new rear wing and a new air intake for the engine, have yielded good results, and the gap with our rivals has been reduced. It is also important that on such a challenging track, we did not encounter any issues with brake or engine temperature. During the qualifications, it was crucial to have a clear lap and to warm up the front tires properly. Both of our drivers did a good job with their first set of tires, but Narain couldn’t get the most out of his second set. But no matter, we are pleased to see that we are close, and based on the data gathered yesterday, we have a good race pace. The tire degradation is not too significant so the race should lead to two-stop strategies or maybe even just one. »

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