Spain: Qualifications Seen from the Stands

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Pole position

Lewis Hamilton – 2nd

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: A great job by the team and our two drivers today: I believe that we have the strongest driver duo in Formula 1 this year and they demonstrated that today. Of course, we know that it’s on Sunday afternoon that it counts and we’ve been actively working this weekend to find the right solutions to our problems to improve both our performance and consistency in race conditions. I don’t think we’ll be the best team in the race, but we’ll start in the best possible positions. Now, we have to get through the first stint, which should definitely be interesting with the option tire [the Medium tires, ed.], and then see how the race unfolds.

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Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 3rd

Mark Webber – 8th [7th on the grid]

Christian Horner, Team Principal: A very interesting qualifying session. Sebastian did a phenomenal lap in Q3 to secure third place on the grid, which is above our expectations after Q1 and Q2. With both Mercedes ahead of us, as well as Kimi and Fernando behind, it makes for a fascinating grid for tomorrow’s race. For Mark, who seemed competitive in Q1 and Q2, unfortunately, his lap in Q3 was a bit less strong, and on such a tight grid, the differences are minimal. Let’s hope both our drivers can have a very solid race from their grid positions tomorrow.

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 4th

Romain Grosjean – 7th [6th on the grid]

Alan Permane, Track Operations Director: We are quite happy with our performance today. We made several changes since yesterday and had a productive morning to validate them on track. It was a fairly straightforward qualifying session with our two cars keeping two sets of medium tires for Q3, without any real issues. Unfortunately, Romain locked up in his last lap, otherwise, he would have been on the same pace as Kimi, but having our slower car starting in sixth place is certainly not a cause for concern.

Regarding the race strategy, does the new hard tire or the allocation of hard and medium tires pose a problem? It doesn’t cause us any. The new hard compound seems better suited to this track than the old one, certainly with the temperatures we’ve experienced here. It works well for us. The allocation of hard and medium tires doesn’t really change our situation either.

Starting from fourth and sixth place is rather good for us when you consider what we have been able to show in race pace and tire management. There is certainly the potential to have a very good race tomorrow.

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 5th place

Felipe Massa – 6th [9th on the grid]

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: « First of all, I would like to send all our best wishes to Pat Fry, our technical director, who will undergo surgery this afternoon, and we wish him the best for a speedy recovery. As for the qualifying, we knew we couldn’t aim for the front rows: we definitely can’t be satisfied with the result, but the third row is still a good starting point on which to build tomorrow’s race. I am not surprised to see the two Mercedes so fast, as was the case during the winter tests on this track. For tomorrow, we are reasonably confident that we can rely on the potential we have seen previously, and as usual, the start will be very important to try to gain positions. Tire degradation will remain a key factor, and we must stay focused and make the most of every opportunity. »

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McLaren

Sergio Pérez – 9th [8th on the grid]

Jenson Button – 14th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: « Checo did a fantastic job in qualifying today – especially in Q2 where he delivered a sensational lap and was the seventh fastest. In Q3, we considered taking the tactical option, in other words, not running him at all to save a set of tires. But, ultimately, since he was driving so well, we decided to go for it in the hope that he could repeat what he did in Q2. While it started well, he lost a bit of time in the third sector compared to his best lap in Q3 and ended up in 9th position. But anyway, I mean, « Bravo Checo », because he was very impressive this afternoon. Jenson had a difficult qualifying – and, although we haven’t yet had the opportunity to examine his data in-depth, it seems perhaps his tire pressures may have been a bit too high, but whatever the issue, I’m certain that if he had felt comfortable in his car, he could have made it to Q3. That said, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ ambitions extend to much more than just reaching Q3, and it’s clear that our MP4-28 still requires a lot of development before it becomes as competitive as we need it to be. But we understand a little more about its shortcomings every day, and I’m sure we’ll get there in the end. Checo and Jenson will give 100% tomorrow to score as many championship points as possible for themselves, for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, and of course for the many Vodafone McLaren Mercedes fans worldwide. »

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Force India

Paul di Resta – 10th

Adrian Sutil – 13th

Robert Fernley, Deputy Director of the Team: It’s great to see Paul make it into Q3 – the first time for the team in Barcelona – and it means we are in a good position to fight for points. Adrian had the same pace as Paul throughout all sessions, but his lap in Q2 was compromised by his track position – he couldn’t get a clear lap, which cost him a few grid positions. I expect us to be stronger tomorrow and hope we can show the same pace we’ve demonstrated during the first four races. The car is well-balanced, we’re managing the tires well, and we have every reason to believe that both our cars can finish in the points.

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 11th

Jean-Eric Vergne – 12th

James Key, Technical Director: We have brought many significant new changes to the car here as part of a long-established plan for this weekend in Barcelona. With such a change, we didn’t know if everything would go as planned, and finally, we saw yesterday that it seemed to work as we hoped. After a satisfying Friday, this morning, Daniel struggled a bit with the balance of his car. However, Jean-Eric has been comfortable with the car all weekend and did a very good job. Our qualifying result has its ups and downs because it’s our best overall result for the team this year, and Jean-Eric did very well to be so close to his teammate, but on the other hand, it’s a shame to be out of Q3 by so little. It’s satisfying to have made a good step forward. The advantage for tomorrow of being eliminated at the gates of Q3 is that we can choose our own tire strategy for the start, and we are ahead of all the other cars in the same situation since we also kept a new set of Medium tires. However, we are not too sure what to expect with the tires during the race.

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Sauber

Nico Hülkenberg – 15th

Esteban Gutiérrez – 16th [19th on the grid]

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « We cannot be satisfied with 15th and 16th. Especially on a track like this one, it won’t be easy to achieve much given where we are starting. Both drivers showed great performances today. This shows that we have closed the gap in qualifying, but we need to improve further. »

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Williams

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

Pastor Maldonado – 18th [17th on the grid]

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: « After winning here last year, being out in Q1 is really disappointing for us. On such a tight grid, where Valtteri only missed Q2 by half a tenth, we need to make bigger steps forward than those around us if we want to be able to demonstrate improvement in results. Our race pace is more competitive than what we showed today, so we are still looking to fight for points tomorrow, but everyone at Williams, both here and at the factory, knows there is a lot of work to be done for us to move forward this season. »

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Caterham

Giedo van der Garde – 19th [18th on the grid]

Charles Pic – 22nd

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

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Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 20th

Max Chilton – 21st

John Booth, Team Director: « We are satisfied with the analysis we conducted last night on how our upgrade package correlates with our development tools. The upgrades we have for this race have certainly brought more performance to our car, and last night, we felt that if we had more time to work on development during FP1 and FP2, there would be even more. We have not yet been able to find a good balance with the car, even though we had a good FP3 session during which we made some improvements to the car. Jules couldn’t string together all the good sectors today due to a rather tricky balance, and Max had to be a bit too aggressive in his out lap due to traffic to ensure no car was ahead of him. So, neither of our drivers could achieve the lap they wanted today, but it’s good to have them so close to each other, and I think we can have a good race tomorrow. »

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