Singapore: Qualification Seen from the Stands

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Pole position

Mark Webber – 4th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « A truly impressive performance from Sebastian today! Having been fast in Q1 with the medium tires, fast in Q2 with the soft tires, and after a first lap that put him 0.6 seconds ahead in Q3, we strategically decided to stop him to save a set of soft tires. In the end, it was very tight with Nico, but once the decision is made, you’re committed… Mark was extremely fast in Q1 on hard tires, with which he had been fast all weekend. He was able to progress throughout Q2 and Q3. Despite a better time in the first sector, he narrowly missed the front row of the grid. However, the positions of Sebastian and Mark make us optimistic for the race. »

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Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 2nd

Lewis Hamilton – 5th

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: « It was a good qualifying session for us, maximizing the car’s potential and achieving a good session so that our two drivers had new super softs available for Q3. It was brave of Sebastian and Red Bull to sit out the last stint, and it paid off for them, but it would have been nice to give them something to regret. Nico put in a great lap to finish 2nd while Lewis was a bit further from Nico today, and he took 5th place. That’s what’s good about our team, we have two drivers who push each other, they work together, and the team works hard to find the right solutions for both drivers. As for tomorrow’s race, I think there will be many opportunities coming our way. Red Bull seemed extremely fast in Friday’s practice, but strategy will play an important role in the race, and it is very likely that we will see different tire choices after the first stint on super softs. »

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Lotus

Romain Grosjean – 3rd

Kimi Räikkönen – 13th

Translate: Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: « We have mixed feelings today. It’s unfortunate that Kimi had this issue with his back which caused him some pain and affected his performance. However, Romain had an almost perfect day after all the mechanical troubles he faced yesterday. Q3 went well for him, we are very happy with this third place on the grid, and I look forward to the race tomorrow. There is no reason for Romain to miss the podium, and we could thus experience an exciting and rewarding race. »

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Ferrari

Felipe Massa – 6th

Fernando Alonso – 7th

Pat Fry, Technical Director: Today we managed to improve both cars by finding the right balance between one-lap performance and long runs. Even though it wasn’t enough to match our drivers with those at the front, we worked well as a team to extract the maximum from the package we had. There were certainly a few external factors that did not work in our favor, such as the nature of the stop-start circuit and the lack of grip which seemed to affect us more than our rivals. Here, only those with the best traction succeed in being comfortable when passing through the many chicanes, and this explains the performance difference between us and the cars in front, as well as the importance of the gaps compared to Monza.

Historically, in Singapore, there is a 100% chance of the race being neutralized and, this year as well, we must be ready in case the safety car comes into play. In some cases, it can be a help, in others, it can destroy your race and therefore we must think of a flexible strategy. Here, reliability also plays an important role, as high temperatures take a toll on the car, also from a mechanical point of view. Ahead of us stands one of the most challenging Grand Prix of the year and many variables can affect the result: we will try to attack to the maximum, making the most of every opportunity.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – 8th

Sergio Pérez – 14th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal:

Jenson delivered a top-tier and flawless performance as usual to qualify as well as we thought our car could qualify here tonight. Checo, on the other hand, is naturally frustrated at not making it into Q3. It’s a complicated circuit and a qualifying format that is unforgiving, so with so many cars so close to each other in terms of pace, it’s all too easy not to make it to Q3.

That being said, Jenson and Checo have shown in many races this year that they are capable of fighting their way up the hierarchy to finish in the points after starting further back, and I have no doubt that they will both do their best when the five red lights signal the start tomorrow night at the Marina Bay circuit.

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 9th

Jean-Eric Vergne – 12th

James Key, Technical Director: « This track and perhaps even some of the conditions are not really playing in our favor. We brought a lot of new aero parts arriving in Singapore, which we evaluated during Friday’s free practice sessions, so we had less time to look into other technical aspects. The good news is that these aerodynamic parts work very well! We then had a lot of work overnight to prepare for the third practice session and thus make the most of all the elements of the car. I think in the end we did quite well since the times are extremely close in the midfield. We were fighting to be at the front of the midfield group and we achieved that goal with Daniel who once again did an excellent job to get into Q3. Jean-Eric, less than two-tenths behind him in Q2, also did a good job. We are looking forward to having a good race tomorrow. »

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Sauber

Esteban Gutiérrez – 10th

**Nico Hülkenberg** – 11th

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « We are delighted with this excellent result today. Especially for Esteban, who delivered a fantastic performance. His qualifying result finally shows progress, which we expected more towards the end of the season. Nico was unlucky due to an issue with his DRS; otherwise, he could have also been in Q3. Nonetheless, this puts us in a good position for the race tomorrow. Our strong performance also demonstrates that all the hard work over the past months has paid off, and we have managed to improve the car. »

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Force India

Adrian Sutil – 15th

Paul di Resta – 17th

Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: Singapore has generally been one of our best circuits, but for several reasons, it doesn’t suit us this year. We haven’t been able to put the car into its optimal operating window, and it’s clear that we’re not getting the best out of the tires. We have a lot to do ahead of us tomorrow if we want to walk away with points, but History has shown that the Singapore Grand Prix can be an unpredictable race. Our long stint pace has seemed quite encouraging, so hopefully, we will be able to exploit that tomorrow and seize the race opportunities to maximize our strategies.

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Williams

Valtteri Bottas – 16th

Pastor Maldonado – 18th

Xevi Pujolar, Chief Race Engineer: « We continued to conduct some mechanical tests to find more grip during free practice 3, and it was better for us as the track improved. We made progress with tire management, but we could see that it would be difficult to reach Q2. Pastor qualified in 18th place, while Valtteri managed to get into Q2 and delivered a good lap to extract the maximum from the car today. We will now focus on the race with tire management, strategy, and the high likelihood of a safety car intervention—all of these things will need to be considered for tomorrow. It will be a long, hot, and challenging race for the drivers and cars, but we will fight to be in a position to score points. »

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Caterham

Charles Pic – 19th

Giedo Van der Garde – 20th

Caterham has not published statements from the team representatives.

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Marussia

**Jules Bianchi** – 21st

Max Chilton – 22nd

John Booth, Team Director: Overall, it’s a somewhat disappointing qualifying result after three relatively good sessions. We brought suspension developments this weekend, which have significantly improved our pace, but we were unable to take advantage of them during qualifying. Ultimately, the pace in the 3rd practice session was very close to our rivals, and we were relatively confident going into this qualifying session. This was certainly the case on the first lap, but both drivers reported a balance issue on the second lap. However, regarding the race distance, we have a good pace and also a good balance considering the fuel on board. We hope this will translate into a good race.

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