Bahrain: Qualifications Viewed from the Stands

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Pole Position

Lewis Hamilton – 2nd

Toto Wolff, Team Principal: « Having both our cars on the front row for the first time this season is really a great achievement for the team. As we have seen throughout the weekend, we are lucky to have two drivers at the top of their game. They are pushing each other upwards and pulling our team with them. Our performances were good during the practice sessions, and we need to keep them at this level for the bigger challenge: tomorrow night’s race. No matter how satisfied you are on Saturday, the scenario can be completely different on Sunday. We saw some very strong performances from our rivals tonight, and we must not relax. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

After Daniel Ricciardo, all drivers from fourth to thirteenth place gain a position on the grid with the penalty of the Australian.

Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo – 3rd [13th on the grid]

Sebastian Vettel – 11th [10th on the grid]

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « A superb lap from Daniel to finish qualifying in third place. It’s unfortunate that he has this ten-place penalty, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s an impressive performance on his part.

Unfortunately, Sebastian’s qualifying was marked by some issues that cost him straight-line speed and compromised his downshifts. We hope to fix them overnight. Sebastian will start tenth tomorrow, and with the freedom in his tire choice, it puts us in a good position for the race.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Williams

Valtteri Bottas – 4th [3rd on the grid]

Felipe Massa – 8th [7th on the grid]

Rob Smedley, Director of Performance: « The team did an excellent job throughout the qualifying session. We are extremely happy. We have a good race pace that we demonstrated during the practice sessions, and with Ricciardo’s penalty, we will be in 3rd and 7th on the grid, which is a good step in the direction we want to be. We will also start on the clean side of the track, which is an added advantage. The FW36 seems to be well-suited for overtaking. We have a good feeling for tomorrow. Overall, it was a good day for my debut with Williams. »

– Read the statements of the drivers

Force India

Sergio Pérez – 5th [4th on the grid]

Nico Hülkenberg – 12th [11th on the grid]

Vijay Mallya, President of Sahara Force India: « Tonight, it was truly spectacular to qualify under the floodlights, and we put on a great show. Sergio has been quick all weekend and today, his qualifying performance puts us in the best position for a great result tomorrow. It looks like we will start fourth, which is our best grid position since the German Grand Prix in 2012 [Hülkenberg was fourth].

Nico should have been with Sergio in the top 10, but he made a small mistake in his last lap in Q2. It’s disappointing, but tomorrow is the most important, and with a bit of luck, he will be able to demonstrate the pace we had yesterday on the long runs during free practice.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 10th [9th on the grid]

**Kimi Räikkönen** – 6th [5th on the grid]

Pat Fry, Chassis Director: « The results seen here are not a surprise, we knew we would be on the defensive and that the gap with the Mercedes would be larger. The Mercedes are, in fact, their own opponent. The track characteristics do not highlight the strengths of our car, as the long straights favor teams with high top speeds. Completing a fast lap here is always challenging.

Today, Fernando and Kimi found themselves battling with four teams, all grouped within a few tenths. Qualifying was complicated for both drivers. Kimi had a good lap confirming the improvements we were expecting, while with Fernando we couldn’t exploit the full potential of the car. With Ricciardo’s penalty, our two drivers will start from the clean side of the track, and we must try to make the most of this opportunity. The race promises to be challenging with lots of battles, and reliability and fuel consumption will play a very important role.

– Read the drivers’ statements

McLaren

Jenson Button – 7th [6th on the grid]

Kevin Magnussen – 9th [8th on the grid]

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: Obviously, we are never happy when our cars qualify 7th and 9th, and it’s not much consolation to know they’ll start 6th and 8th after Daniel’s (Ricciardo) demotion. That said, Jenson and Kevin did a good job today in Bahrain, keeping cool heads during a frantic qualifying hour, easily making it through Q1 and Q2, and securing spots in Q3 that should allow us to fight for world championship points in tomorrow night’s race. It’s worth noting that, apart from the two fastest cars, Q3 was very tight. Therefore, we hope our two drivers will be able to fight for championship points.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat – 13th [12th on the grid]

Jean-Eric Vergne – 14th

James Key, Technical Director: Frankly, we are disappointed with our positions because we felt we had a chance to get into Q3, even though we knew, especially with FP3, that it would be incredibly tight.

Unfortunately, with JEV we had to make an engine adjustment that cost him time and Daniil had an issue in turn 1, which deteriorated the time of his first sector and it was enough to put him out of the top 10. So, it’s a shame, but it’s tomorrow that counts.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Sauber

Esteban Gutierrez – 15th

Adrian Sutil – 18th [22nd on the grid]

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « We are not where we would like to be, and this is evident in the qualifying results on a track that has always been a challenge for our team. We will do our best in the race, but first we will focus on implementing a stage of our development that will allow us to progress. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – 16th

Pastor Maldonado – 17th

**Alan Permane, Director of Track Operations:** « We expected to struggle and that’s exactly what happened. Both drivers delivered a superb performance in a car that currently lacks pace over one lap. We had our first weekend with good reliability so far. Therefore, we were able to focus much more on understanding the car. We know that qualifications are an area we need to concentrate on.

Our conclusion is that this weekend our race pace was better than the qualifying pace. The evening conditions suit us better today and the race takes place at night. That’s positive. We will work tonight on the best strategies for our two drivers. Hopefully, we can have a strong race tomorrow. We want to capitalize on all the opportunities that may arise during the race.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – 19th [18th on the grid]

Marcus Ericsson – 21st [20th on the grid]

Cedrik Staudohar, Head of Logistics Support at Renault Sport F1: It was a good qualifying session from the engine’s point of view as we were able to run at maximum performance. We have proven that our package can be competitive since we are not far from the car ahead of us and our straight-line speed is good, which shows that we have improved a lot since the last winter tests here in Bahrain.

We had two or three small issues with Marcus’s car’s ERS on the first run, but the performance of the power unit was not affected. Unfortunately, Marcus didn’t manage to optimize his last launched lap and he may have lost approximately four-tenths, but I don’t think it would have made a major difference in the final positions.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 20th [19th on the grid]

Max Chilton – 22nd [21st on the grid]

John Booth, Team Director: « Even though the team’s mood wasn’t the most optimistic after the qualifiers, we can at least say that this weekend we came closer to making the cut for Q2. Things around us are getting tighter, and a few tenths can now make a significant difference on the grid and allow participation in Q2. »

« We arrived here after a difficult weekend in Malaysia but we can say that we have made progress on the car. Both drivers are satisfied with the overall balance of the car and we can now consider improving our setups and moving forward. Next week’s private testing sessions will be a great opportunity to improve the car’s pace, which should help us in qualifying. Before that, we have a race to run tomorrow; it will be very close, and we will need to get 100% out of the car. »

– Read the drivers’ statements