Vettel “happy with his whole lap”: statements from the top 3 qualifiers in Shanghai
Sebastian Vettel is a happy man aboard his SF71H, performing well on all corners of the Shanghai circuit. Also find reactions from Kimi Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas, who finished second and third after the qualifying session of this Chinese Grand Prix.
The Scuderia Ferrari continues to impress at the start of the season. After two wins and a pole position, the Prancing Horse may have struck even harder in Shanghai by securing the front row with a significant gap over the first of the two Mercedes: +0’530″!
The session culminated in a thrilling battle between Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen, who fell short by 87 thousandths of a second behind his teammate, the pole sitter for the second time this season. Demonstrating their current strong performance, the Italian team locked out the front row in two consecutive races, following Bahrain seven days ago. Such a feat hadn’t been achieved since 2006 and the United States-France sequence. Incidentally, Ferrari reclaimed the top spot on the grid in China, fourteen years after securing their last pole on this circuit!
First: Sebastian Vettel
« I am happy with my entire lap! The car was truly amazing, it kept getting better. I made a few mistakes on my out lap, losing the rear at low speed. I didn’t know if the other drivers were struggling with their tires, but personally, I knew I could go faster. »
« This track had been dominated by Mercedes for a long time. It’s good to break this streak! »
We obviously hope to continue our momentum tomorrow. There is more grip on the side where Kimi will start from. So I will need to get a good start.
Second: Kimi Räikkönen
« It was ok but not enough for me. It’s not exactly what I wanted. We’ll see tomorrow what we can do. We’ll try to improve by focusing on our difficulties. »
POLE number 215 for the Scuderia! #Seb5 will start P1 and #Kimi7 P2, GREAT work of all the team!! #ChineseGP #Quali #ForzaFerrari pic.twitter.com/LTOZWaA1Ji
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 14, 2018
Third: Valtteri Bottas
« It was a trouble-free session. But we never managed to reach the same levels of grip as Ferrari today. »
Locking out the second row of the grid for the #ChineseGP 🇨🇳@ValtteriBottas leading our charge with P3 in Qualifying 💪#F1 #DrivenByEachOther pic.twitter.com/KHJQc4Tqsz
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) April 14, 2018
