• Bahrain Grand Prix

Driver reaction after qualifying

March 13, 2010 « First blood to Vettel in Bahrain qualifying | »

Report - First blood to Vettel | Qualifying gallery

A round-up of reaction after qualifying in Bahrain.

Ferrari

Felipe Massa "It's great to get back to being so competitive after such a difficult time. It's a good way to start the new season and a nice reward for all the work the team has done over the winter. The race will be very difficult, but I am happy to be in with a chance of fighting for the top places. Yesterday, we did good work in preparing for the race and I think we went in the right direction, but this is only the first Grand Prix and there are still many unknown factors to work out, for example, finding the right moment to change tyres. Today, I gave it my all, doing a great lap on my last run, while the previous ones had not been so good. I wish to thank Sebastian for what he said about me at the start of the press conference. It pleased me a lot and shows the great respect that exists between we drivers."

Fernando Alonso "Up until today we did not have a clear reference as to how competitive we were: with our cars on the first and second rows we can be satisfied because it means our championship is getting off on a positive note. I am pleased with my qualifying debut for my new team. The F10 was strong in Q1 and Q2, but then Vettel managed to do better than us. On my last run I lost precious time in a couple of corners, losing a couple of tenths, which can happen when you are fighting for pole. I am not surprised to find Felipe ahead of me: he is my team-mate and we all know how good he is round this track. We know we have a good car which we fine tuned during the February tests: today we showed its potential and now we have eight months of work to develop it."

Force India

Adrian Sutil I'm very happy. I think it was a great achievement to go into Q3 at the first race: our best start to the season for a long time. The team should be very proud of it, I am very proud of this, so let's see how it goes tomorrow. Our goal is now to finish in the points. At the moment I'm in tenth and hopefully we can make one or two positions up as I'm the only car on the hard tyre so it may be an advantage. I'm surprised that the others were on the soft tyres so our decision could pay off tomorrow. We are strong under heavy fuel loads but we were very fast in Q1 and Q2 when everyone was on soft tyres so there are a few more positions we could gain. We worked very hard over the winter and over the last four years and it's nice to see it giving dividends now.

Tonio Liuzzi I am a bit disappointed as we didn't know what had happened to the car since free practice. In the morning it seemed to have a pretty good balance and we didn't change very much but then we went into qualifying and we had a problem with the traction. That was the main reason we couldn't go through to Q3. Now we have to work on this and understand what happened but we believe in the race that we should be really strong as yesterday we were quick on the longer runs.

HRT

Bruno Senna It was certainly a relief to continue to add laps to this car when others have already completed thousands of miles in testing, we only have 26 laps on the board. We have already learned a lot and will continue to do so with every lap we complete. I want to congratulate again my mechanics, engineers and the whole team for their incredible hard work to ensure we are in a position to be racing tomorrow.

Karun Chandhok I still can't believe that we will be on the grid tomorrow. It was not looking good in the morning and I was not sure if we would make it to the qualifying session as well. I didn't expect to be driving the car for the first time in qualifying but as I have always said these are the circumstances and we made the best of it. For me it was just a string of installation laps and to finish just a second slower than Bruno is definitely a huge achievement. I think I might be the only driver in the history of F1 to go straight into a qualifying session of a race without even having done a shakedown of the car! Once again I think the team has done a brilliant job so am very grateful to them.

Lotus

Jarno Trulli "All in all not too bad considering the amount of running we had this morning. We had some bad luck this weekend but the team has operated very well, in a very professional way, and we just need a bit more time to make the step forward we need in terms of performance. Tomorrow we need to try and finish the race, collect some useful data to find out more about what is right and wrong with the way the car behaves, and make that our main aim - finishing."

Heikki Kovalainen "Pretty much what we expected. The car was very reliable, which is good, and the performance was roughly where we knew we'd be. I'm reasonably happy - it probably isn't the best qualifying lap I've ever done, and maybe I didn't get everything out of it I should have done, but we have a good base to work from tomorrow. In practice yesterday the car felt like it would be good over long runs, and with the good reliability we have had we'll see what happens tomorrow. The most important thing is to finish the race, and then we'll see where we are."

McLaren

Lewis Hamilton "I'm surprised by this afternoon's result: while we didn't have the pace of the faster cars, I definitely wasn't expecting to be fourth quickest. But it's a good starting point and tomorrow I hope to keep the position or gain at least one more. I don't think a win is going to be on the cards - but we'll be giving it the best we can.

"We've struggled in the middle sector - we're lacking a bit of downforce - but I know the guys back in the factory will be pushing as hard as they can. And this is a much, much better position to start the season in than the one we found ourselves in last year. Managing the tyres tomorrow is going to be very tricky. I don't think people perhaps understand how tough it is to look after them in these conditions - it's unbelievable how quickly they drop off. We'll take the race one step at a time."

Jenson Button "I really struggled with front locking this afternoon - but we cured that problem throughout the sessions. I was getting happier with the car throughout each stint, but in Q3 something didn't feel quite right. The engineers are looking at the data to see what it was. It's been a surprise to us to see the pace of the quickest cars. Today, we saw which cars are fast over one lap; tomorrow maybe we'll see a slightly different picture because these cars work very differently on higher fuel-loads. Besides, your strategy isn't decided on the Saturday any more - we'll need to see what the others are doing in the race.

"There'll be a lot of heavy cars going into Turn One tomorrow, but hopefully I'll pick a nice line and get through cleanly. I'm looking forward to the challenge and it's going to be a very different one to what everybody has been used to. It'll be a long race tomorrow."

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg "To be honest, we were hoping for a bit more today although we were lacking the pace to challenge right at the front so I guess we should not be too disappointed. It was so difficult out there with the tyres overheating. If you made a small mistake and got oversteer, then you lost a lot of grip for the next few corners. It's going to be very important to look after the tyres tomorrow in the race. Overall it's a good start for me and with a bit of luck, we should be able to challenge for a podium place tomorrow."

Michael Schumacher "I am satisfied with seventh place today having been away from Formula One for such a long time. By coincidence, it's the same grid position that I had when I started my career at Spa in 1991. It was fun to work with my new team and I appreciate all their efforts to support me as I get back into the swing of things. The boys are really good and I feel that we've improved step-by-step over the weekend. I'm looking forward to the race and I expect even more to come."

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel "It's a big surprise to get pole; we didn't know where we were with performance during the winter testing. Yesterday was a tough day for us, as we didn't do as much running as we would have liked. It was a long night for the mechanics and there were some tired faces this morning, but everyone was still so keen. I knew we had a good car, Qualifying went smoothly and I'm very happy to be on pole. Thanks to the team, they have been so busy during the last month with a lot of testing - to be on top now is a nice feeling."

Mark Webber "I did my worst lap at the most important time today. It was going well until Turn 16, but it wasn't so good from there on. Seb did a good job for pole position; there was more in the car than sixth today. It's disappointing, but all is not lost and it's a long race tomorrow."

Renault

Robert Kubica "The first target for today was to get into Q3, so we can pleased with that part of the qualifying session, but I am actually a bit disappointed to be only ninth on the grid. I did two good laps in Q1 and Q2, but on my lap in the final part of the session I had a big snap oversteer in the hairpin at turn 16 that cost me about four tenths. On the positive side, we have a clearer picture of where we stand now, and it looks pretty positive when you see the cars around us on the grid: the R30 clearly has good potential. It will be a long, tough race tomorrow but our target has to be to move up the field."

Vitaly Petrov "For my first ever qualifying session, this is a normal result, but I really enjoyed today. Our first target was to make Q2 so we achieved this, but we were not very lucky in Q2 and could not continue. Tomorrow is race day and it will be very interesting to see how we do - we will certainly try our best."

Sauber

Pedro de la Rosa: "I can't say I'm satisfied because before we came here we expected to be a bit higher up. But we already knew yesterday this is a bad track for us with the new infield. I have to blame myself for losing a couple of tenths, because I made mistakes on my very last lap when I just pushed too hard because at this time there wasn't much to lose. So this was not good and it will be a tough race tomorrow for the drivers and teams, especially in terms of tyre management. I'm afraid they will overheat from lap one. Well, despite not being happy with the result, in a way I have to say I still enjoyed my first qualifying after three years."

Kamui Kobayashi "After winter testing we thought we would be quicker, but we are really struggling with the bumpy new part of the track. Of course the temperatures are much higher here, which is also something new as we now see what the effect is between the car and the tyres. We have to work really hard for improvements. Tomorrow's race will be hard but I still hope our car will not be hard on the tyres and we can move up a bit. There is always a chance for points."

Toro Rosso

Sebastien Buemi "It's pretty much what we expected and we appear to be fighting with Petrov, the Saubers and the Williams. As always I felt I could have done better, but not by much, maybe two tenths. Tomorrow for the first race, I would hope to finish in the points, which this year means getting to tenth. That would involve moving up five places, which is not an impossible task, given that it will be a long race and anything could happen."

Jaime Alguersuari "We hoped to be in Q2 but I made a mistake on my fastest lap on the soft tyres. The grip level was quite low, I was pushing hard and it caught me out, going too fast into a turn. There is room for improvement of course and I hope I can have a good race tomorrow and move up the order a bit, but it looks like it will be tough to score points. We will have to do better next time."

Virgin

Timo Glock "It's great to be the best of the new teams here today and I'm very happy with what we have achieved. This is a Team result and a credit to everyone who has worked so hard in really difficult circumstances to get the best out of our first race package. To also be just 2.7 seconds away from teams with many more years of experience is even better. We have a big mountain to climb but we go into our debut race having achieved our first target and I think this will give us the momentum we need to keep on pushing. It just goes to show we are going in the right direction and all we have to do is focus on overcoming the hurdles we were bound to come across along the way. Thanks to everyone at Virgin Racing."

Lucas di Grassi "First of all I'd like to say a big thanks to the team. They have put in so much effort to make this team and today happen for us. For us to be here with a healthy car is fantastic. For me it was still the very beginning, I only did three laps in the session this morning due to the issues we had. I'm quite happy to have done my first qualifying in F1. I know there are a lot of opportunities for us and plenty of scope for improvement."

Williams

Rubens Barrichello I think Williams did well today, not as well as any of us would wish, but we have had some minor problems and we lost some running time yesterday. This meant we were playing catch up this morning. But our general direction is good, we have a good understanding in the garage and we have real belief in the team. So we almost made it to final qualifying - I was just a little bit behind Jenson, so it was not so bad and of course I have some new tyres for tomorrow, which will be helpful.

Nico Hulkenberg I had hoped to achieve more in my first qualifying session, but we didn't get the car quite perfect and I didn't manage to put the good lap together. This combination is very costly as you would expect in Formula One and we didn't therefore make it into Q3. It is probably not worth speculating too much on the race tomorrow, the only thing I can say with certainty is that it will be tough for everyone and I believe the key thing will be managing our tyres well.

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