• Brazilian Grand Prix - Qualifying

Red Bull pair happy to settle for second and third

Sebastian Vettel qualified a second off of Hulkenberg © Getty Images

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• News:
• Hulkenberg takes shock pole by over a second
  

• Drivers:
• Nico Hülkenberg
• |
• Sebastian Vettel
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Red Bull
• |
• Williams

Sebastian Vettel was happy to settle for second place on the grid at the Brazilian Grand Prix after Nico Hulkenberg took pole position for Williams.

Vettel was over a second off the pace of Hulkenberg on the drying track in Q3, but said he was just satisfied to finish the session without making any mistakes in the difficult conditions.

"It was a tricky session," Vettel said. "It was a tough call in Q3 after the first run on intermediate tyres, the circuit looked dry, but the last sector was very tricky. In the end I think everyone decided to go on to dry tyres. The track was getting better and better, but it was still slippery.

"At first I thought I had missed pole by only a tenth, but then I saw that there was another digit and Nico had a second lead over us! Congratulations to him, it's very easy to make a mistake in these conditions. We were targeting for pole today, but it could have been worse in the difficult conditions, so I'm happy to start from second."

Mark Webber was also happy with his qualifying performance and will start third ahead of his main championship rival Fernando Alonso in fifth. He said his main aim had also been to avoid making mistakes.

"I enjoyed that, it was a challenging session for all of us," he said. "It's easy to get things wrong in those conditions and not qualify, so I'm very happy to get that position near the front. It was really tricky to get clean laps in Q3, but I did my best.

"It was pretty close between Sebastian and I and we're both up there. It was a good team performance today and both Seb and I have laid good foundations for the constructors' championship, so there are a lot of positives from today. We're in a good position for tomorrow.

"Nico [Hulkenberg] got his car working very well, he was very confident and got the most out of it when it mattered, so congratulations to him for pole, it was like he was driving on a different track!"

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