Red Bull Racing British Grand Prix Qualifying
By Ian Lockwood
July 9 2011
Mark Webber showed he is a force to be reckoned with at Silverstone by securing pole position, forcing team mate Sebastian Vettel to settle for second.
Car 2 MARK WEBBER, Position: POLE POSITION (3rd Practice – P3,
1:31.829)
“I’ve always enjoyed driving here, but you still have to put it all
together. You don’t get these results without applying yourself. It was a very
mixed session for all of us, even in the build up with yesterday’s rain. It was
important to make sure every lap counted, as you never knew if it was going to
be the one that counted for your main grid position, so even in Q2 you had to
make sure you weren’t caught out. In the end I’m happy with the job we did; it’s
easy to slip up in conditions like that from a logistical point of view and also
from the driver’s perspective, so it was a good job by the team and we’re in a
good position for tomorrow’s race.”
Car 1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Position: 2nd (3rd Practice – P1, 1:31.401)
“I
think it was a difficult session with the changing conditions. I think when it
starts to rain here it can be on different parts of the circuit, so it’s quite
difficult to see where it’s wet and where it’s fine, so you rely on the out lap
or the previous lap. If you go flat out and hit a damp area, it’s very easy to
go off track. So, I think it wasn’t easy today, but in the end it was mostly
dry. It’s a shame we couldn’t get the second run in Q3, I would have loved to
have challenged Mark again, but he got a good lap. It was a very good result for
us, especially with all the talk that was going on into this race, so it’s good
to see that we’re still on top of our game and can produce quick lap times.
Anything can happen tomorrow, I think this circuit is tough on tyres, so we will
see what we get tomorrow.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER:
“After so much off circuit focus, it was a relief to finally get into the grand prix weekend in very difficult conditions. Both drivers did a great job to navigate though Q1 and Q2 and the first run proved to be the crucial in Q3; it was nip and tuck between the drivers and Mark produced an excellent lap to claim his second pole and the team’s ninth of the season. We can see that Ferrari is pretty close, but today was a huge performance for the team.”
(Renault) CYRIL DUMONT:
“So, first of all I’m really pleased for everyone in the factory for this result – it’s very good for Red Bull and for Renault. I think the session was quite difficult with all the climatic changes, so it’s great to be one and two again. I think engine-wise it was a difficult weekend also with all the changing technical directives that were issued. Even with the final rule clarification, we got this good result, so let’s see tomorrow when we will aim to convert these positions into points.”