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1. Mark WEBBER (Red Bull),
1m19.995s
2. Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull), 1m20.101s
3. Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), 1m20.829s
Q: Mark, fastest in Q1, fastest in Q2 and this time Sebastian didn’t beat
you when it counts; pole by a tenth of a second.
Mark WEBBER: Yeah, that’s right. Normally it’s a good battle all the way
through qualifying but Seb’s had a pretty solid run in the last while in Q3
but today I had two solid laps, obviously both of them. It’s nice to go into
the second lap knowing you’re already ahead. It’s a nice situation to try
and build on your second lap in that way instead of being behind. But this
pole is for the team. The guys, both sides of the garage, have had about
five hours sleep in the last two nights, so they’ve really worked incredibly
hard. It goes to show that the effort that they’ve put into the car is now
translating into lap times. It’s a sensational qualifying for both Seb and
myself. Christian said to me before qualifying ‘you probably won’t get to
drive a car around here like this too often, so go and enjoy it’ and I did
and it was a sensational qualifying session.
Q: Sebastian, nothing to choose between you, but this race – I don’t have to
remind you – has been won from pole for the last nine years. Do you feel
like changing history tomorrow?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yes, of course. First of all, congratulations to Mark. He
was not beatable today. It was close. I think I had good laps throughout
qualifying, especially at the end but it was just not enough, so a tenth is
not much, but today it was a bit too much for me. Still, I think it was a
very good qualifying from us. Obviously the race is tomorrow, so no points
today. It will be a long race. For sure, at the moment, it looks comfortable
but we know how quickly things can change, so we have to stay focused and
see tomorrow. It will be a tough one. Maybe there is some rain, so we will
see, but it’s a long race, as I said. I think starting second, first row, is
a good result. As Mark said, the team especially has made an incredible
effort to bring all the new bits and they work, so that’s a good thing. Back
in the factory they have also been flat out for the last two or three weeks,
so congratulations to them.
Q: Lewis, you pushed out the Ferrari right at the end, it’s the best
qualifying of the season so far for McLaren, but you don’t need to be
reminded there is almost a second between you and Mark and that’s quite a
bit to make up, isn’t it?
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah it is. I don’t think anyone expected them to be so fast
this weekend. However, we knew that they would be quick but that is quite a
decent gap, but we will continue to push and just focus on the areas that we
know where we are weakest and try and close the gap. But it’s great to be up
there. At least we can fight. They’re probably not as quick as us down the
straight which is a bonus, so we will see how the start goes tomorrow.
Q: Mark, it’s always so close in qualifying, the battle between you and
Sebastian as you said, but how special is it for you to have done what
you’ve done today?
MW: As you say, it’s a good battle between both of us quite often. Obviously
Seb has a very, very good record against me in qualifying, but if you looked
at the numbers it’s always very, very tight, so it’s nice to just get one
the other way. Nothing’s ever given to us, you have to work incredibly hard.
It shows you how well the team is working collectively as a group and it’s
nice when you get it all together that you get the result. Today was my day,
but we have a good long race tomorrow. I’m happy with the car in a race
situation. It’s a good position to be in but there are no points today. I’m
looking forward to tomorrow.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Mark, you seem to have really taken the battle to Sebastian this weekend.
You seem to have just been ahead so often. How has that happened?
MW: I don’t know if I’ve just been ahead. I think it was a little bit more
comfortable in Shanghai for me and then it turned out that Seb did a very
good lap in Q3, so it was very tight between both of us throughout the whole
weekend. As you know, here in Barcelona conditions can change quite a bit
here and there. It’s a venue all the teams know extremely well, so you don’t
want to get too complacent with your knowledge of the venue. In the end,
driver and team on car number six of the garage obviously pulled everything
together and today worked well for us, but it’s a sensational result for the
team to again lock out the front row. Personally I’m rapped, myself,
obviously ecstatic that I’ve got the pole. It puts me in a nice position for
tomorrow, but it’s still a long GP and it’s one that I’m looking forward to
of course. It’s always nice to get a pole. Sebastian, as I said before, has
a good record against me in qualifying. It’s always very close but it’s not
like he’s six or seven tenths down the road, so it was nice today to get it
back my way. But it’s great for the team to have both of us up here.
Q: You do seem to be a perfectly matched pair, the two of you, almost two
well-matched.
MW: Well, I don’t know if you can have it too perfect, but of course, with
Sebastian’s pace and a bit of my experience then obviously I seem to be
driving OK, so together we work well with the team and work on the areas
that we think are going to benefit us short, medium and long term. That’s
the package that we have at the moment. I’m still enjoying my driving, so
that’s the good thing.
Q: Give us some idea of the bits that have been arriving and how hard the
guys have been working.
MW: They’ve been working incredibly hard. People have to understand that a
modern Formula One car is not like working on a road car. It’s a pretty
sophisticated bit of kit, so the guys are working very, very long hours to
make even small changes, which can take a while, so the guys are getting the
cars as best prepared as they can, firstly on Thursday night ready for the
two practice sessions and then some of the changes obviously we made
overnight were pretty time consuming, so it’s not just the developments that
we have here but it’s generally the case that the cars these days are quite
time consuming for the mechanics at the venue. But that’s what they’re paid
the big bucks for, so they are working hard. The guys at the factory are
giving them great products to put on the car, so collectively everyone is
doing their bit. We are not getting complacent, it’s a long championship. We
know that Ferrari and McLaren are sensational outfits, so we’re not getting
ahead of ourselves at all. We know that we’ve got to bury ourselves and
that’s what we continue to do. We’ve now got to capitalise, in the next few
races, on some nice results. No points have changed yet, after today’s
session. Some points might change tomorrow, so that’s our job.
Q: Sebastian, I guess the battle is good fun providing you are winning it?
SV: As Mark said and as you said we are enjoying ourselves. Mark wants to
beat me and I want to beat Mark. That is not a secret. That is normal in
every team. Once you are ahead and another time you are behind. He did a
very good job today. Congratulations. It was a very smooth run through all
the qualifying sessions. He seemed to beat me always too much in the last
sector, so I am looking forward to seeing the data and seeing where I have
lost the time. Maybe I can find something for tomorrow, but it was close,
one tenth, but most important is that we are on the front row both of us and
even if it might look comfortable from the lap times I think we have to keep
the feet on the ground as tomorrow is the most important day. So far we have
been quick and we have done a good job but we see tomorrow.
Q: But you have got a margin of seven-tenths-of-a-second over the rest of
the field.
SV: If we are here tomorrow and we can confirm then I will be very pleased.
But we are not living in tomorrow. We are living today and it is a long
race. Anything can happen, maybe it will rain. I think it is not 100 per
cent clear yet, well it is never, but people were talking about some
possible showers, so we will have to see.
Q: You started second last year. Do you remember the start and how you might
make up the one place?
SV: I had a good start but unfortunately last year we had a system called
KERS which didn’t help me as I got stuck behind Felipe (Massa) for 50 out of
56 something laps, so it was quite boring. I think I knew everything about
the Ferrari rear wing at the end of the race,. But we see tomorrow. It is a
long, long way down to turn one. There is a difference as I am on the dirty
side but statistically you can now argue and say the pole setter is in a
better position or the second guy or the guy in third but it is always open
and that is why we are racing.
Q: Lewis, best of the non Red Bulls but that margin of 0.7 of-a-second is
massive, isn’t it?
LH: What can I say. I think they are extremely quick throughout the high
speed circuits and throughout the high speed corners they seem to be
ridiculously fast and maybe have more downforce and efficiency than other
teams. They have obviously made a slight step on top of that which is
putting them a little bit further in the lead. It is great to see us up
there, best of the rest. It is kind of a good foundation, a good position,
for us to work on. We have got a lot of work to do but I think this car has
got a lot of potential. We are just going to continue working on it. There
is many different avenues we can go down to gain some good downforce but I
think so far we have done a great job and the stuff that has come this
weekend has been a step forward. We just have to keep pushing them for more.
Q: And a bit of a threat also from Ferrari here as well?
LH: Yeah, undoubtedly we expected to be threatened by Ferrari and Mercedes,
so that is not a surprise for me. They always kind of not do so much through
practice and then all of a sudden in qualifying be very quick. I guess they
are working on their race pace. We know they have got a good car. They have
just got a special switch. They do something with their hand and they are
benefitting a bit from that.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Mark, how crucial is tomorrow’s race for
your championship campaign?
MW: Every race is definitely important but we have seen that the 25 points
is a nice thing to get on Sunday afternoon’s as it is a bit of a buffer over
the other two podium spots in terms of points' ratio, if you know what I
mean. It is certainly no secret that the first four races have not gone
amazing for me in terms of the two wet races that we had in Melbourne and
Shanghai. Malaysia was pretty solid. It is very important. I left home the
other day and said to my dogs ‘hopefully boys I will bring home quite a big
chunk of points for you guys,’ so hopefully we can start tomorrow. Then we
have got Monaco and we are at the track again Thursday. Bang. It is around
again quickly and you can gain and lose a lot in the next eight days.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo), Lewis, you are almost one
second slower and considering the history of this grand prix where the pole
position has won since 2001 is it realistic for you to believe you can beat
them?
LH: I believe anything is possible. If you look at the last few races they
just show that a lot goes on in the race. Our race pace is perhaps quite a
bit better than our qualifying pace but they are very, very fast and they
obviously have quite a bit gap on us. Generally the guy that starts at the
front has maximum downforce, clean air, so is able to just control the race
from there. There is a chance at the beginning of the race. There is a
chance when and if the weather hits us, so we have to remain optimistic and
keep pushing. Ideally we just want to finish as high as possible and score
as many points as we can whilst they are having their good days and
hopefully we will have better days than them at some stage.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, it looks that on the
harder compound the advantage is only maybe half of what it was on the
softer one. Is there an explanation to that?
LH: You probably have to ask them. For us we seem to be competitive and the
car seems similar on both sets of tyres. I think for them they seem to be
able to pull out a chunk of time from the softer tyre. I don’t really have
an answer for it.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, do you think the domination of the
Red Bulls is explainable by Barcelona or do you think it is Europe time and
now they are going to be ahead of you?
LH: I think generally, looking at the next few races, we go through
different circuits with different downforce levels. I have no doubt they are
going to be extremely competitive through Monaco, but Montreal I am hoping
we will be a little bit closer to them. But the circuits where we have the
high downforce like we have here, they generally have quite a good edge on
the rest of the field. But hopefully when we get to the other circuits with
a little bit less downforce we will be able to benefit the same as the other
people with good straight line speed and hopefully we will be a little bit
closer. |
