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1. Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren
Mercedes), 1m47.891s
2. Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull), 1m48.204s
3. Nico ROSBERG (Williams), 1m48.348s
Q: Lewis, as the slogan here says ‘Uniquely Singapore’. Q3 ended with Rubens
Barrichello bringing out the red flags, but your first run there was good
enough to be on the pole.
Lewis HAMILTON: Yes, absolutely fantastic. Very, very happy. Very pleased
for the team. Obviously, we came with updates, but so did everyone else, and
we really didn’t know where we would be. Friday practice wasn’t spectacular
for me, so coming to today I came with a great positive approach and I have
to say big thanks to the guys. They worked until 10am this morning
rebuilding the car. We had some problems and we changed the chassis. But,
nevertheless, they stayed up. They were out in the garage today in this
humidity and they did a great job and I am just very pleased to have done
this for them.
Q: What a lap it is here. It is bumpy, the drivers are complaining about how
difficult the chicanes are. It is dusty on the last corner. Talk us through
that lap.
LH: The lap was really very relaxed. Clearly I did not get to start my
second lap but the car over the weekend has just got better and better as
the evolution of the circuit has got a little bit grippier. Just slow
improvements and feeling more comfortable in the car. The lap was really
very relaxed and I think I was able to go faster. I was quite happy.
Hopefully we will see what happens with the strategies but, obviously, I am
in the best position to start from the front row.
Q: It looked like your out-lap was going to be quite a rush. What do you
think your second run might have been?
LH: The out-lap was not that bad, actually. I had a 10 second window where I
didn’t have to push that much, so I had a little bit of time in me. I was
just about to start the lap but I think I had a couple of tenths, for sure.
Who knows? Maybe it wouldn’t have made the lap, but fortunately it did.
Q: Sebastian, first time in the top three since Hungary. You were purple in
sector one when the red light came out, so your take on perhaps what might
have been.
Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t know. No-one of us can answer this question. For
sure the first run was very important. Unfortunately, then the red flags
came out. It was my second run on new tyres, before I was on used tyres, so
it wasn’t easy. My lap was maybe not as relaxed as Lewis’s lap, but in the
end of the day I think it is great to be back in qualifying. Especially on a
street circuit where it is very important. It is so good to be back in the
front. We will see with the weights now, but all weekend I think the car was
very good. I was feeling very comfortable yesterday and this morning so it
is a shame that the red flags came out, but, nevertheless, we kept pushing.
We have brought some new stuff for here. It seems to work, so let’s see
tomorrow. It is a very long race, 61 laps. It is quite warm in the car, so
it will be tough but I think we have all that it takes, so I am looking
forward to tomorrow.
Q: From the outside you really seemed to be enjoying yourself around here. I
don’t know if you would agree with that. But there is one wall particularly
where you seemed to be getting the award for being the nearest lap after
lap. It looks fantastic from the outside.
SV: Yeah, I mean after the practice yesterday and even this morning the guys
came to me and said ‘that was close on the wall’. I said ‘where’. There was
not one moment. I think there were a couple of moments I had. I like this
circuit. It is really great fun to drive here. The speeds are not very high,
but it is a great challenge for all the drivers. I really enjoy it. It is
bumpy. You have to really push hard and use every bit of the circuit, so it
is fantastic and I am looking forward to tomorrow.
Q: Nico, first time in the top three in qualifying since early 2006. And
quickest in Q2. The fastest lap of the weekend probably. Even this morning
someone was talking to you and saying where are you going to be and you said
you’d be lucky to be top five, or hoping for top five, but not top three.
But here you are third quickest.
Nico ROSBERG: Yes, it has been a really good day. We started the weekend and
it was a bit difficult and we really – just all the engineers and the whole
team together – we really worked well and made some big changes on the
set-up and it improved the car a lot. That has really allowed us to be just
quicker and quicker all the time. Even going into qualifying we were not so
sure that we would even make it into Q3 as we were having some problems with
the tyres and getting the soft tyres to work properly and things like that
but then eventually, in Q2, it worked out really fantastically and I got a
super lap in. Then Q3 with the heavier fuels it was a bit more difficult but
still it was going very well and I think P3 was fantastic for us.
Q: It is extraordinary in this Formula One season how the fortunes change
and one team is competitive one weekend and then another team comes along.
Thinking back to how you were in Spa and here you are a completely different
race car from your point of view.
NR; Yes, that’s the way it is. For Spa and Monza we all take completely
different race cars in terms of aerodynamic package. It is just a completely
different race car and now we have gone back to the car we used prior to
those two races. We were finishing fifth and fourth with this car in every
grand prix before that. The team has been pushing well on that and we have
put a whole chunk of time into the package, so the car is even faster.
Comparing to other people I think we have developed again very rapidly. It
is really enjoyable at the moment and I am really pleased for the whole team
that we have made another small step towards podium finishes and who knows
maybe we can even fight for a win very soon.
Q: Lewis, give us your thoughts of Singapore in general. What is a night
race going to be like for you – the heat, the demands of this circuit, the
bumps?
LH: Singapore is a fantastic place. It is a beautiful city. The people here
have been so welcoming and are treating people so well. The reception I have
had here has been phenomenal, so I am very appreciative of all the fans. I
think they have put on an even better show here this weekend. A lot more
people here. I think they have tried to improve the track. They have tried
to make it a little bit less bumpy. It is not as bad as last year, but it is
still bumpy. But I don’t see that as such a problem. That gives it a bit of
character. I think if it was too smooth, then it wouldn’t be any fun. I
thoroughly enjoy driving it and I am very happy for today. Hopefully this
can go in to tomorrow and we will get a good result.
Q: I have just got to finish by saying what a difference two weeks make. One
minute you are in the wall at Monza and now you are on the pole in
Singapore.
LH: I said I would be back to try and redeem myself, so hopefully this is
the first step.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, three poles in four races. But yesterday you weren’t so happy and
yet overnight all sorts of changes. Presumably not just to the handling of
the car but the whole car as well?
LH: Yeah, I wasn’t actually feeling particularly great yesterday. In the car
I wasn’t particularly happy with the balance of the car. I was struggling a
little bit. It was quite bumpy and the car wasn’t riding so well and I
wasn’t so comfortable in the car. But as always I tried to remain optimistic
and we did some work overnight. The guys also had a lot of work to do
overnight. They did a great job and we made the right steps with the set-up
for this morning and through P3 and also just bit by bit improving the
driving. It slowly all came together and each time I was out on the track we
seemed to improve a little bit more. It is the same for everyone. I think
throughout the weekend probably our last few laps are potentially the most
comfortable, so I am very happy.
Q: It must be remarkable having changed so much and made the car better but
also changed the chassis as well. As you say the guys were working until 10
o’clock this morning but to then get into the car and be fastest that
session.
LH: Yeah, there is never a doubt in my mind that I can get in the car and
drive and be the quickest. You really have to try and balance the car as
well as possible and you can easily go down the wrong route and be stuck
driving a car which you are not comfortable with and don’t have the
confidence to push in corners. It is very easy to get into that position but
with great help and work from the team and myself we managed to put it
together. We definitely didn’t expect to be on pole position today but the
pace we showed was good through P3 and Q1 and Q2. In Q2, I think, the pace
of Nico was quite impressive, so we will have to wait and see what strategy
everyone is on but I feel quite comfortable with what we have.
Q: Obviously you finished here last year but what are 61 laps around here
like with the heat and everything else?
LH: It is a nice Sunday night drive. It is obviously quite hot here, so it
is intense still. You do sweat as much as you probably do anywhere else but
the track is lovely. But, obviously, being a street circuit it is very easy
to put a foot wrong, so concentration is vital here.
Q: Sebastian, were you expecting to do as well as you have done with the
front row of the grid? Were you expecting that before you came here?
SV: Maybe not before I came here, but I think after yesterday’s practice it
looked very good. We had quite a good car initially, a good start, and we
were able to improve it bit by bit. It is good to be back. Qualifying is
obviously very important. It is a shame in Q3 that we did not get the last
run on new tyres but it shows how important every single lap can be.
Tomorrow is a long race and we will see. The car behaves well and the team
back in England is pushing very hard. I arrived on Thursday but on Tuesday
this week I was in England to see all of them there. They are all wishing me
good luck and obviously we put on a couple of new parts which all work. Put
it together and we are back in the front, so it is good. It is very nice.
Q: You are still the only driver to have got all the way through to Q3 in
every single race.
SV: That is not the most important. It would be much nicer to be in Jenson’s
(Button) position right now in terms of the championship ranking, not today.
We will see tomorrow. It is a long race and as I say qualifying is very
important, so it is good to be consistent and good to be always in the top
10 but you don’t score any points on Saturday. You have to finish the race.
Q: You must be optimistic looking at the positions of your championship
rivals on the grid.
SV: As I said on Thursday, there’s obviously quite a big gap. For sure,
we’re not giving up, we’re here to attack and this is what we do, so let’s
see. Anything is still possible. You can see how quickly it goes up and
down, just looking at which team is sometimes at the front and how quickly
you can be at the back again. Force India was very quick in the last two
races; now they’re struggling a little bit again. Williams wasn’t very
competitive in the last two races; now they are back again. It’s quite a
mess in a way, compared to the years before, compared to what I was used to
when I grew up and watched Formula One when it was pretty boring most of the
time. We will see. There’s still a long way to go – four races – so we will
do all we can.
Q: Nico, second last year here on this circuit and now third on the grid,
this must be becoming a favourite track.
NR: It is a pretty cool track. It’s very difficult. There are a lot of
corners, very different corners, it’s a very difficult track but I enjoy it.
I enjoy coming here to Singapore also. It’s a really great city, really
cool. I had a great time last year and I think I’m looking forward to an
even stronger race this year.
Q: Is it a relief to be back at the sharp end again?
NR: Relief? Yeah, a little bit. I knew that we would be coming back with
this aerodynamic package which is back to the one we had in Valencia,
Hungary when we were always in the top four or five in the five races before
that. So I was very confident that we could be up there – not this far up. I
didn’t expect to be quickest in the second part of qualifying, but the team
has worked really well on the package in the meantime. Whilst we were
struggling in Monza and Spa, I think they have been putting a lot of effort
into this one and I think, again, in terms of development we just develop
quicker than other teams which is very impressive and it’s really nice to
see.
Q: You called your Q2 lap ‘a super lap’; what constitutes ‘a super lap’
around here?
NR: I guess it’s getting all the corners together because it’s such a long
track and it’s difficult to get all the corners right and I did them the way
I wanted them to. The car also felt good. It was difficult with the tyres
around here. The tyres would sometimes go away by the time you got to the
last sector or they wouldn’t quite be there at the start of the lap, so it
wasn’t quite so clear with the soft tyres but on that lap they worked very
well, so I just got it all together.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, you said before that you
were starting to redeem yourself after the crash at Monza. What did you mean
by that?
LH: I didn’t mean too much by it, just that I was very hard on myself after
the last race which was well-deserved. Rather than turn up here and say it
was just a mistake, I felt that I would like to lift myself back up, lift
the team back up and in a way show an apology to the team by getting a good
result and so that’s why I’m quite happy with today. It’s not always
possible but obviously we got pole position and when you do get that you can
say thanks to the team, that was for you.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Nico, in Q2 you did a 41.1s in
the second sector which was 0.3s faster than anybody else and also much
faster than on any other lap you did. What was so special about this lap and
this sector?
LH: He cut the chicane!
NR: No, I just really got it together. Before that there was always a little
mistake here and there and I just didn’t get the best out of it, and on that
lap I just completely nailed every corner out there and it was just
fantastic and I guess that’s how it came together. I was not quite so happy
with the last sector, because Sebastian was again 0.3s quicker in that part
although at the end of the session when the track was better... I was
struggling a little bit more in the last sector but I don’t know, it just
all came together really well.
Q: (Sudhir Chandran – Chequered Flag) Lewis, how important is this pole in
Singapore? You seem particularly pleased with yourself after this result.
LH: I’m always happy with a pole position. We’ve had a very, very tough year
and even though we’ve got updates on the car, we’re still not clearly the
fastest and always right at the front easily. We’re still pushing and
pushing as hard as we can, so when you finally get another pole position
it’s a great feeling. It’s the perfect position to start from for the race
weekend. We really didn’t expect it, so it’s always a surprise, it’s always
a real pleasure and it’s great. Like I said, it’s a good boost for all the
team. And what a great place here; I would love to win in Singapore. It is a
great place. The second night race here, so I would love to win, but we will
have to wait and see tomorrow. We’re going to have to push very, very hard.
It’s going to be a tough race, for sure, with these guys.
Q: (Ralf Bach – R&B) Lewis, if I look at the time difference between you and
your team-mate, it seems that you have two totally different strategies. Is
that the case?
LH: I don’t know what Heikki is on if I’m honest. Sometimes we know exactly
what we’re on. Rather than say what we’re doing in Q3 and just knowing that
we’re going to be in Q3, I would rather just get through Q1 and Q2 first and
then when I got to Q3 I found out what lap I was going to… I didn’t ask what
Heikki was going to do. Usually we’re quite close. I spoke to him
afterwards. I don’t know if he got the lap out but I don’t think there is
going to be a huge difference.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Nico, would a safety car situation like
last year help you onto the podium or would it be a disadvantage in
tomorrow’s race?
NR: I think it would be a disadvantage, for sure, because I can definitely
get a podium without a safety car and you never know what’s going to happen
with a safety car. So I would say it’s a disadvantage, for sure.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, you’re the reigning
World Champion. How do you see the Button situation because it looks like
the car is there, and everybody was expecting him to be fighting for the
pole position but he’s pretty far behind. Do you think he’s suffering some
pressure, he’s afraid of winning and he’s finding the situation particularly
tough?
LH: Firstly, I wish I was up there, being able to compete with these guys
for the World Championship. It’s great to be up here but what I would give
to be able to take this car back to earlier on this season, to at least have
a fair battle with these guys but that’s all in the past, we look forward.
But what I can say about Jenson? You can’t forget that he won six races. He
has dominated for quite a lot of the season and Brawn have dominated for
quite a lot of the season. It is intense. Everyone is pushing, everyone is
making steps forward, so the gap that they used to have is clearly much
greater a while ago, but everyone’s closing the gap. The times between all
us drivers, us teams, are getting closer and closer. I don’t know the answer
as to what’s going on. I didn’t see what happened to them today, but I know
that they are pushing as hard as they can and without a doubt, they clearly
won the last race, so it’s not like that they don’t have the pace and they
are losing it. It’s just one of those racing experiences. |
