DHL TURKISH GRAND PRIX
ISTANBUL
SATURDAY DRIVER QUOTES
Saturday, 07 May 2011
Red Bull Racing
Sebastian Vettel
“I’m very happy. It was a bit funny in Q3 today, as both Mark and I decided we would skip the
second run and so we finished earlier than normal. It was a strange feeling, as the other cars
are on track setting times and you are in the garage watching – they might beat you, but you
can only watch the screens and there’s nothing you can do. It was an odd feeling but a good
decision to save tyres for tomorrow’s race. I messed up the car yesterday morning, so we
missed the session in the afternoon, but the guys fixed it for today and I think they did a
very good job. We have been up there with the times today, although we didn’t have a
trouble free morning and we had a bit to catch up. I like the track here which helps and it was
nice to see that, without many laps, I was able to come back and find the rhythm, so all-in-all
I’m very happy today.”
Mark Webber
“I would have liked to have got a couple more tenths to have the margin; obviously
Sebastian did a very good lap for pole, but my lap wasn’t too bad. We spoke before
qualifying and decided that, as tomorrow is going to be a long race, every lap you could save
today might help tomorrow. It turns out that we’re in the best possible grid positions and the
team did a good job, as we have saved a set of tyres too, so it’s looking good. There were
some good decisions from the team. I’m happy with today and am looking forward to
tomorrow’s race.”
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Jenson Button
th
“Sixth position isn’t great, but we can still do well: Mark Webber had a good race from 18 in
China, so we can definitely have a good race from sixth. Maybe I should have just done a
single run for Q3 because my second run wasn’t any faster than my first – and you tend to
lose time if you push these tyres too hard. But to be honest I couldn’t get a really good
balance in qualifying. It’s difficult to know people’s overall pace from Friday running
because the changeable weather has mixed everything up. I’d hoped for more but we’ll see
what happens. It’s a pity that I’m on the dirty side of the track - it might cause a few
problems with the getaway into Turn One tomorrow - but we’re competitive. We’ll be in the
running tomorrow.”
Lewis Hamilton
“We’re starting on the dirty side of the grid – so our biggest challenge tomorrow could be
getting off the line. Every year here I’ve started on the dirty side here! Mercedes GP and
Ferrari have picked up their pace, and it might be hard to overtake the Mercedes GP
because they’re very fast on the straights; so if it pans out like that, the Red Bulls could edge
away from us. We don’t have an extra set of [unused] tyres, but you never know what the
weather will do tomorrow. We’re definitely in the fight and I’ll be pushing all the way – just as
we did last year. So I’ll try to get a good start tomorrow - fingers crossed we can gain some
places that way. I’m looking forward to driving a strong grand prix - it’s a long race here and
there should be opportunities to overtake.””
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Fernando Alonso
“Fifth place is not the sort of result one can be pleased about, but today I am happy because
I felt the car was more competitive than it has been in the first three qualifying sessions of
the season. Getting into Q2 without using the soft tyres is significant. We have made a small
step forward in terms of performance: it’s not yet enough and we quickly need to make a
bigger one, but it’s definitely a confidence boost for the whole team, who are working in the
right direction. I would say that this the first sign of light at the end of the tunnel in this early
part of the season. Fifth place also means I avoid the dirty side of the track, which is usually
a big handicap here. It’s hard to say what will be the best strategy for tomorrow, because we
don’t know how the tyres will behave: we will have to be ready for any eventuality and be
very flexible. Finally, I want to take the opportunity to express my great sadness at the death
of a great personality in Spanish sport, Severiano Ballesteros, who put Spain on the golfing
map: I offer all my sympathies to those close to him at this painful time.”
Felipe Massa
“It was not a good qualifying for me: I did not manage to get a clean lap in Q3 after I made a
significant mistake at Turn 9, when I ended up going off line: we therefore decided it was
better to pit and save that set of tyres for the start. In Q1, with the hards, I did not get a great
lap and so as not to take any risks, we decided to also use the softs, so I only had one new
set available for the final part of qualifying. Now we will see what we can do in the race
tomorrow: usually our pace is better than in qualifying, but it will not be easy to do well, given
that I’m starting from tenth. We will see what the tyre degradation will be like, maybe it will
be a bit higher than what we saw in China. A shame, as I could have been on the third row,
along with my team-mate. This morning, in FP3, the engineers saw an engine parameter that
they were not sure about and so it was decided to change it at the end of the session. So I
went back to the engine I had already used in Malaysia and China, which according to the
schedule is still meant to do three races.”
Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team
Michael Schumacher
“Understandably I am not happy at all with today's qualifying. It was just strange, it seemed that the
more I pushed on my last lap, the more went wrong. I was at the limit of what I had in my hand but
the car was just sliding around and therefore I never got into my rhythm. It's a real shame after this
morning's promising session.”
Nico Rosberg
“I'm very happy with our performance in qualifying and it's amazing to see where we are
right now. After a difficult start to the season, we are getting closer to the front and I'm
pleased that we are making a small step forward each weekend: thank you to the team for a
great job so far. We saved one set of new soft tyres for the race, which will be important in
terms of strategy. I'm really looking forward to the race.”
Lotus Renault GP
Nick Heidfeld
"It’s not too bad to be in P9 - I struggled earlier in the day and in Q2 I found the balance and
grip from the tyres that I was looking for. It could have been even better as I had some
understeer problems with the front tyres but it was ok. I feel more confident going into
tomorrow, we know that with the DRS we can overtake better, we’ve seen that already so we
can finish higher than our grid position. Usually the car is better on race pace, and we know
we can get good starts so gain some strong positions."
Vitaly Petrov
"I’m not fully satisfied with where I qualified today because we’re capable of finishing even
higher than seventh on the grid. However, for both of us to secure top 10 positions should be
seen as a positive thing and it is good that we don’t have any mechanical problems. We can
still continue to work and push hard to make sure we can be fighting closer to the front of
the grid tomorrow.”
AT&T Williams
Rubens Barrichello
“After all the work we have done this weekend at the factory and trackside, I have to always
put a great lap together in qualifying and I’m very happy with my last lap. Unfortunately
though, we just ended up outside the top ten, which is not that penalising with the tyre
situation. We also weren’t running the new rear wing which was one of our upgrades for this
race so it was a good qualifying session for us to finish 11th despite that.”
Pastor Maldonado
“That’s the happiest I’ve felt after a qualifying session this season. The new parts the team
have worked really hard to deliver to this race have definitely improved the car. It feels
quicker and easier to drive so our efforts have paid off. Because of a problem, I haven’t run
KERS all weekend. If it was working in qualifying, we would have been three tenths quicker.
Anyway, we need to focus on tomorrow now. It will be a difficult race and will probably be
very tight, but I am confident that we can get a good result.”
Force India Formula One Team
Adrian Sutil
“It was quite a straightforward session for me with no major issues. I think we used the tyres
well, there were no problems with traffic and it was a great team effort. But we should
remember that the races so far this year have shown that qualifying is not as important as it
used to be and it's more important to have a good car for the race. I'm pretty happy with my
set-up for tomorrow and feel more comfortable with the car than I did at the last race. In
terms of the tyres, the hard seemed to perform very well yesterday, but the softs are looking
good in the higher temperatures so it will be interesting to see how that develops in the
race.”
Paul Di Resta
“I think it was another great team performance today and we are roughly where we
expected to be. There were no problems in Q1, and in Q2 I only did one run because we
thought it would optimise our race strategy and save a set of tyres. I'm happy with my set-up
for the race and I think we've sacrificed a bit more today to have a better car tomorrow.
Hopefully that will put us in a reasonable position to fight the cars ahead of us and pick up
some more points.”
Sauber F1 Team
Sergio Pérez
“Of course I’m disappointed about today’s qualifying result. In Q1 my lap time with the
harder tyre compound was okay, but then in Q2 the run on the softer compound was not
good. Generally we did some changes after Friday’s practice sessions. It was quite difficult
to do the set-up because of the changing weather conditions. Some changes were in the
right direction and others were not. However, my car was ok in qualifying. It will not be an
easy race for us but I still hope to manage to score a point tomorrow.”
Kamui Kobayashi
“I went out to do a first run right when Q1 started because I wanted to check another set up
option. But then on the middle of the back straight the engine suddenly stopped. It was a
problem with the fuel system. I hoped to make it back into the garage but I stopped before
the pit lane entrance. Anyway, for me the session would have been over even if I had make it
into the garage because it takes a lot of time to change the fuel system. I have to accept that
it was bad luck for me and I want to do a good race tomorrow. Although I like overtaking a
lot, I must admit there are an awful lot of cars between me and the first point.”
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari
“All things considered, this is not such a bad result as at least we have saved a set of new
tyres for the race which is a positive point. Maybe we could have improved the balance of
the car on another set, as it changed a lot from this morning to the afternoon, which was
down to the change in temperature and track condition. I did not do so much running in the
morning which obviously did not help. But I must be positive and am looking forward to
having a good race tomorrow as we have enough tyres to do well, so let’s see what
happens.”
Sebastien Buemi
“It’s a bit hard to understand why we are so far off. I would say that this morning, the track
was quicker for us and I am not sure why I could not do the same lap time this afternoon as I
managed in the morning. Maybe it’s down to the drastic increase in temperature that we
seem to have lost some grip. Overall, I am therefore disappointed with this qualifying
session as I feel we could have done better and maybe been higher up on the grid, as one
tenth of a second would have made a big difference. Let’s see what happens tomorrow,
when apparently there is a chance it might rain and that could change everything.”
Team Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen
"I'm happy with that. We only have to find a little bit more to join the fight in Q2 but today we
had a good strategy and got everything that we could from the tyres. I'm pleased with
my own performance - the quick lap was right on the money with no mistakes so it's a good
feeling to keep edging closer. We're all looking forward to the Barcelona upgrade package
where hopefully that will deliver a greater performance gain compared to what the
opposition will bring but we're nearly there so for now it's just about keeping up the effort
and putting in another strong performance tomorrow."
Jarno Trulli
"I'm pretty much satisfied with my run today. Unfortunately I had a DRS issue which
obviously costs a lot of time on a circuit like this but I think that all round we did as good a
job as we could today. Our race pace definitely gives us a chance to fight with the cars
ahead so hopefully we can sort out the DRS issue and replicate what we did in the race in
China."
Hispania Racing F1 Team
Narain Karthikeyan
“I should’ve done better today considering that my team mate did quite a good lap. My first
set of tyres was alright but with the second set I couldn’t feel any grip, the car was sliding all
over the place so we must try and find out what went wrong. It’s my third race back in
Formula 1 and Turkey is not an easy track, there are a lot of bumps and it’s quite technical.
So the longer I spend in the car the more comfortable I will get. The car is improving a lot,
reliability is good so once again my aim for tomorrow is to try and finish the race.”
Vitantonio Liuzzi
“We were motivated coming into this weekend with the upgrades and we’re pushing for
more in the future. We’re all pushing every race and every hour back in the factory so this
result is important as it is a reward for that work and confirms that the gap is closing with the
rest. We’re nearly ahead of both Virgins which is our aim, they’re pushing as well so it won’t
be easy. But we’re closing the gap with the leaders, which is very important for us.”
Marussia Virgin Racing
Timo Glock
“Not a perfect qualifying for me for sure. I suffered some engine hesitations in turns 12-14,
which we will address for tomorrow, but otherwise from my side it was okay. For some
reason though, I wasn’t able to get the same from the car as Jérôme today, so we’ll have to
look at the data and see if there is something we did wrong, maybe between Free Practice 3
and Qualifying, but there wasn’t so much to change so right now I can’t say. I have to focus
on tomorrow now when we hope for better things and to bring both cars to the finish.”
Jérôme D’Ambrosio
“Another good day for me although we had hoped for something a bit better in terms of
performance. But that's where we are at present with the new package. We need to keep our
heads down and keep pushing forward, keep improving and fine-tuning it to the track. In
terms of my own performance I'm happy because I maintained the level I was at in
Shanghai, which shows I have learned a lot and also applied what I've learned. But it's a long
road for me, I still need to understand why sometimes things go well and sometimes they
don't, so I will continue to keep working hard and keep a cool head.”