India: Qualifications Seen from the Stands

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Pole position

Mark Webber – 4th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « A great performance. We opted for a strategic approach with both cars running on different tires. It was a fantastic first lap from Sebastian to secure pole position, his third in a row here. Mark is 4th and is the first with medium tires, which puts him in a strong position. It’s an excellent result for both our cars for the race, where they will be on two different strategies: it should be a fascinating Grand Prix. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 2nd

Lewis Hamilton – 3rd

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: « It has been as good a qualifying session as we could hope for. Things went crescendo in Q3 and we made the right choices, managed things well, and achieved our best times at the right moment by having saved a set of new softs for the end of Q3. Obviously, we wanted both our cars to start on the softs, but we have put them in good positions, and we can be pleased with that this afternoon. It has been a complicated weekend to properly set up the car so far, and the engineers and drivers have done a very good job together. Now, we need to finish the job by having a good race tomorrow. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Ferrari

Translate: Felipe Massa – 5th

Fernando Alonso – 8th

Pat Fry, Technical Director: « Tires continue to play the leading role in determining the strategy here in India. Free practice and qualifying have been dictated by tire performance. Tomorrow, the car’s performance with the tire evolution will be crucial. The strategy will inevitably change depending on whether a driver starts on soft or medium tires. We have opted for both scenarios, and in both cases, the pace we can achieve with the soft tires will be decisive for our finishing position. »

« Especially since we experienced a lot of graining and blistering [blisters, ed.] during testing. So, depending on the intensity of these phenomena for our competitors, it may work in our favor or, conversely, against us… »

« Nevertheless, those starting on medium tires will be favored as they can choose the best moment to switch to soft tires. Of course, the team’s reliability and efficiency will also be predominant in determining the finishing position. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 6th

Romain Grosjean – 17th

*The statements from the Lotus staff were not available at the time of the publication of this article.*

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Sauber

Nico Hülkenberg – 7th

Esteban Gutiérrez – 16th

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: We knew that qualifying would not be easy. Once again, Nico delivered a flawless performance and will start from 7th place in the race tomorrow. Esteban has struggled to get comfortable with this circuit since the beginning of the weekend, but managed to set a good time in Q1. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to do as well in Q2 and will now have to try to have a perfect race tomorrow. The goal for Nico is to score as many points as possible.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

McLaren

Jenson Button – 9th

Sergio Pérez – 10th

**Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal:** Today’s qualifying session was clearly dominated by teams’ tire considerations for tomorrow’s race. It’s always tempting to have a short-term view – if we had gone out on softs in Q3, we could potentially have been in the middle of the top 10 – but I don’t think we would have approached the race comfortably by doing that. It was therefore a question of doing what was necessary for tomorrow’s race. And, if the experience of recent days is confirmed tomorrow, then we can probably be pleased not to start the race on softs. We will stay focused on ourselves tomorrow to be in the best possible position. We have two very good drivers, both of whom have shown they were quick this weekend, so I think we can be competitive tomorrow.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 11th

**Jean-Eric Vergne** – 14th

Laurent Mekies, Head of Performance: It was a very tight qualifying session, after it became clear yesterday that there were virtually 10 cars within a similar time. We finished 11th with Daniel, half a second away from making Q3. It was very close and both our drivers did a good job this afternoon, as JEV was only a few tenths behind his teammate, but three places behind him. I think we regained some of our pace today and we are in the fight in the midfield. We will have a tough battle tomorrow, as you might expect with 10 cars within 3 tenths. We worked on our race pace this morning with Daniel, as we couldn’t do it on Friday and here too, we believe we have made progress. We can look forward to an exciting race tomorrow.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Force India

Paul di Resta – 12th

Adrian Sutil – 13th

Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: « The indications from yesterday’s free practice suggested that we were slightly more competitive than in previous races, and I think today’s performance confirms that. The times in the last session showed the progress made overnight, and it’s encouraging to hear our drivers say they have more confidence in their car, which we’ve been lacking lately. Both of our drivers feel there’s more performance in the car, but I don’t think it would have changed our positions on the grid. We will approach tomorrow’s race with points as the objective. It’s something we’ve managed to do in recent years, and I’m optimistic that we have the pace to fight with the cars around us and secure some points for our home race. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Williams

Valtteri Bottas – 15th

Pastor Maldonado – 18th

Xevi Pujolar, Chief Race Engineer: We had to alter the planned schedule during Free Practice 1 as the session was delayed and shortened due to poor visibility, but the balance of the car was improving with both compounds as the track improved. We knew it would be very tight in qualifying to get the tires into the right temperature window for a good lap. Unfortunately, Pastor got caught in traffic on his first lap in Q1 and did not have enough time to cool his tires for his second timed lap, which compromised his time and left him 18th. It worked well for Valtteri in Q1 as he had a good track position for his second lap on softs and managed to progress to Q2. In Q2, he encountered traffic in the third sector of his out-lap, so his tires were not up to temperature when he started his flying lap, resulting in a 15th place qualification. The softs are particularly prone to blistering and graining, whereas the mediums are more robust. Therefore, we expect various race strategies with teams using the softs at different points, providing more opportunities to gain positions.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 19th

Max Chilton – 22nd

John Booth, Team Director: Free Practice 3 did not go as well as expected, and some changes made last night after Free Practice 2 did not seem positive. With a shortened final session, we had to focus on gathering data and giving the drivers good sensations in the car, rather than making many changes during the session. With Jules, we made good progress for qualifying because he was the less happy of the two drivers, and it seems to have worked well for him. After his first stint, Max was happy with his car, but he was not able to improve as expected in his second stint. Jules was expecting a big challenge from van der Garde tomorrow, but in the end, he finished ahead. It’s good to start the race ahead of the Caterhams, but throughout the pack, we can expect to have a good time tomorrow.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Caterham

Giedo Van der Garde – 20th

Charles Pic – 21st

Caterham has not published statements from the team’s representatives.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes