Italy: Qualifications Seen from the Stands

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Pole position

Mark Webber – 2nd

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « It’s a fantastic team performance to secure our 50th pole position and the 40th for Sebastian here at Monza. We’ve had a very strong car all weekend, although this hasn’t historically been our best circuit, so we have the best possible places for the start of tomorrow’s race to try and convert today’s result into big points. The weather could play a role tomorrow and there are many laps, but it’s been a really satisfying day today. »

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Sauber

Nico Hülkenberg – 3rd

**Esteban Gutiérrez** – 17th

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: We are really delighted with this result. Obviously, there are two aspects. Gradually, we can see that the car’s development is going in the right direction. Additionally, the engineers have done a fantastic job, working all night to change the car. Furthermore, the driver has made the most of the car, delivering a perfect lap. Esteban has driven very well in the last few races, so let’s hope he will be able to get the maximum out of the car tomorrow as well.

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Ferrari

Felipe Massa – 4th

Fernando Alonso – 5th

Pat Fry, Technical Director: After the results obtained in the last 5 or 6 races, we can be satisfied with our performance today at Monza and with the positions from which Fernando and Felipe will start tomorrow. Certainly, our goal is never to be only on the second or third row, but fourth and fifth place on the grid are the result of great work from the entire team throughout the weekend, during which we paid maximum attention in choosing the best possible package for this track. We knew that the qualifying would be particularly tight, as can be seen with the seven-tenths separating the 16 drivers who moved from Q1 to Q2. We take nothing for granted, and even if the pace of the top two today was out of our reach, we knew we could rely on a fast and competitive car. Now, we have already focused all our attention on the race because it’s the thing that really matters and which will allow us to analyze the car’s overall performance.

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Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 6th

Lewis Hamilton – 12th

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: « Unfortunately, it was our worst qualifying session of the year. With the standards we’ve set for ourselves, this result is a real disappointment. However, Nico made a good comeback after losing almost the entire morning practice session due to a hydraulic issue. The consequence of such a problem is that he missed the opportunity to improve the car’s balance, which wasn’t exactly to his liking during qualifying. On Lewis’s side of the garage, we simply didn’t manage to get a clear lap in two critical stints, leaving him out of the top 10 despite having good pace on the hards in Q1. As for tomorrow, it will be a tough race for us if it stays dry. However, rain is forecast. Let’s hope it comes! »

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Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 7th

Jean-Eric Vergne – 10th

James Key, Technical Director: Friday morning showed that we could make our car work well on such a special circuit, requiring unique settings. In free practice 2, we went in the wrong direction, but we worked hard that night to set things right, to capitalize on the positives and also adapt to the warmer conditions for qualifying. Free practice 3 also went well, and we had the desired balance, especially on Jean-Eric’s car. Then, we were quite convinced that our car would be at its best and then came a fantastic job in qualifying. Part of it came from the team’s work, of course, but the credit mainly goes to our drivers and their disciplined approach to getting the most out of the tires. The result is that we got both our cars in Q3 on merit, and it’s good to start from 7th position with Daniel. It’s a shame for Jean-Eric, who went too wide in the Parabolica; otherwise, he would have been in a similar position to his teammate. It’s nice to be competitive again. Why an out and in lap for our two cars at the beginning of Q3? Simply to check the balance with worn tires before making our final stint with a new set of tires, as we made some changes after Q2.

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McLaren

**Sergio Pérez** – 8th

Jenson Button – 9th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: Today we saw good performances from our drivers Checo and Jenson, resulting in fourth and fifth row positions respectively on tomorrow’s starting grid.

As we suggested yesterday, however, qualifying might not be as crucial here as it is on most other circuits, especially considering that it may rain tomorrow.

Furthermore, our two drivers have recently proven themselves to be competitive and combative, capable of making good progress even without a good position on the grid. You can be sure, as well, that they will do everything possible to gain places tomorrow, in what could be a very tricky race, especially as Monza is a circuit where overtaking is less difficult than on the twisty circuits that make up the current Formula 1 calendar.

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 11th

Romain Grosjean – 13th

**Alan Permane, Director of Track Operations:** « The qualifying session wasn’t great, and it’s no secret that we didn’t manage to find the pace we needed here at Monza. It was disappointing not to be in the top 10, but Monza is a unique challenge that often offers a modified hierarchy with cars performing well here, and that’s what we saw today. 11th and 13th is not where we want to be, and it’s not much comfort to see a car that has already won between us [Hamilton]. »

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Force India

Adrian Sutil – 14th

Paul di Resta – 16th

Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: « Monza has traditionally been a good hunting ground for Sahara Force India, but we have not been on the pace this weekend. Yesterday, we saw that both our drivers were unable to find a good balance and were struggling with the car under braking, and despite our best efforts, we haven’t completely resolved these issues. I think this was evident during today’s qualifying session, with both our cars lacking grip. Starting from 14th [note: 17th after Adrian Sutil’s penalty] and 17th [note: 16th for di Resta] means we have a battle on our hands tomorrow, but we never give up and will try our best to come away with some points. »

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Williams

**Pastor Maldonado** – 15th

Valtteri Bottas – 18th

Xevi Pujolar, Chief Race Engineer: « We did some testing with the rear wing levels during free practice 3 and both drivers were happy with the car’s balance before qualifying. We knew it was important to be able to do a complete lap as the times are close. Valtteri struggled to find grip in Q1, especially with the mediums. Pastor did a good job in Q1, but then after his first run in Q2, he had to go to the weighing scales. We allowed a margin for this, but the duration of the stop didn’t allow enough time to get the car back out again and complete the three-lap stint we planned to achieve maximum grip with the tires. There is a chance of rain tomorrow for the race, so even if we are further back on the grid than we would have liked, it will be about tire management and we still have a chance to score points tomorrow. »

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Caterham

Giedo Van der Garde – 19th

Charles Pic – 20th

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

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Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 21st

Max Chilton – 22nd

John Booth, Team Director: This morning, with both cars, we continued to work on several mechanical solutions for the settings to improve the car’s balance compared to yesterday. It is quite clear that the car is difficult to drive in this configuration with little downforce and, despite different settings on the two cars, we have not managed to find a good overall compromise. During qualifying, it was clear that tire warm-up was a significant factor, and this led to slightly longer stints than usual. On our second stint, we tried something different to gain more temperature, but it seems that it wasn’t enough, and several more laps were still necessary.

None of our drivers were able to improve in this second stint, and we will spend time analyzing what went wrong. On Jules’ side, we had a problem with the DRS, which we are investigating, and at the end of the session, we also discovered a fuel issue in Max’s car – around 19.5 kilos. This may have significantly impacted Max’s lap times and the gap with our rivals. There is nothing we can do now, but it gives us confidence that in the race, the gap will not be as large as we feared. Coupled with the uncertainty surrounding the weather forecast for tomorrow afternoon’s race, we are looking forward to what we hope will be a more worthwhile day.

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