Belgium: The Grand Prix Qualifying Seen from the Pits

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Pole position

Lewis Hamilton – 2nd

Toto Wolff, Team Principal: Sometimes in the wet, you manage to have the right settings and the right tires, and that’s what happened to us today, with a car that was the best on the grid on intermediates. But you need two fantastic drivers to make it count, and it’s very encouraging to see both cars on the front row for the first time since Canada. However, the performance gap we saw today was not normal, and we must not take anything for granted. Our rivals will be dangerous if the race takes place in the dry. So we are going to work hard tonight to find the right strategy for both drivers to fight for the victory tomorrow.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 3rd

Daniel Ricciardo – 5th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: A superb comeback from Seb after a difficult Friday and very few kilometers to finish third on the grid. Despite running wide on his last fast lap, Daniel managed to qualify 5th with a low downforce setup in tricky conditions. Both drivers did a fantastic job and secured a good position on the grid. Hopefully, tomorrow we will have a more competitive car than in qualifying.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 4th

Kimi Räikkönen – 8th

Pat Fry, Chassis Technical Director: We are reasonably satisfied with the result, even though we cannot ignore Mercedes’ performance, given that we want to return to the top positions. Fernando narrowly missed third place, having executed a fantastic lap. I hope we can have a good race from fourth place on the grid. Kimi lost a little in the three sectors, but I believe he drove as hard as he could, even though he was only eighth. We certainly cannot forget all the difficulties he encountered yesterday, as I am sure that with a little more track time, he could have been a bit higher in the hierarchy. Tomorrow’s race will be long and difficult: the weather forecast suggests a lower chance of rain than today, but here at Spa, it’s impossible to be sure. The important thing is to be ready to adapt our strategy to any conditions.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Williams

Valtteri Bottas – 6th

Felipe Massa – 9th

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance: « These kinds of changing rainy conditions are always very complicated and you can be caught off guard. We played it safe and managed to get both our cars into the top 10 which is positive, and we have to be satisfied with this result, with Valtteri only three-tenths away from third place. On Friday, we were able to see that we had a very good pace on long runs in dry conditions and we hope for an almost dry race, so we are confident that both our drivers can gain places tomorrow and bring home some good points. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

McLaren

Kevin Magnussen – 7th

Jenson Button – 10th

Eric Boullier, Racing Director: There is no greater challenge for a Formula 1 driver than tackling a qualifying hour in the rain at Spa, but I am pleased to say that Kevin and Jenson rose to the challenge perfectly this afternoon. Their performances were particularly impressive given that their cars were running with low downforce, which is not ideal in rainy conditions like today, but was deliberate in anticipation of a dry race tomorrow.

Kevin did particularly valiant work, finishing 7th, which was a great effort considering he achieved this with settings meant for low downforce on dry conditions. Jenson also managed well, and it could have been even better if he hadn’t locked his brakes at the top of the hill before turn 8 during his fast lap in Q3 on fresh intermediates.

A race on dry conditions is scheduled for tomorrow, and Kevin and Jenson, 7th and 10th respectively, are well-positioned to have a controlled yet combative race to score as many points as possible.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat – 11th

Translate: Jean-Eric Vergne – 12th

Translate: Ricardo Penteado, Head of Track Support for Renault Sport F1: As always at Spa when it rains, it’s very difficult to get everything perfectly sorted. We continued to fine-tune the power unit maps in FP3 and everything worked well in qualifying, even though we were constantly adjusting settings as conditions changed. We had the pace to be in the top 10, so it’s a shame to miss out by so little, but we are still well placed for the race.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Sahara Force India

Sergio Perez – 13th

Nico Hülkenberg – 18th

Robert Fernley, Deputy Director: « It was a qualifying session with rain, and I think we didn’t finish in the positions our pace should have guaranteed us. The conditions were difficult for everyone, and we were unlucky to lose Nico so early. Checo did a good job in Q2, but as the track became increasingly slippery towards the end of the session, he couldn’t improve his time to break into the top 10. We have a lot of work to get both cars into the points, but yesterday’s indications seem to show we have good race pace. The weather could again play a significant role. We will need to maximize all the opportunities that come our way. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – 14th

Esteban Gutierrez – 20th

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: Adrian put in a solid performance and achieved what we could expect here. We will see what it brings for the race tomorrow. As for Esteban, it’s disappointing that his weekend has been dominated by issues with his power unit so far. This makes things difficult for him and his team to find the best settings for the car because track time is limited. He is undoubtedly in a difficult position for the race.

– Lira as declarações dos pilotos

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – 15th

Pastor Maldonado – 17th

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: Romain did a good job in Q1 but wasn’t comfortable with the rear of his car in Q2. He finished 15th, which is obviously not where we want to be. We will analyze the aerodynamic data to see where we can improve. Pastor could have entered the top 10 at the end of Q1 but, unfortunately, he spun on his fastest lap. He couldn’t make enough progress after that as the rain intensified. This unfortunately put an end to his qualification.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 16th

Max Chilton – 19th

John Booth, Team Director: « Compared to yesterday, we haven’t made any significant changes, but there was still much optimization to be done in all areas to find that extra performance. This morning, we continued the progress made over the weekend and the drivers were pleased with the car’s balance and performance.

The downpour just before qualifying made the conditions difficult to assess. However, we managed things well in terms of strategy, and Jules completed an excellent lap with 14th place, advancing to Q2. He encountered a slight brake issue at the beginning, which complicated his task in the early laps. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the tires or time to stop for a second set. Nevertheless, his last lap seemed very good before we decided to abandon it due to balance issues at turn 7 and a small mistake at turn 10.

Our two drivers are in a good position for tomorrow with Jules in 16th position and Max ahead of both Caterhams. I think we prefer a dry race tomorrow because our car’s performance seems slightly better on dry conditions. However, we will be ready for all opportunities.

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Caterham

André Lotterer – 21st

Marcus Ericsson – 22nd

Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1 Support Manager: Given the track conditions, everything went well for the engine, without any problems. We had to manage energy management lap by lap as the track was improving, which kept us busy. But we extracted all the power from the power unit. Both drivers were close, and André did a good job considering it was his first time driving in the rain in this car. We have nothing to lose for tomorrow’s race, especially if the conditions remain variable.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes