Saturday: Red Bull limits the damage against Brawn and Ferrari

If Brawn seems to easily counter the latest improvements from Ferrari or Williams, that’s not the case for Red Bull, which has been somewhat overwhelmed. After relatively calm morning tests, the qualifying session was much more ‘heated’.

Vettel and Webber still make it to Q3 but manage to grab a top 8 in extremis. The German could very well have been the poleman tonight, but he couldn’t resist the attacks from Brawn and Räikkönen. The race is likely to be very tight, especially at the start, as Vettel is running almost empty on fuel.

Sebastian Vettel – 8th and 4th:

« When I came out of La Rascasse, Nakajima was almost stopped on the track, and even if he didn’t really hinder me, to hope for a perfect qualifying lap, nothing should distract you. It was different on my last lap where I got caught in traffic. You lose downforce and start sliding, it’s anything but qualifying! It’s a bit frustrating because today the car was competitive and we could have done better, but there are 78 laps to go and we’ll see what happens tomorrow. »

Mark Webber – 10th and 8th:

« It’s not too bad, we knew it was going to be very close, but we have a reasonable strategy for tomorrow. There are rumors about the type of tires at the start. I’m reasonably satisfied with what I did today, maybe we could have had a different strategy in Q3, my idea was to do just one run and not two.

Christian Horner – Team Principal:

A frustrating end in Q3, when Nakajima ended up in front of Sebastian [Vettel]. He seemed extremely slow and Sebastian was coming for his final straight. Mark [Webber] managed his tires perfectly with a very good time in Q2, but in Q3, it was a bit closer. We believe we have a good strategy for tomorrow.