Lewis Hamilton will start the Korean GP from pole, having finally beaten Sebastian Vettel in qualifying...
McLaren:
Lewis Hamilton: "Throughout the year, I don't think my qualifying performances have been too bad - it's only in the last two races that I didn't manage to get my final run in Q3 - so today's result wasn't entirely unexpected. Still, we've been quick as a team and never stopped making improvements to the car. I'm so, so proud of all the men and women both here at the circuit and back at Woking who've worked so hard to get us back to where we want to be. Of course, pole position is still only the first step, particularly when we know that tomorrow's race will be long and unpredictable. Pole is always a great achievement and I'm particularly proud to have achieved it at the team's 700th Formula 1 grand prix. We've been working to improve our starts, and I hope we can convert pole into the lead tomorrow. The grand prix's going to be tough, and it'll be difficult to beat the two guys starting immediately behind me, but I hope to keep the lead and control the race in a responsible way. I now want to put all my energy into the race."
Jenson Button: "Congratulations to Lewis - he's been very quick and has been all weekend and I just couldn't quite get close enough to him this afternoon. On my final run, I think I lost some ground in the last corner: I hit the limiter at the apex and lost a bit of time, but I feel good in the car. Third position isn't where I want to start, but we can have a good race from there: there are a lot of long straights on this circuit, especially after the start. With a headwind from Turn Two to Turn Three, there could be a lot of action on the first lap - I'm looking forward to that! Our car is feeling good this weekend. As a team, we've done a great job - and I'm particularly grateful to the guys in the garage who worked extremely hard last night to switch my chassis. Thanks guys. We're slightly heading into the unknown tomorrow as we haven't run high-fuel yet. Off the line tomorrow, we'll need to get a feel for how the cars behave on high-fuel, and then we've got to focus on what we're doing to the tyres over the course of a stint. We have all the ingredients for a fantastic race. Even more encouragingly, if we continue this way, fighting for poles and wins, then it'll be a really good way to end the season and the perfect basis for 2012."
Red Bull:
Sebastian Vettel: "McLaren looked very competitive yesterday; I know the conditions were completely different, but you could see they were a fair chunk ahead of everyone else, including us. They looked extremely quick this morning in the dry also, but I think once again we pushed them very hard in qualifying and got closer than I think they, and we, expected. So, I think we did a good job. We also saved all our soft tyres, which I think will be crucial for tomorrow. We only had a rough idea from this morning with more fuel in the car, but I think we are in a good position. There's not a long run to the first corner and Turn 3 is a little bit exposed, so we'll see. It's a long race, a lot of things can happen and I think tyre wear will be crucial."
Mark Webber: "On the last run, I lost the rear a little bit on the exit of Turn 1. I tried to get it back through Turn 3, but I was down 3/10 of a second; it's a pity as you're not going to get that back in the last sector - which hadn't been too bad on the previous run. So, we're fourth tomorrow to start. It's a shame that Jenson got me in the end there, as it bumped me onto the left hand side of the grid, but we'll see how we go tomorrow in the race. Tyres are going to be interesting tomorrow, as there were different strategies in qualifying. We're closer to the McLarens than we thought and it was a well fought contest between the four of us."
Ferrari:
Felipe Massa: "I am happy with my performance today. I think I got a good lap on my final run, after the first one in Q3, when I used the same set of Supersofts I had already run in Q2. My impression is that we are now also improving our Saturday performance, but there are still four cars in front of us and so the grid position stays more or less the same. Going into this Grand Prix there was a lot of concern about tyre degradation but, at least from what we have seen today, it seems to be less severe than expected. Let's see how things go tomorrow. I am confident: if nothing strange happens to me, as has been the case in the last few races, then I think I can do a good job. It was actually here, a year ago, that I stood on the podium for the last time: maybe tonight I'll watch the race again, even if the weather then was very different to what we can expect tomorrow. Finally, I want to offer my condolences for two people who have left us this very day: Maria Martins Bassi, my wife Raffaela's grandmother and Pasquale Danza, whom I first met ten years ago when I came to Ferrari and with whom I shared so many good times, both at the track and at Maranello."
Fernando Alonso: "I can't be happy with sixth, but the position reflects our current situation: McLaren and Red Bull are stronger than us so it just leaves us to fight between ourselves for fifth and sixth places. That's how Saturday goes, but maybe tomorrow will end up like Sunday in Suzuka and we will find ourselves again fighting for the win. When tyre degradation is very high, usually we are in good shape, but here the situation is not very clear, as the behaviour of the Supersofts over a long run and on full tanks is still an unknown quantity. We had considered using this tyre right from Q1 but then we decided not to take too many risks. Today, we were losing too much time in the first sector, where we lacked top speed. On my last run, I immediately lost a few tenths at the first corner and after that, I could not make up the time, so I decided not to complete the lap. Unfortunately, I start from the dirty side of the grid, which should be a major disadvantage here, so I hope I don't lose a place to Rosberg. We will have to keep an eye on what happens ahead of us and exploit the strategy in our favour. The new front wing? I don't like talking about individual components; on the one hand I think that's a job for the engineers, on the other, I prefer to share my opinions about it only with the team."
Mercedes GP:
Nico Rosberg: "I'm quite pleased with today. To find the right set-up for the qualifying and the race is always a compromise, particularly after such limited dry running, so I'm happy that we saved one set of option tyres. It will be tough to catch one of the top six drivers tomorrow but hopefully I'll have a good start and may be able to gain a position there. It will be an interesting race from the tyre perspective with a lot of stops, and I'm confident that our boys will do a great job in the pits again."
Michael Schumacher: "To start with the positives of today's qualifying, I have saved two fresh sets of option tyres which is always helpful. On the other hand, it was obviously a pity what happened. Everything went normally in Q1, and from what you can expect of the tyres under normal circumstances, it was absolutely justified to go for just one run in Q2. But unfortunately I could feel that something was not right when leaving the pits as I had vibrations straight away. All that was left for us to do was hope that the gap would be big enough to remain in the top ten but that turned out not to be the case. We will now have a close look into what exactly happened and fully concentrate on trying to make up some positions in the race tomorrow."
Related Links
Qualy: Hamilton ends Red Bull's run
Saturday's shots from Korea
