Mark Webber claimed pole position for the Belgian GP, beating Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica...
Red Bull:
Mark Webber: "Spa is certainly a great venue to get pole - it's a very special track. I was very happy with my first lap in Q3, but you never know in the current company if it's enough. You get to the finish and wait for [engineer] Ciaron to come on the radio and say 'P...?' and you're thinking 'what is it?'. At that point the lap was enough, but then you have to do it again. You get another set of tyres and see how you go. We had a rain shower, which spiced things up and made it hard for people to improve. Lewis did a pretty good job to improve to P2 at the end when La Source was a bit greasy. I'm pleased to be on pole and tomorrow's race is going to be interesting, I don't think the race will be won on the first lap. I'm looking forward to it."
Sebastian Vettel: "We had a bad start with Q1 being last out of the box. It gave us the advantage of not suffering any traffic, but then you're the one who has to face the most water on the track with dry tyres - it was tricky. Fortunately we could get a lap in on the intermediate tyres and we were safe, but you never know in these conditions. Q2 was comfortable and in Q3 it turned out that the first run was most important. There was a bit of rain in the first corner and my first try in Q3 wasn't good enough, simple as that. I made a couple of mistakes at the beginning of the first sector and lost momentum. On the last lap I made a good recovery and it was quicker than my first try, but then I went a bit sideways in Turn 14 and that was it. The most important thing today was that the car was very good, good enough to be ahead of everyone else. It didn't happen for me today, so we need to do it tomorrow."
McLaren:
Lewis Hamilton: "We've looked very fast all weekend, and the car's felt great. Obviously, the Mercedes-Benz engine is the best suited to this circuit, and our car's aerodynamic package also works well here. On my first run in Q3, I was the first driver into Turn 14, and the track was drying but still a bit wet, so I didn't push hard enough and lost ground - maybe half a second. I thought we could have got pole, but I went a bit wide at La Source on my final run. There was one little patch of rain over Turn One, so it was a bit slippery, and I lost about three and a half tenths there. But I was able to extract some good time from the tyres in the second and third sectors - and that's where I made up the time I lost in sector one. Still, it's not essential to have pole here - I still feel like I'm in a good position. There's a very long straight from Eau Rouge to the top of the hill, and it's quite tricky to stay ahead of a chasing car, even if you're on pole. I'm hopeful of getting a good start tomorrow, and we'll take it from there. For tomorrow's race, and in Monza, we need to capitalise on the fact that our package appears to be very competitive. Tomorrow will be a tough race, but we'll keep pushing."
Jenson Button: "Our car feels good, and I think our pace has been good all weekend. I just wish I could be a bit further up. We ran used tyres at the start of Q3 and used tyres at the end, and two of the cars ahead of me put their best times in at the start of the session when it was dry. For my final run, there'd been a bit of rain in sector one, so I lost about three and a half tenths to my previous best Q3 lap in the first sector. I was down quite a bit but was able to pull it back in the middle and last sectors, which were quite competitive. I'm reasonably happy, but would have liked to have been a bit higher up. In qualifying, you obviously want to push the car to the limit, but it's very tricky with this asphalt to see which parts of the surface are wet or dry. And, when you're pushing as hard as you can, it's very difficult to find the limit of the tyre in the wet. If you hit a wet patch, you're off. Still, I'm fifth - on the good side of the grid - and in this sort of weather, anything can happen, so it's pretty exciting. That's the way it is, but I still think we can have a very good race with our car tomorrow."
Renault:
Robert Kubica: "We have been in the top five in every session, in all conditions, this weekend, and going into qualifying we were hoping that it might be possible to get third place. This is the first race at which we have used our F-duct and I must say congratulations to everybody at the factory because it has worked perfectly from the first lap in practice. In fact, I was in second position at the end of my first run in Q3 but I wasn't able to use my second set of option tyres. The car cut out just before the pit lane on my in-lap, and after the mechanics had pushed me back to the garage, we didn't have time to do another run. At the end of the session, I was standing in the pits, watching the other cars and praying for rain when a few drops started to fall - and only Lewis was able to improve his time. It meant I lost a place on the front row, but I am still in a strong position for tomorrow, and now we need to wait and see what happens - with the race and with the weather."
Vitaly Petrov: "It was a very disappointing session for me today. On my out-lap on slick tyres, I went on the kerb at the exit of Turn 9 and lost control of the car because of the standing water. I wasn't able to get started again, so that was the end of my session. It was a big shame because the car has been very good this weekend, and I was aiming for a place in the top 10. But now this has happened, all I can do is focus on tomorrow and stay positive. The F-duct is working very well, so we are quick on the straights and will be able to overtake. Plus the weather forecast is uncertain, and we know that when it is wet, everything is possible."
Ferrari:
Felipe Massa: "Definitely a difficult qualifying. Already this morning, we had seen that the McLarens and Red Bulls were quicker than us and they confirmed that this afternoon, when we had a few difficulties, failing to get the result we were expecting: which means we will be trying to improve our positions tomorrow in the race. As usually happens here in Belgium, you can predict that the changeable weather might play a crucial role: it will be vital to manage the situation as well as possible. On my first run in Q3 Igot a good lap, but maybe it could have been a couple of tenths quicker, while on the second one, I immediately had rain at Turn 1 and I locked the wheels and I decided to pit without completing the lap, because I would not have been able to improve my lap time. If we have a track that is only slightly dampbut not too wet, it could be a problem because the rain tyres get destroyed very quickly and it will be necessary to manage them very carefully."
Fernando Alonso: "Obviously, I can't be pleased with this result, but it has to be said that if there is one track where grid position is less critical than others, then it is this one, both because of the track characteristics and because the weather can be very changeable: in some cases the right decision at the right time can see you make up an advantage of a minute, therefore we will have to be clever and make the most of every opportunity. In Q3, I only had one set of new soft tyres left and I used it on my second run when, unfortunately, there was a bit of rain. There's no point in making a drama over this tenth place: we must stay calm and concentrated, because qualifying is one thing and the race is quite another when the points are given out, not today."
