Sat: Ferrari, McLaren, STR, FIndia

Editor 02 Nov 2013 5:01 PM

There were top ten times in Saturday’s qualifying for the Abu Dhabi GP for Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo…

There were top ten times in Saturday’s qualifying for the Abu Dhabi GP for Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo…

Ferrari:
Felipe Massa: “I am pleased with my qualifying and things went better than I’d expected. All weekend, we haven’t been competitive enough and after this morning’s free practice, I was worried I wouldn’t make it to Q3, but then, thanks to a lap where I got the maximum out of the car, combined with the drop in temperature, I managed to make up a few places. Today I did all I could and I think that without a bit of oversteer at the final corner, I could have done even better. This track does not suit our car, as you need good traction and the high temperature doesn’t help either, but the race is run in the evening and I hope that will allow us to bring home those important points we need right now, even if it’s definitely not going to be easy.”

Fernando Alonso: “This qualifying has been as difficult as the rest of the weekend, even if in some races, starting eleventh on new tyres can help, so let’s hope that’s the case here. It is without a doubt better to make it through to Q3 but unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a very clean lap and I didn’t manage to make it by a few tenths. This is one of the tracks where we suffer a bit more than usual, but in general our Sunday performance is better and so, again this time, our approach to the race is positive. We must absolutely get a good start, stay focussed and run a perfect race if we want to take points towards our aim of finishing second in the Constructors’, because it will be a tough fight. We have seen that in the heat, the Softs work better than the Mediums and so logic dictates we should start on the softer tyre while it’s still daytime and switch to Mediums when darkness falls. Clearly, we have to see how things go.”

McLaren:
Sergio Perez: “The car felt great today. If we’d found a couple of extra hundredths, we might even have been seventh – it was achievable. It was important to stay calm after a disappointing FP3. I think we’ve made the right steps forward for the race, particularly as we knew how much the track would change from the afternoon into the evening – we reacted well. Overall, it’s been a weekend of improvement for the team, so I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”

Jenson Button: “Today’s Q3 was a puzzling session. I think we struggled to get the tyres working because of the cooler temperatures – I had to take so much rear wing off to try to help balance the car, but it wasn’t enough. We were maxed-out on the front wing, too. There wasn’t anything else I could have done with the car to help the front end, since we were already running very low downforce on the rear – as could be seen by our straightline speeds. It’s quite frustrating, because in FP3 this afternoon we looked really promising – sixth-quickest – and the car felt very good.”

Toro Rosso:
Daniel Ricciardo: “I think making it into Q3 was already a good achievement, after the difficulties I’d experienced getting the car the way I like it on Friday and even for the final practice today. My Q2 lap was a very good one, but not the best, so I came into Q3 feeling I could improve in a few areas. We decided to make a slight adjustment to the front tyre pressures which turned out not to be the right decision, as I then had to work harder to warm the tyres. The lap itself was not too bad, but the time never came. The heat? It’s only a problem once you get out of the car because inside the cockpit you get some airflow and it’s all fine.”

Jean-Eric Vergne: “Everything went smoothly in Q1 and also in Q2, I managed to improve my time, even on old tyres and I was heading for a really good time at my last attempt, but I locked the wheels massively going into Turn 8 and that wiped out any advantage I had. It is a real shame because everyone had worked so hard yesterday and last night to give me a really good car, that I was very happy with right from the start of FP3. I have to put my hand up and say I made the mistake. I wanted it too much and tried too hard. On the plus side for tomorrow, I have been on the pace all weekend and the speed is there. So, with a good strategy plan, I am looking forward to the race, when I am sure I can make up for this evening’s disappointment.”

Force India:
Paul di Resta: “I am pretty satisfied with P12, which puts us in a reasonable position for tomorrow. I’m feeling good in the car, which has worked well all weekend. For tomorrow I’m optimistic that we can be up there with a good chance of picking up some points. The car is responding well and I also think we are more suited to the race than qualifying. There’s a long race ahead of us, but we will work hard to put together a good strategy tonight and try to push our way forward in the race.”

Adrian Sutil: “I’ve not been feeling comfortable with the car this weekend. The practice sessions have not been easy and I just can’t find a balance that is working for me. It started in second practice yesterday when we had the issue with the brakes and since then I’ve been struggling. We made some changes before qualifying, which were an improvement, but it was not enough to progress to Q2. So we are disappointed with P18, but it’s the result of things not coming together for us. It’s a long and tough race here, but I still look forward to it and will try my best to improve our performance.”