Red Bull’s Mark Webber will start in second place tomorrow, behind pole-sitter Rubens Barrichello. Sebastian Vettel’s afternoon was cut short after he failed to make it past Q1.
Vettel will start in 16th place, one place behind the other Brawn, and current championship leader, Jenson Button.
Brawn GP F1 Team
Ross Brawn, Team Principal
“It was a day of mixed fortunes with Rubens achieving a quite superb pole position at his home race and Jenson unfortunately not progressing from Q2. It was a chaotic and delayed qualifying with the heavy rain causing havoc and requiring the team and drivers to stay focused through the long delays. We were lucky in Q2 with Rubens who just scraped through but Jenson missed out. The lack of balance which Jenson experienced on his set of wet tyres was unexpected and proved costly as we believed it was possible to get through without using intermediates which proved with hindsight to be the wrong strategy. Jenson went for the lap right at the end but unfortunately the pace was just not there. Rubens did a fantastic job today to get the pole position. The car has been working well all weekend and the potential was evident from the result that he achieved in Q3.”
Red Bull Racing
Christian Horner
“Firstly, it’s really frustrating for Sebastian to just miss out on Q2. Unfortunately, in the window when the circuit was at its best, traffic or other cars were making mistakes ahead of him, which cost him dearly and he wasn’t able to put a lap together at the optimum time. Later in Q1, the circuit was in an atrocious state and he just missed getting through to Q2. It’s frustrating as after the delay you could see how competitive the car was once some of the standing water had moved. Mark ran very competitively and missed out on pole by less than a tenth of a second. It was a strong performance by him and it’s going to make for a fascinating race tomorrow.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support
“That was the longest qualifying session of my career – what a session! The first part was very disappointing with Sebastian not being able to make it into Q2. The second part was much better and Mark drove very well in the difficult conditions to secure second place. I have mixed feelings, it’s going to be very hard for both Championships now, but if it’s wet tomorrow anything can happen, so we will fight.”
Force India Formula One Team
Simon Roberts, chief operating officer
“We’re delighted that Adrian got into the top three today. He put in a sterling performance in very difficult conditions and really got the maximum from himself and the car. It was tough to get the tyre calls right but we were pretty much spot on with the timing from wets to inters and got this fantastic result that hopefully should set us up very well for the race tomorrow. It was a real shame for Tonio that he could not have progressed much further but at the time the conditions were at their worst and there was nothing he could have done to avoid going off. We’re obviously pleased he is OK and with the expected unpredictable conditions tomorrow he could still be in for a good performance in the race.”
Panasonic Toyota Racing
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis
“A qualifying session of almost three hours is quite unique and I haven’t experienced anything like it before in Formula 1. But the team and drivers performed well to stay focused and prepared through such a chaotic session. In the end we are pleased with the result, although we were targeting the front row. Both drivers did a very good job in difficult and changing conditions. Jarno showed he has the potential to score a lot of points tomorrow and we are really happy for Kamui. He missed on the top 10 by a tiny margin but 11th place in his first Formula 1 qualifying session is a great achievement, especially considering the weather. Now we are looking forward to tomorrow when the weather could play a part again, so it should be an interesting race.”
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Stefano Domenicali, Team Pricipal
“Tomorrow we face a race that will be very important in the battle for third place and it’s a shame we will not be tackling it with both our cars in the top half of the grid, given that our main rivals are quite a way back. However, we also have to keep an eye on Toyota who are not too far behind in the classification.”
Chris Dyer
“A bitter sweet qualifying for us. Once again, Kimi produced a fantastic performance to take a good fifth place, while Giancarlo, having felt comfortable in the wet this morning, was unfortunate in that his spin occurred when track conditions were at their worst. We have gone for a strategy choice that should allow us to have a good race whatever the weather. Well done to the team who remained concentrated throughout the entire qualifying session.”
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Laurent Mekies, Toro Rosso chief engineer
“Our best qualifying result of the season with our second consecutive Q3 with Buemi and second consecutive Q2 with Alguersuari. In Suzuka, we showed we had the pace thanks to an aero update. Here, the team and drivers put everything together well in what was a very difficult session to manage. Sebastien did a very good job to secure P6 and Jaime also did well to reach Q2 in what were very difficult conditions. But it’s the race that matters, when I think we can expect a complicated afternoon. Today was an encouraging first step and now we must try and convert it into some points tomorrow.”
AT&T Williams F1
Rod Nelson, Chief Operations Engineer
“It was a very busy and long qualifying today because of the weather. Both drivers were happy with the car in the wet, and we moved them onto inters at the right time in Q2. Its good to have both drivers in the top ten again, but I think we could have done a little better. It will be an interesting race tomorrow and we should do well.”
BMW Sauber F1 Team
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport Director
“Just like two weeks ago in Suzuka, Qualifying in Sao Paulo was again dominated by the weather. This was especially the case for the first and second parts of Qualifying. Nick was stuck in traffic at the same time Robert set his fastest lap. After that the conditions got worse, so he finally got stuck in Q1. For Robert everything went according to plan – up to his last attempt with intermediates. In the decisive run he lost time from turn seven, so he ended up eighth. Today more would have been possible.”
Willy Rampf, Head of Engineering
“After qualifying in Suzuka lasted more than 90 minutes, there was another chaotic Saturday in Sao Paulo. First the third free practice was almost washed away by the water. Following this, qualifying had to be stopped several times and lasted for almost three hours. Nick was unfortunate to get stuck in Q1. Robert was one of the top contenders in Q1 and Q2, and also in Q3 things looked good until his last run. But after a good first sector on his final run he lost time and ended up eighth. Today, a position in the first two rows of the grid would have been possible.”
ING Renault F1 Team
Bob Bell, Team Principal
“It was a difficult qualifying session with the extreme weather conditions that we have had today. We were very lucky to get Fernando into Q2 because the car just wasn’t quick enough today. It’s disappointing that he is not higher than 10th, but he’s in reasonably good shape for the race tomorrow and we will take it from there. The latest forecast suggests that it will be wet in the morning and there is a good chance of rain in the afternoon. So it seems the conditions will be changeable again as we have seen today.”
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
“This was obviously disappointing for the whole team. Perhaps we concentrated too much on anticipating a potentially dry race tomorrow, and, consequently, we didn’t give our drivers a car that enabled them to graduate past Q1. Clearly, this was not what we’d hoped for, but we will be doing everything we can in tomorrow’s race. We won’t give up, and we want to score some points tomorrow by adopting perhaps a less risk-averse strategy than we otherwise would have done from positions further up the grid.”
Norbert Haug, vice-president Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“A great disappointment. It looks as if our cars were more surfing than driving on lots of water on the track and, obviously, as a team we didn’t give it the best possible shot during these difficult heavy rain conditions today. We certainly can’t blame our drivers for our struggle – they are proven rain specialists. In addition, I feel very sorry for our friend Sebastian Vettel, who couldn’t make it into Q2 either, which may have cost him his last chance of a shot at the title.”
