Sebastian Vettel will start on the front row, with Mark Webber right behind him as the Red Bull Racing boys took second and third place respectively for tomorrow’s race.
Vodafone McLaren mercedes
Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“Lewis did a brilliant job, demonstrating prodigious speed, to secure pole position in dominant fashion in Abu Dhabi this evening. We were relatively aggressive in terms of his fuel strategy, but we’ve certainly been more aggressive in a few other qualifying sessions this year and there’s therefore no doubt that his pace here is very genuine.
“Heikki, too, would have figured at or close to the front had he not been hampered by a gearbox problem not of his making, but you can be well sure that he’ll be pushing as hard as ever tomorrow to make good progress from his P13 grid slot.
“Tomorrow’s race will be an arduous one for drivers and team members alike – hot and tiring – but we’ll be aiming to end the season on a high by delivering a disciplined, focused and hopefully victorious performance, in an effort to secure third place in the 2009 Constructors’ World Championship.”
Norbert Haug, Vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“What a great lap from Lewis. This was his fourth pole in the last seven grands prix since Valencia and certainly a very important one on this fantastic new race track here in Abu Dhabi. Hopefully we can continue in that direction tomorrow. Our race simulation laps showed yesterday that our speed is there.
“Sorry for Heikki who could not make it into Q3 due to a gearbox problem, but tomorrow is another day for him as well and he can still have a good finish in the points.
“The organisers and the hosts here did an unbelievable job to build up this very impressive venue – another good reason why it would be very special to fight for a victory tomorrow at this inaugural GP of Abu Dhabi.”
Red bull Racing
Christian Horner
“Firstly, what a fantastic venue. Abu Dhabi has done an amazing job and the track is a brilliant addition to the calendar. It was a good final qualifying session of 2009 – both cars comfortably made it through in to Q3 and both drivers delivered really good laps. Second and third is a very strong team result. Lewis is on pole by a reasonable margin, but we hope we can push him hard in the race tomorrow. It should be a really exciting finale to the season.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support
“A good team effort. Coming here, we didn’t think this track would suit us so well, so it’s a good result. Second and third is the best we could do today I think, especially when we see Hamilton’s pace – he’s very, very quick, so congratulations to him for his pole position. We’ll try to make life hard for him tomorrow and score the maximum number of points to end the season on a high.”
Brawn GP F1 Team
Ross Brawn
“We went into qualifying in pretty good shape this evening having confirmed some of our conclusions on the tyres during the practice session this afternoon. The qualifying hour went to plan in Q1 and Q2 although we struggled, like many others, with traffic and achieving clear laps when the tyres were at their best. Unfortunately in Q3, Jenson suffered with a significant vibration on his last set of tyres which we are now investigating and this compromised his performance. However fourth position on the grid for Rubens and fifth place for Jenson is a good result. We should be in reasonable shape for the race tomorrow and are looking forward to the challenge of finishing the season on a high.”
Panasonic Toyota Racing
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis
“This qualifying was all about tyre compound selection and warm-up management, as well as avoiding the traffic. Generally we got it right even though of course we hoped to be a bit higher on the grid with both cars. Jarno was fighting for the top three all through the session and Kamui did very well for his second qualifying in Formula 1, his first in dry conditions. All in all it was a reasonably good result, our fuel load is competitive so we should have interesting race tomorrow. This is obviously the last race of the season and we definitely want to end on a high; we are in pretty good shape to do that.”
BMW Sauber F1 Team
Willy Rampf, Head of Engineering
“For our team it was a qualifying without any special excitement. Our result reflects quite accurately where we stand with our performance. As early as Q1 it was clear we had a very good chance to make it into Q3, and that finally happened. With the fuel load our drivers have on board we should be able to score a good result in the last race for the BMW Sauber F1 Team.”
AT&T Williams F1
Rod Nelson, Chief Operations Engineer
“It was a reasonably straightforward qualifying session, although we did expect the option tyre to come into its own in Q2, but this didn’t materialise, so we along with most other teams stayed on the prime tyre. We hoped that Nico had another couple of tenths in him to get among the BMWs just in front, but he starts from the clean side of the grid and he should have a competitive race. Kazuki was also looking competitive on what would have been his fastest lap at the end of the prime run in qualifying two but he ran a little wide in turn 14, got some dirt on his tyres and that unfortunately, was that.”
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Laurent Mekies, Chief Engineer
“A session with mixed fortunes: firstly Sebastien made it through to Q3 for the third time in a row and this is pretty much his level now,
being a regular Q3 contender, which is a positive aspect. Managing the session was more difficult than usual, as both tyre compounds were very close in terms of performance, needing a longer run to get the best out of them. We did not help Jaime much today, as he did not take part in FP3 because of a problem on the car and then in the afternoon, we had a few glitches on his car. Therefore, overall, I think he did the best he could today and we hope that tomorrow we can be competitive again and bring home some points.”
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Stefano Domenicali
“We knew it would be a very difficult session for us and so it turned out to be. Actually, we could not have expected much more, as we are well aware of our situation and we just have to try and make the best of what we have got. Once again, Kimi did a good job, giving his best on every occasion. It would be nice to end such a difficult year in a good way, which would mean securing our goal of third place in the Constructors’ classification, but tomorrow, we will be facing a steep climb all through the race. The situation is further complicated by the grid positions of our main opponents. All the same, the race still has to be run and in this sport, we have seen so often that nothing can be taken for granted. What we can be sure of is that we will give it our all.”
Chris Dyer
“Obviously, we are disappointed with this result, in both Giancarlo’s and Kimi’s case. The behaviour of the tyres was rather unusual, with the harder compound turning out to be the quickest. With Kimi, we used both types of tyre in Q1 to try and understand the situation, while with Giancarlo, we concentrated on the softs: unfortunately, we saw that the drivers who did not get to Q2 were precisely those who had done their best time on this tyre. In the second part of qualifying, Kimi did his best, but failed to make the cut to Q3 by a very small margin. We didn’t have enough speed to do it, which we need to do something about. I think we will witness an interesting race: the performance of the tyres will evolve still further and I think Kimi can possibly get a good result.”
ING Renault F1 Team
Bob Bell, Team Principal
“Today’s qualifying session was disappointing. We haven’t been competitive this weekend so the qualifying result didn’t come as a great surprise to us, although we did think that we might get Fernando into Q2 so it was even more disappointing not to achieve that. However, we remain confident for the race and we will exploit any opportunity that might come our way. We will prepare ourselves as much as we can for the race and will see what it brings.”
Force India formula One Team
Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer
“After our first runs in Q1 both drivers reported that their cars were reasonably balanced, but lacking a bit of grip compared to the earlier practice session today. It was then a strange situation as we ran a further set of option tyres with both cars and just couldn’t find enough grip to improve the performance enough for Q2. The car has been strong all weekend in race trim, plus there are some elements in this event that will add to the unpredictability tomorrow so we’ll do our utmost to finish the season with a strong race.”
