Sebastian Vettel, 1st: “It feels great and I completely owe this one to the team. It wasn’t an easy start to the season for us and there was a lot of expectation, but I think more than anything it was about what we expected from ourselves and we didn’t match it. We’ve been working extremely hard on the car, trimming here and there and finding the right way to go forward. The boys haven’t had much sleep the last few races – it was a tough race last weekend in China and now here, so it’s good to put the car on pole for them. The car felt better all weekend, it wasn’t the smoothest qualifying session, I nearly went out in Q1, but it’s good to get the pole.”
Mark Webber, 3rd: “The car has been working better here. The first part of qualifying wasn’t easy and we both had to go again in Q1. It was a pretty decent session for me and my best qualifying performance at this circuit. Seb did a good lap for pole and we’re satisfied to both be at the front. The team has worked very hard and been very focused. We haven’t been too strong on Saturdays until now, but we have on Sunday. We can have a good race from there tomorrow; tyre strategy will be very, very important – a lot of drivers, including us, have used a lot of tyres already in qualifying.”
Christian Horner: “A great team performance today and pretty unexpected to get pole and third on the grid here. It’s testimony to all the hard work that’s going on here trackside and back in the factory to deliver that kind of performance during what was a really exciting and tight qualifying session. Sebastian was nearly knocked out in Q1 and Q2 and then put it on pole in Q3, which shows how tight it was and Mark was there all the way through. Hopefully we can have a strong race tomorrow.”
(Renault) Cyril Dumont: “It’s a good feeling to be at the top of the game after a few races where we were struggled a bit more, especially with our qualifying pace. The team is pushing hard to recover and understand the tyres more and it’s starting to pay off. I’m happy for the team and everyone who is working so hard. To start first and third is the best position for tomorrow on the clean side of the track, so I hope that we will have the usual, good race pace to convert our qualifying from today.”
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