Formula 1
VETTEL TAKES POLE FOR THE USGP—
SEBASTIAN VETTEL: “It’s obviously great for the team to have both cars on the front row for tomorrow. It was a tricky session as the wind had picked up quite a bit since this morning; it does influence the behaviour of the car and it’s not that easy, especially in the corners, I wasn’t that happy with my first run in Q3, but I think I had a solid run at the end which was enough. It was very close with Mark, he seemed to get closer and closer as the weekend went on, so fortunately I was just able to stay ahead. I think he might have had a mistake on his final run. I’m very happy with pole position today, I like this place and the circuit and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It’s important to start on the clean side, so we’ll see what we can do.”
Car 2 MARK WEBBER:“I didn’t think I had done enough on the second run in Q3, we (Seb and I) both had two shots with two sets of options. The first part of my final lap was very good, I was happy with that, but I didn’t quite get Turns 19 and 20; if I’d done what I did there initially in Q3, it would probably have been enough, but I tried to squeeze a bit more out and it’s easy to load the car a bit too much in these conditions. Sometimes you’re happy and think you’ve given your best, but today it slipped through the fingers. Well done to Seb, he put the three sectors together and I put two and a half together. I just dropped it in the last sector and it’s not satisfying when you do that, but I’m still pretty happy with second.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER: “A fantastic performance from both drivers today in what was a really exciting Q3. It yo-yoed between Mark and Sebastian trading fastest sectors and in the end Sebastian, by the smallest of margins, managed to achieve the pole and a team front row lock out, with Mark joining him alongside. It was a great team performance and a great 40th birthday present!”
(Renault) THIERRY SALVI: “A great result in qualifying today, with another full front row. The gap between Red Bull and the third car emphasises the competitiveness of our package yet again: no one was able to go quicker in the US today. Both drivers challenged each other, with Mark being quicker on the first run in Q3 and then the other way on the final run. Now the baseline is done, we have to confirm that result tomorrow and push to the maximum from the start of the race. Let’s see how it goes.”
(Renault) THIERRY SALVI: “A great result in qualifying today, with another full front row. The gap between Red Bull and the third car emphasises the competitiveness of our package yet again: no one was able to go quicker in the US today. Both drivers challenged each other, with Mark being quicker on the first run in Q3 and then the other way on the final run. Now the baseline is done, we have to confirm that result tomorrow and push to the maximum from the start of the race. Let’s see how it goes.”