Abu Dhabi GP - Saturday
From the 2009 season, the FIA is making public the weights of the cars, with their fuel load included, following Saturday's qualifying session.
Below is the
weight of each car following qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix,
sorted by qualifying position.
1. Hamilton
McLaren-Mercedes 658.5
2. Vettel
Red Bull-Renault 663.0
3. Webber
Red Bull-Renault 660.0
4.
Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 655.0
5. Button
Brawn-Mercedes 657.0
6. Trulli
Toyota 661.0
7. Kubica
BMW-Sauber 654.5
8. Heidfeld
BMW-Sauber 664.0
9. Rosberg
Williams-Toyota 665.0
10. Buemi Toro
Rosso-Ferrari 661.5
11. Raikkonen
Ferrari 692.0*
12. Kobayashi
Toyota 694.3*
13. Kovalainen
McLaren-Mercedes 697.0*
14. Nakajima
Williams-Toyota 704.0*
15. Alguersuari
Toro Rosso-Ferrari 696.5*
16. Alonso Renault 708.3*
17. Liuzzi Force
India-Mercedes 695.0*
18. Sutil Force
India-Mercedes 696.0*
19. Grosjean
Renault 710.8*
20. Fisichella
Ferrari 692.5*
* Declared weight
Drivers: 1st - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1m 40.948s; 2nd - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 1m 41.615s; 3rd - Mark Webber (Red Bull), 1m 41.726s.
Q: Lewis, your fourth pole in seven races. You have been on fire here all weekend in Abu Dhabi. Was it as easy as it looked?
Lewis Hamilton: Like I always say it is never easy but it definitely was as fun as it looked. The car has been I think probably the best it has been all year. It seems to really feel quite comfortable on this circuit. What they have done here is incredible and I think it is just a real pleasure to drive here and when you have definitely got the car beneath you it is just a great drive. That lap for me, we could have thought about going a bit longer, but I don’t think we were particularly too aggressive but it was quite a smooth lap. It just kept getting better and better. I am very happy with it.
Q: Sebastian, you said coming into the weekend that you wanted to finish the year on a high. Second on the grid is a great way to start.
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it is. Just looking ahead both of us are a little bit surprised by the gap. Lewis has been strong all weekend and generally McLaren is very strong here and we could see already in Q1 and Q2 that it would be difficult to match them. But let’s see later when we get the strategies. I think it was the maximum we could do, so very pleased so far. I think tomorrow we should have a good race. The car is working well here. It just seems that our KERS button which we have on the steering wheel is not working, so it is not an easy one but let’s see tomorrow. I think we do have a good race pace. The car is getting better throughout the distance, so I am looking forward to tomorrow.
Q: Mark, two Red Bulls in the top three and the two Brawns just behind you. A great qualifying performance from you, but do you think you can hold the new champions behind you?
Mark Webber: We hope so. The grid tonight is the story of the second part of the championship. Lewis has been here and there at a lot of venues, clearly they are very strong here and we will see when we get the weights, but also Seb and I are pushing as hard as we can. I enjoyed qualifying tonight and Brawn are there as well, so it is very much a message of how the second part of the championship has gone. I was pretty happy, considering when I did my lap within the session, as obviously other people can run after, so I was pretty happy.
Q: Lewis, new circuit, new country. Your feelings on this Yas Marina track and the job that they have done here to create it?
LH: Coming here I had not really seen any pictures. I had seen perhaps a picture of the hotel or something, but the place is just stunning. They all said it would be a great event, but it is mind-blowing. What they have been able to create here is really fantastic and I expect more and more people will want to come here in the future. It is a great race to come to. I definitely will try to bring my family next time. It is a great country, it’s a great part of the world. We came to Bahrain. I have been in Bahrain. I was there earlier in the week, then we came through to Dubai and then here. The weather has always been great. The people have been so respectful and so welcoming and I am sure we are going to put on a great show for everyone, so fingers crossed it is a great day tomorrow.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis were you ever not going to be on pole? You have been dominant so much this weekend.
LH: Anything could have happened. Clearly we have been very competitive all weekend and the car has felt great and I didn’t have any particular doubts in my mind whether we could have done it. But it is still finding the gap, getting your tyres up to temperature, all these different things and it is easy to make mistakes but fortunately I didn’t and put a really nice lap together. Very, very happy with it.
Q: What is suiting the car here particularly? The lack of slow corners, KERS worth four-tenths-of-a-second Heikki (Kovalainen) said yesterday.
LH: Yep, it is the same at every race. You ask that question at every race. KERS, when you press that button, is worth four tenths pretty much everywhere. Three to four tenths. Here in qualifying it is around four-tenths, but obviously you have got to use it to optimise it and get the maximum from it but it works really well. The great thing is the car is working and feeling better than it has all year, so it is such a great feeling for me in the car and also for all the guys. What a great job they have done all year and what a great way to finish at least our practice session and our qualifying session and I want to go out and do the job tomorrow.
Q: What’s the circuit going to be like to race on? A lot of people were worried that off line it might be dirty.
LH: It is always dirty off line but it is not going to be somewhere like Montreal with all the bubbles off line. I don’t think it will be a problem. I have been off line a couple of places and it wasn’t too bad. The track surface, I mean we are always trying to improve other circuits saying the kerbs should be good here or we could improve the rumble strip here, but I can honestly say I think they have really done almost a perfect job at this track. They have really done a good job with the layout, with the track. It is very, very smooth. The kerbs are nice and in the right places and I think for the racing it looks very safe. I think there are quite a few opportunities to overtake, so it should be quite an exciting race, especially for the spectators here.
Q: How was the car on the option tyre?
LH: For me the option and the prime are pretty much the same. Normally we see quite a big difference between them with obviously the option being a lot quicker and a little bit grippier. Here I generally find it is very, very close. There is a different kind of warm-up, different way of using them, but I preferred the prime. For me they just seemed to be a little bit more consistent throughout the lap but no doubt the track will get grippier, so who knows what tyre we will use tomorrow.
Q: Sebastian, what was the tyre choice like for you? Is it fairly simple?
SV: Well, I think it was pretty much the same for everyone. It is difficult to point out how much there is between the tyres. I think you could see that we also favoured the prime. Overall, back to qualifying, I think it was the maximum we could do. Just a little bit surprised by the gap in the end. You know, seven tenths in qualifying is quite a big gap. Looking at the sectors, sector two I think, there are maybe a little bit too many straight lines for us, so we don’t have the button. We do have it, but it doesn’t work.
Q: Was there much difference as the natural light changed?
SV: Well, it is a little bit, but you get used to it quite quickly, so you have to deal a little bit with the visor and use a darker one maybe to start and then a lighter one for the end as when the sun goes down it is a little bit darker. But it is not a big problem. I think they have done a very good job here, similar to Singapore. Even though the lights are further away I think they seem to be strong enough to make us see all the track.
Q: Mark, what about this McLaren performance? Do you think you can take the race to them tomorrow?
MW: Easy. We are not stopping tomorrow. We don’t do a pit stop. We just put the option on for the last lap and we jump them like that, so pretty straightforward.
Q: Sounds a great idea. What’s the truth?
MW: No, look, they did good job. No question about it. They are quick. I am a bit surprised by Lewis’s time, both of us are, but we did our best. As I said before it is a reflection on the second part of the championship with Brawn sitting there as well behind us. These are the guys who have been there most of the season and here we are again, ready to go tomorrow. I enjoyed quali(fying) actually. As always you want a bit more out of it, but it was a good job by the team. We want to finish on a high and we have laid the foundations for a reasonable race tomorrow.
Q: Tell us your thoughts on the circuit, particularly for the race tomorrow?
MW: It’s a pretty good track. I would say the first sector is nice. It’s always difficult to make a track with lots and lots of quick corners because obviously you need a lot of run-off, so I can understand it’s easier in terms of space to have a lot more slower speed corners finishing the lap here. So the rhythm of the lap goes a little bit, especially in turns 11, 12, 13 - all that section up there is a little bit Mickey Mouse, but it’s unique in quite a lot of areas, I would say. Yeah, it’s a pretty good track. For overtaking, there’s obviously a very long straight, that’s clear, but I think everyone’s running pretty similar wing levels for their cars, so it’s not like Interlagos or some other tracks where you maybe have a different opinion on end-of-straight speed. It’s not going to be Interlagos, don’t worry about that, but it might be better than Barcelona.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Sana Bagersh - Abu Dhabi Tempo) What are each of you going to do between now and tomorrow’s race, to prepare mentally or physically? Any specially rituals, any relaxation techniques?
SV: Sleep. It’s quite late already. I think everyone has his own way to get prepared. Obviously everyone is trying to get a good night’s sleep, rest, then tomorrow. I don’t know what the others do, if they have a dance or whatever. I think, for myself, dancing for rain would be pretty useless here, but yeah, just trying to go through. Obviously later we will know a little bit more about strategy and then just trying to prepare, to focus on the start and then seeing how the race goes.
LH: Yeah, same for me really. A little bit different to some of the other tracks. The climate change: it’s so much hotter here, so the race will be very tough tomorrow, so you could perhaps focus on the preparation a little bit more in terms of the amount of rest you get, the fluids through the night, drinking plenty. I will probably have to make a pit stop during the night, because you’ve just got to drink as much as you can for the race tomorrow. And then just good food, we’re staying in town and I’m just going to enjoy myself, make sure I enjoy the weather, might sit on the beach, just relaxing things. I’ve got the girlfriend with me, so just relax.
MW: Yup, pretty similar: yeah, good sleep, good food and I get to the track as late possible tomorrow. No point in getting in too early. But generally the GP2 cars have been my wake-up call at the hotel, so I will sleep until they start up. But it’s very easy for us, we’re staying close here, so relax, there’s no hassle with traffic like some other venues we have like Brazil or in Shanghai. We have a lot of tracks like that where there’s a bit of a palaver getting to the track but here it’s a lot more straightforward, so that helps our preparation.
Q: (Tomas Richter - TV Nova) It looks like the most difficult corners are those before the hotel and turn one. The race will be long and hot; first of all do you agree and secondly do you expect some difficulties during the race?
MW: Yeah, you’re right, there are some difficult corners in the last sector, there’s no question about it, it’s easy to get in there a little bit deep and not hit the apex cleanly. Turn one, you’re right, is the same. It’s easy to get a little bit out of the track there but all the guys are fit these days, there should be no problems tomorrow night. It’s a pretty long race but we’ve had worse. There are a lot of straights you can relax on, so this track is not that physically demanding, it’s just a bit warm.
SV: As Mark said, there are some difficult corners, not only turn one and 15, 16, 17. Turn one is still outstanding; it’s quite quick and it’s blind, so it’s very easy to overshoot, to make a mistake at the entrance and you have a long straight following, obviously turn two, three, four which is flat, but whatever you lose there you pay the price for. 15, 16, 17 is easy to lose the car on the entrance and if you go wide it’s very easy to go off-line and then it’s quite dirty, like everywhere else, but you lose a lot of time easily. Let’s see tomorrow. I think the start is the key, turn one, and then it will be interesting going down the long straight. Obviously I hope I will be ahead of Lewis or at least right on his back, and then have a good space. I hope that Mark and myself will have good space to whoever comes behind us.
LH: I don’t particularly want to comment just on those corners. I think turn one is obviously very important for the beginning of the race but it’s fairly straightforward. The great part of this track is that even though we do have a couple of high speed corners, maybe it will be tough to follow through two, three, four but it’s not difficult to stay behind someone through five, six, seven, so that means you can be close to them and have a good chance of towing them down the back straight. Also braking into eight and nine, again it’s easy to be quite close and then relatively easy to have another shot going down the other back straight. Clearly, then, it gets a bit tighter and a little bit harder to follow, but I think it should provide some good racing, being able to be a little bit closer than normal. You normally have the long flowing corners and you lose a little bit and then you have this long straight and you never really catch up. I hope – I feel it’s designed quite well.
Q: (Vajta Balazs - Autosport Es Formula) For all three drivers: the last two or three days we’ve basically heard only positive words about the track: how great it is, the facilities and everything else. I know it’s also very hard to name negative aspects about yourself, but can you name or point out some negative points about the track?
MW: We’re paid lots of money to say good stuff, obviously. You know that we get backhanders to say that it’s a great track, so we’re not going to say anything negative. The deal is done before we all arrive, so 20 drivers, we get a backhander, easy from there! It’s a great facility, it’s a good track.
LH: (to the journalist) You should try and get in on it!
SV: I think probably the worst thing is that you get a wake-up call from the GP2 cars, if you’re sleeping at the track. Other than that: similar. Just to sum it up as well, and what we all agreed on in the drivers’ briefing: we come to many new circuits, more and more and there are always bits and pieces which can be improved, but here everything is pretty much spot on: kerbs, everything.
Q: (Vajta Balazs - Autosport Es Formula) But were you expecting a boring race because of the track layout?
SV: No, I don’t think so. As they said, you have a very long straight here and the key is that you don’t have high speed corners leading onto that straight like in Shanghai. You have a tight corner leading onto the back straight, but it opens up and then it’s difficult to follow other cars, whereas here you have the complex of five, six, seven which is quite low speed and then obviously the longer straight, leading into another low speed section, eight and nine, which gives you another chance if you’ve used the tow and then stay close to whoever is in front for turn eleven. As we’ve seen in the GP2 race and also the Porsche SuperCup race it should be a good race tomorrow. You are always smarter after a Grand Prix distance but it looks promising so far.
Rubens Barrichello - 4th: "It was a good qualifying session for us today and I'm quite happy with fourth position and what we have achieved. The car is still very competitive but the Red Bulls and McLarens seem to be ahead of us here. It's been challenging to get the right set-up throughout the weekend as the sessions are taking place in very different track and ambient conditions. The car seems to improve towards the end of the day with the cooler temperatures so we can hope that the track comes towards us tomorrow. It's very close with Sebastian for second position in the Championship and I'll be going to be flat out for the best result."
Jenson Button - 5th: "The car has felt good here all weekend and the first two sessions went well in qualifying today. Unfortunately in Q3 when we were running with high fuel and new tyres, I started to get massive vibrations every time that I hit the brakes which made the steering wheel shudder. With such a smooth circuit any kind of vibration just leads to understeer which made the car quite a handful to drive. It's frustrating as we had the potential for a better performance today and should have been challenging for the first row behind Lewis. Hopefully we can solve the issue before the race and I'm looking forward to a good fight tomorrow."
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."
Qualifying session
G. Fisichella: 20th 1.42.184 12 laps
K. Raikkonen: 11th 1.40.726 8 laps
Chassis: G. Fisichella 280, K. Raikkonen 279
Weather: air temperature 30/29 °C, track temperature 35/31 °C.
Definitely a difficult qualifying for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Only one of its drivers, Kimi Raikkonen, making it through to the second session and he then just missed out on the cut for the final shoot-out by a few hundredths. The final result sees Kimi in eleventh place and Giancarlo Fisichella in twentieth. “We knew it would be a very difficult session for us and so it turned out to be,” said Stefano Domenicali. “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.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “Today we got the most out of the car, but we did not have the necessary performance to make it into Q3. Already yesterday, we realized that it would be tough, so this result is definitely not a surprise. Tomorrow, we will try to do our best, but it’s certainly not going to be an easy race, even though we should definitely be more competitive in the race than in qualifying. What I can say is that eleventh place is better than tenth, given that I will start from the clean side of the track and can choose the ideal fuel load. It will be hard to get third in the Constructors’, because the McLaren is very competitive. We will have to try and get some points and hope for a bit of luck.”
Giancarlo Fisichella: “We knew it would be tough, but I don’t think we could have expected much more. In the first and second sectors I was reasonably competitive, but in the final one I had a lot of understeer. Tomorrow will be hard, but I know I can manage a strong pace: we will do our best to get a good result. I am disappointed not to have been able to do better in these races with Ferrari as it would be nice to reward the team that has had trust in me, by bringing them some points. It has not been easy adapting my driving style to a car that is particularly difficult to drive and at a time when, more and more, it felt the effects of the ending of its development programme.”
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.”
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development
What was significant about today's running?
"Today was about further learning the track and it still has a few tricks. We were treated to an exciting qualifying session and one where our harder tyre proved to be the quickest for pole position. Lewis Hamilton did a great job, particularly with his 1min 39.695secs time on the medium in Q2. Track conditions continue to improve so tomorrow's race should be fascinating on many levels."
What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow's race?
"Our information shows that neither tyre suffers particularly from degradation or wear. The medium tyre is very well suited to this track. It has good grip and its performance is consistent, meaning that lap times should fall as the cars get lighter. Based on the information so far the major race tyre strategy consideration will be minimising use of the soft. However, as the track is still improving so we could see better performance from the soft tomorrow."
Adrian Sutil - 18th: A very short session with a lot of problems. The car didn't seem to have any grip at all, particularly on the rear, and there was just so much oversteer that I was just struggling to keep the car on the circuit. I'm obviously very disappointed and we need to figure out what happened. The focus will now be on the race; there's still a long way to go and of course I will try my best to get a good result.
Tonio Liuzzi - 17th: I was pretty happy on the first run of Q1 as the car felt really good and I was confident that we had the pace to get through to Q2. But then after we changed the tyres for the second run we had a strange problem in that the grip was not there any more. It felt weird to drive with so much less grip compared to the run before. Usually the tracks improve as we run more but this was very strange. We should have been in Q2 so we have to understand how this happened - whether it was the tyres or the tyre pressures, we need to work on this now. For sure with a lot of fuel we showed a really good performance yesterday but starting so far back will not make it easy, although in Brazil we did show that we can get very close to the points from this position. It will be difficult but I think 10th will be possible tomorrow, but points are always the aim.
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.
Lewis Hamilton - 1st: "My pole lap wasn't too aggressive. I was very smooth, and it just kept getting better and better. KERS Hybrid and the engine have been fantastic all season - and today was no exception – but it's the chassis that has really come good lately and we've brought them all together this weekend to create the perfect package.
"Even more encouragingly, this is all a work-in-progress for next year – and winning tomorrow would be a perfect way to end the season and raise our expectations for 2010. It should be an exciting race – I just want to go out and do the job tomorrow."
Heikki Kovalainen - 13th: "What a disappointing outcome to my qualifying. I got stuck in second gear during Q2 and that was it. I already had minor problems with the gearbox yesterday when it jumped out of gear, so it's frustrating when you have a car you can easily take into Q3.
"But I'm looking at the positives: the balance of my car has been good throughout the entire weekend, and it's been great to drive on this fantastic circuit. You can absolutely guarantee I'll be giving it my all in the race tomorrow and I'll be fighting from the first lap to the very last."
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."
AT&T Williams’ qualifying performance in Abu Dhabi this evening was solid if not to the team’s best measure this season. Nico Rosberg’s p9 grid slot provides the prospect of a points finish tomorrow afternoon, but the team will be looking to find sufficient pace on the Yas Marina circuit to defend its slender championship advantage over its nearest rivals. Kazuki Nakajima finished the day in p14, but has kept close company with his team-mate all weekend, and despite a poorer starting position, will be looking to make a contribution to the championship conclusion tomorrow.
Nico Rosberg:
The session went okay, I think 9th was around the best we could get out of today, we are definitely struggling on the open sections of this circuit, but points are definitely possible here and very important for us this weekend. From the 5th row and with a good strategy tomorrow, we can stay ahead of BMW in the constructors and I can hold 7th position ahead of Trulli in the driver’s championship. It’s a good track, not easy and very hot but this is also the last race for me with Williams and I want to do the best for this great team.
Kazuki Nakajima:
I’m a bit disappointed because I didn’t manage to put everything together in Q2, but there was still a reasonable gap to the first ten, so maybe I wouldn’t have made it into the final qualifying session anyway. The track demands that you are precise all the time and one mistake here is costly, which makes it pretty difficult. I don’t think it will be easy to overtake tomorrow, but because of the nature of sectors 1 and 2, we could have a pretty crazy first lap tomorrow, so I still believe anything is possible.
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.
Our Qualifying gremlins appear to have been banished as both the drivers put in top ten lap times at the Yas Marina.
After Mark missed out on Qualifying in Japan and Seb didn’t make it past Q1 in Brazil, things went slightly more to plan in the gathering dusk of Abu Dhabi.
Late surges from both Webber and Vettel in the final session secured second spot for Seb and third for Mark on tomorrow’s grid. The only man starting in front of a Red Bull Racing car is the only man who made it through to the top ten shoot-out in a Kers car: Lewis Hamilton.
Starting behind Mark is Barrichello, Sebastian’s rival in the battle for second place in the Drivers’ Championship and in sixth is 2009’s world champion Jenson Button. Behind him is Toyota’s Jarno Trulli followed by the two BMW drivers Kubica and Heidfeld, while Williams’ departing Rosberg is ninth and Toro Rosso’s Buemi make up the top ten.
The Ferrari Old Boy (And Sidelined) Club of Jean Todt, Michael Schumacher, Luca Badoer and Felipe Massa were all on the pitwall, but had little to cheer about as Fisichella was slowest of the day and Kimi failed to make it into Q3. They may have even less to celebrate as it looks unlikely they’ll move ahead of McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship and have to settle for fourth place.
Slightly happier scenes were seen in the Toro Rosso garage which uses the Italian’s engines. Sébastien Buemi (who celebrates his 21st birthday today) continued his good form, making Q3 for the third race in a row and Jaime Alguersuari again made it to Q2. Among those missing the first cut were both Renaults, thus depriving Alonso of a decent send-off.
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Sebastian Vettel (2nd, Q3 - 1m 41.615s):
“I think both Mark and I were surprised by the gap to Lewis. He’s been quick all weekend and the McLaren seems to be generally very strong here. We could see in Q1 and Q2 that it would be difficult to match their pace, so I think this was the maximum we could do today. I’m very pleased so far, it should be a good race. The car is working well here; it just seems that our KERS button, which we have on the steering wheel, isn’t working! But, let’s see. I think we have a good race pace and the car is getting better and better. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Mark Webber (3rd, Q3 - 1m 41.726s):
“A good day for the team - I’m happy to be starting near the front of the grid and we have a good chance tomorrow for a strong result. I’m surprised by Hamilton’s time, McLaren have done a very good job, no question about it, and it seems that this track suits them. We’re going to have our work cut out to beat Lewis tomorrow, but we’re going to give it our best shot. I think the KERS gives them a good advantage but, even without that, they clearly have a good car here. But, it’s a long race and anything can happen.”
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal:
“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.”
Robert Kubica (7th, Q3 - 1m 41.992s):
“Unfortunately I missed yesterday’s second free practice session. As a result I had no experience of the track conditions at this time of day. The conditions were completely different compared to the third free practice session. The lower temperatures had quite a big effect on the car’s balance. In the end qualifying in seventh is quite ok and I am optimistic that we can fight for points tomorrow.”
Nick Heidfeld (8th, Q1 - 1m 42.343s):
“I think my eighth position is alright. On the last lap there was a small chance to improve, but I had traffic with Mark Webber in front of me, and anyway there is no guarantee this lap would have been faster. If I take the fuel load into account, I’m happy with my grid position although I only really know the fuel load for our cars. The tyres seem to last here remarkably well, which means it could pay off if you stay out for longer. The light from the setting sun was a bit brighter than yesterday, but the circuit is built in such a way that you have to deal with it in only one corner, which anyway is flat. For our last race tomorrow I hope for all of us we can achieve a good result with points for both cars.”
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport director:
“The outcome of qualifying is more or less what we expected. It was good to see both our cars made it quite safely into the top ten. In the final part of qualifying the field was very close together again. However we ended seventh and eighth. Now it will be important to see when the first pit stops will take place. Technically today everything went without any problems.”
Willy Rampf, BMW Sauber 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.”
*Fernando Alonso - 16th: "It was disappointing for us to be out after Q1 as obviously I would have liked to qualify higher up the grid. Although the team have done their best to prepare the car, it just wasn't quick enough to set a better time this afternoon. Tomorrow I will do all I can to get the best result possible in my last race with Renault."
Romain Grosjean - 19th: "It was a difficult qualifying session today. We were missing performance but we still hoped to make it through to at least into Q2. We have done as much as we could, but sadly we were out in Q1. For tomorrow, it's important not to make any mistakes and to finish as high as possible."
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."
Jarno Trulli - 6th: "It was a difficult session because it was an extremely hard fight in hot conditions; the lap times were really close despite it being a long circuit. I felt I got it right in each session and I am happy with sixth place. It's fun to be fighting at the front of the grid so it was a nice experience again for me. Obviously you always want to be even higher but we have done a good job so far this weekend and we deserved to be in the top six. The car feels strong and I think we are looking pretty good for the race so I'm looking forward to the fight."
Kamui Kobayashi - 12th: "I was hoping to be in the top 10 here but it was my first time in Formula 1 to qualify in dry conditions, so I needed to get used to it. Free practice has gone well all weekend and the car felt good. Qualifying wasn't easy but in the end I was only a tenth or so away from the top 10 so for my first time qualifying in the dry it's not bad. I have been trying to focus on my race pace this weekend so I am quite confident for tomorrow. I will try my best and I hope to fight for the points again; we'll see what we can do."
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."
Sebastien Buemi - 10th: "I was hoping for a little bit better after finishing seventh in Q2, but I am happy with our fuel load which should allow us to be flexible in terms of race strategy. The car feels very competitive, as indeed it has been for the past few races and scoring points is a realistic target for tomorrow. The visibility is no problem so that should be fine for the race and the track is getting faster every time we go out on it."
Jaime Alguersuari - 15th: "Taking into account that I was unable to do any laps this morning, because of a problem with the car, I think my performance in qualifying was quite positive, especially as I was not completely happy with the aerodynamic balance of the car. I was not expecting to make it to Q2 after not running in FP3 on a track that is new to everyone. Looking back at my season, I think that getting into Q2 again shows I am making progress, but I still have a lot to learn. I hope I can have a nice race to end the season tomorrow."
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."
