The 24 men on the grid have their say on qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, where Lewis Hamilton took pole.
The drivers have their say after qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit
The 24 men on the grid have their say on qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, where Lewis Hamilton took pole and Sebastian Vettel ground to a halt on his in lap.
Red Bull
Mark Webber: "I'm pleased with that, it was a good qualifying and I felt happy with the car. The track temperatures moved around from the afternoon to this evening, so you have to be careful how the car performs, but I felt comfortable in all three sessions and got a good momentum. McLaren were strong, but we're in a good position and can have a good race from there."
Sebastian Vettel: "Third in Q3 was a good effort, but I should have done a bit better on the final lap. I had a little mistake in the final sector of my last flying lap, but it was still good to be third. I'm not sure what the issue was at the end, I was just told to switch off the car."
Regarding starting tomorrow's race from the pit lane: "One of the best ski jumpers of all times once said 'Every chance is an opportunity and as far as we are concerned there are still plenty of chances tomorrow'."
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton: "Those extra three-tenths came from my family!
"Our car works incredibly well around here. Our aero package really suits this track; the set-up was perfect, and everything came together perfectly for qualifying. My lap felt really great - I enjoyed it so much. I love this track!
"Still, I'm realistic: the race tomorrow is going to be tough. At the start, it's down to the team to make sure the clutch performs perfectly because the getaway will be incredibly important. Our race pace is very strong, but so is Red Bull's - and staying ahead will be tough, particularly with the double DRS zones.
"I really want to finish on a high for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. I'll give it everything I've got tomorrow."
Jenson Button: "I shouldn't really be starting this far back. All weekend, I've been pretty happy with the car, but, for some reason, we just couldn't find the pace in qualifying - and we don't know why.
"Obviously, our car is very quick around here - Lewis put it on pole by quite a margin - so there's some more time to find.
"While starting sixth will make the race more difficult, there are two good DRS overtaking zones, so hopefully there'll be plenty of overtaking. Also, our race pace has looked good all weekend, so I'm still feeling optimistic."
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso: "In all three free practice sessions, we were always around this position, so it would have been too optimistic to hope for more in Q3: a place between fifth and eighth was within our expectations going into the session and that's where we are. I did almost the same time on three occasions between Q2 and Q3, which means there was nothing more to come. I am pleased with the work we have done today, because we squeezed every last drop of performance out of the car.
"The updates we brought here have improved our performance but the others have not been relaxing on the sofa watching television while twiddling their thumbs...Usually, Saturday is the day we suffer the most, while on Sunday things always go better: let's hope that will also be the case this time. It's also true that with so little tyre degradation, the strategic choices are much more limited and so too the opportunities to make up places. We know that in the three remaining races, we must score fourteen points more than Vettel and that is our one and only objective."
Felipe Massa: "This is definitely a rather difficult and complicated weekend, at least up until tonight. We were hoping to be able to start a bit further up, at least on the front three rows of the grid. In Q3, I opted to run a different programme to my team-mate, partly because I only had one set of new Options available. Looking back, one could say that was not the best choice, but it's always easy to be wise with hindsight. I did not have all the updates we brought here: that was definitely not great, but looking at Fernando's result, it didn't make a difference.
"On the last lap I had a bit of oversteer in one corner which cost me a few hundredths: maybe I could have been eighth but it would not have changed much. Honestly, today it would have been hard to do more than this. Let's hope that tomorrow, thanks to a race pace that is traditionally our strong point, we can make up some places. This circuit seems to suit some cars particularly well: the McLaren was not this quick in the last three races, but here Hamilton took pole really smoothly."
Mercedes
Michael Schumacher: "My qualifying did not exactly go according to plan today. We changed our approach a little for the last run in Q2, and then I did not properly make use of it in the first sector and particular in turn one. So we are not quite where we would want to have qualified but I will certainly try to make the best out of my starting position tomorrow."
Nico Rosberg: "Qualifying worked out well for us today as P8 was our target and we were able to achieve that position. I'm ahead of a Ferrari and a Lotus so that's a good step, and we have made some improvements with our set-up work this weekend. Thanks to my mechanics today who did a great job to fix an issue with the brakes just before qualifying and make sure that the car was ready in time. It won't be an easy task for us to move up the field tomorrow but I'm looking forward to the race and to seeing what we can achieve."
Lotus
Kimi Raikkonen: "Qualifying was good. The car hasn't felt fantastic all weekend but we decided we weren't going to change the car's set-up from where it was for the last race. It was the right choice because in the end the circuit came to us in qualifying where the car was the best it has been so far here. We'll give tomorrow our best shot; Let's see if we can make a good start to get right behind the Red Bulls, and then we'll see what happens after that."
Romain Grosjean: "It wasn't a great qualifying lap for me today, and P10 is not where we want to be on the grid. In the last run in Q3 I had no grip so wasn't able to find more pace. The car had felt fine before that and we looked good through the other qualifying sessions. It just means I have some more work to do in the race and I think there's more to come from me and the car."
Force India
Nico Hulkenberg: "I expected a bit more from today, but it seemed that our car was no so competitive in the cooler temperatures because I felt much happier during final practice in the sunny conditions. So maybe the lower temperatures caught us out. I will start from eleventh, just one position away from the points, and I have a free choice of tyres so hopefully we can use that to our advantage to come away with some points."
Paul Di Resta: "I've been struggling with the balance and the car has been quite difficult to drive this weekend, so it was always likely to be quite a tough qualifying session. Our long run pace hasn't looked too bad but I'm just struggling to get the ultimate performance from the car.
"We're still in a reasonable position to try and score points and I'm feeling comfortable in the new chassis. We will play the long game tomorrow because I think it's likely to be one of those races where tyres will probably last longer than expected."
Sauber
Sergio Perez: "My last lap was a good one and I think this is just about the maximum possible for us here. Q3 today wasn't within reach, although yesterday I hoped it would be. I have confidence in our race pace and believe we will be able to score points tomorrow."
Kamui Kobayashi: "I have been struggling with the balance of the car since we got here. We did a lot of changes and managed to improve it to a certain extent, but I still had problems with the front brakes locking. This was also the reason for the mistake on my final flying lap in Q2. I hit the brakes, the front wheels locked and that was it. I think in race conditions we should be better, but it won't be easy to improve. The circuit allows for overtaking, but you also need to have the speed for it."
Toro Rosso
Daniel Ricciardo: "So far, it's been a harder weekend for us than we had expected. We definitely made progress today, compared to where we were on Friday, which is positive, but in the end it was not enough to move us higher up the grid. Everything went smoothly on my side of the garage, apart from losing a lap on the Prime, when my headrest was moving and I had to come in to have it fixed.
"I think this motivated me to then do two really good laps and the pace on the Option was okay, showing we had made progress again, not just from yesterday, but also from this morning. However, we are not where we want to be. Strategy will be a key to having a good race tomorrow and like in India a one stop could be possible for some cars."
Jean-Eric Vergne: "It's quite frustrating to fail to make it to Q2 today. We have been struggling all weekend with understeer and we are still trying to do our maximum and I was pushing a lot. We really only had one lap to see where the balance was this afternoon and the car seemed to be going the other way towards oversteer and I made a mistake.
"That doesn't mean I will have to fight the car all the time tomorrow, because there are still things we can do like playing with the front flap and tyre pressures to improve the situation for the race but it's going to be a tough night tomorrow."
Williams
Pastor Maldonado: "It was a difficult session, especially in Q2 as we were on the limit in P10, but I saw the potential in the car. We then found a great balance in Q3 and I'm happy that we are back to looking strong again. I think we showed throughout all the weekend that we are competitive and I did my best in qualifying. I'm really happy for the team, for myself and looking forward to the race tomorrow. Points are very important for us so I will be pushing to the maximum."
Bruno Senna: "I never want to be out of the top ten in qualifying but this weekend we have had a few problems, so that is how it is. Hopefully tomorrow the car will be quick in the race as we have a competitive car. We'll work hard tomorrow and will still be trying to get into the points. For sure it is a track with some overtaking opportunities with the DRS so hopefully we can make some use of that and use it to our advantage."
Caterham
Heikki Kovalainen: "I'm pretty pleased with my final lap but I know there was more pace in the car. My first run on the medium tyres was ok but on the second run on the softs I had a problem with the DRS that meant I wasn't able to really attack the high speed corners and that cost me a bit of time. Despite that I think we're looking ok for tomorrow. The balance feels better with the lower track temperatures we had for quali and that'll most likely be the same tomorrow for the race, so hopefully I can have another good start and see how hard we can push the cars ahead."
Vitaly Petrov: "Honestly I'm a little bit disappointed with where I've ended up in quali today because I thought the car would be a bit quicker than it was. We had a slightly tricky FP3 and tried a couple of setup options to find a good balance and when I went out for my first run in Q1 it didn't really feel like I could push. It felt better on the softs and on my fastest lap I was looking good up to turn 17 but a bit of traffic after that held me up just enough to cost me time. The good thing is that the car definitely felt better when the track temperatures had dropped a bit so I think we'll be ok tomorrow."
HRT
Pedro de la Rosa: "We completed a good practice and qualifying session. I was comfortable in the car and I'm sure that I could have improved by a couple of tenths but surely the rest could have too. The car was running well and we had no problems with the temperature of the brakes or the engine at a circuit like this one which is so hot, so I'm happy.
"I think we've got good pace for tomorrow's race and the first objective is to get off to a good start and keep close to the Marussias. We should try to go for one stop, hope for the rear tyres to hold out and try and put some pressure on our rivals."
Narain Karthikeyan: "It was a tough qualifying session for me. It's my first time racing in Abu Dhabi and, being such a technical circuit, I'm finding it tougher than expected. I didn't manage to string together a good lap; I was running well on the first set of tyres but with the second set I found traffic and the rear tyres wore out before I could improve my time.
"Although I'm not entirely comfortable at this circuit, tomorrow I will give everything like always to try and put in a good performance and finish the race."
Marussia
Charles Pic: "I am really very happy with my qualifying session today. I had a very good car; the balance was almost perfect. I lost a little bit of time in the second sector of my quick lap and that is how Kovalainen was able to get ahead. I have to be happy with the lap though as it represents my best qualifying result of the season, so a great result for me and the Team.
"I have to say thanks to my car crew because they worked very late last night, but I hope today was some reward for their efforts. I am now looking forward to the race tomorrow; the start should be quite interesting with the cars around me. I also hope to be able to make the same progress as we did in India and keep improving through the whole race. The objective is again to stay in touch with the Caterhams."
Timo Glock: "Not a bad day overall but a disappointing end when it counted unfortunately. This morning, at the start of FP3, we struggled a little, but at the end we arrived at a good set-up. We carried this through to qualifying and seemed to have good momentum all the way through until the last, most important, lap when his car had no grip. Until then we were fighting hard with the Caterhams, so it's a little disappointing. So now we will have to go through the usual analysis tonight and see what we can find for tomorrow."
