Sebastian, great pole. You only had a one lap run at the end but you edged it by seven one hundredths of a second yet again this season. A special feeling I imagine.
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it is. Again very close. Two runs in the end in Q3. The first one I was already happy with the car but couldn't really put the lap time in that I lost in the first sector, but in the second one I had a much better beginning to the lap. First sector is pretty straight, so there is not much you can do, just hit your braking points. Then the second and third sector here is quite entertaining with nice flowing corners but easy to do a mistake. I think in the last run I gave a little bit too much margin and lost in the middle sector. Obviously we have the possibility inside the car to check how fast we are actually going, so I saw that maybe it is not enough and I speeded up in the last sector again and fortunately, again as I said with very little margin, but enough for pole. I think it is a very good achievement from all of us, especially as yesterday wasn't smooth running at all. We tried something and it didn't work plus we had the puncture in the free practice on a new track which basically no-one knew before here. I had very little laps. This morning we tried to save the car a little and I only a few runnings, so I had to take whatever I could in qualifying out of these couple of laps but I was able to get into the rhythm more and more and was able to go with the track improvement and improve the lap times as well.
We have got different cars that are faster in different parts of the circuit with you, the Ferraris and McLarens. What made the difference for you today, do you think?
SV: Well, I think the difference in the end as I said with so little running yesterday and this morning was basically just to get into the rhythm. Some corners here are quite tricky to understand how they work, especially turn nine, ten then 11, the long left-hander which is nicely cambered but then leads into an off-camber right hander, turn 12. There are a lot of things you have to understand, how much kerb, a little bit too much and you go into the dust which then affects the next corner, so it wasn't easy but I think, as usual, when it comes to corners we know that our car is very good. On the straight line we are doing our best. Out F-duct is improving and getting better, so that helps, but there is not much we can do, so we have to fight back even harder in the corners.
Mark, you took a different tactic. A two lap run at the end. What did you lose and what did you gain?
Mark Webber: I wasn't that happy on the first timed laps. It was more comfortable and more stable I suppose for me to do two timed and it worked out okay. It was very, very close with Seb and I got second on the grid which is a lot better off than many other positions on the grid but it would have been nice to get pole. But in the end it is still a good position to start the race. We can still do very well from there and get a good result. Qualifying went to plan today, I would say. Pretty close, but not quite.
You are starting from the dirty side of the grid and here it is likely to be very dirty as it is a brand new track which you have been cleaning up for the last few days. How big a concern is that with the attack that is possibly coming from Fernando at the start?
MW: Fernando will probably be pretty solid off the line but it is not make-or-break for the World Championship. We will just get through what we can and press on from there. I am certainly still in a good position.
Fernando, you were fastest after the first runs in Q3. Where did it get away from you today?
Fernando Alonso: I think it was a nice qualifying, nice smooth qualifying. Q1 we were a little bit quicker than we thought, so we found the pace straight away with the prime tyres. We put the soft on for Q2 and the car was again very, very quick, so in Q3 we knew that we had a little possibility, not too much as we know that when we arrive at the crucial moments in Q3 Red Bull is normally pushing a little bit more and being a little bit quicker than everybody. With not too high expectations we went into Q3. We have to give our maximum again once more, one race again. I think P3 again once more was our maximum potential today which in a way is very good news as normally qualifying is not our strongest point of the weekend and here it seems that we are quite close to the Red Bulls, so looking good for tomorrow.
What is the plan for attacking the Red Bulls during the race?
FA: First of all we need to see the forecast. Still some doubts about the rain possibility, especially in the morning, so we need to be very calm, we need to finish the race. That is the first priority. We are five contenders at the moment and maybe tomorrow not all five finish the race, so we cannot be one of those that doesn't finish as we need to keep scoring points every race and I am sure if we do that we will be very happy tomorrow afternoon.
Sebastian, pole and the win in Japan. Pole today. Is this your sprint finish to claim the championship?
SV: I wouldn't mind. You have to take every race as it comes. Japan was obviously nice but now we are in Korea. All the focus is on tomorrow's race but today I am very happy given the difficulties we had throughout practice on a new track, not able to get into the rhythm, I think it was a very good achievement from all of us. The car was quick no doubt but still you need to get it done. The most important was never to lose the focus, remain calm, which I think we all did and we knew that we had enough, so we went into qualifying confident. Our job is done today, so we will see tomorrow.
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