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2007 Malaysia GP
Team Quotes - Saturday 7 April
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Fernando Alonso qualified second for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang with a time of 1m35.310. Lewis Hamilton's time of 1m36.045 puts him fourth on the grid in only his second Formula 1 race - equalling his qualifying position from the Australian Grand Prix. Qualifying took place with ambient temperatures reaching 34 degrees celcius.
Fast Facts
What was the focus of the practice session this morning?
The team was fine tuning the set-up on both cars and tried a few new things on Fernando's car in the process. A few changes had been made to Lewis' car
overnight which proved beneficial.
What is the team's view on the Bridgestone Potenza tyres available at Sepang?
Bridgestone has provided the teams with two options which both perform well and have relatively low degradation. The option tyre has a slight advantage on first lap performance but then retains a smaller performance margin than the prime tyre.
Ron Dennis: "The team has been working hard since Australia both at the track and back at base on closing any possible gap to our main competition. Qualifying seems to indicate that we have taken a step forward but whether this is enough we will only see in the race. Both the drivers and the rest of the team put in strong performances in tough conditions. We look forward to the race tomorrow."
Norbert Haug: "A thrilling qualifying session until the very end and I'm sure the spectators, both here in Sepang and in front of the televisions enjoyed it.
With two cars on the first and second row we equalled our Melbourne result. Fernando, Lewis and the team did a first class job. With all their efforts during the last weeks, it looks as if the team has taken a step forward. We now have to see what the strategies of our competition will be tomorrow to see where we really are with our race pace."
The ING Renault F1 Team endured a difficult qualifying session this afternoon at Malaysia's Sepang International Circuit. Under building clouds, in temperatures of 33°C in the air and 43°C on track, the team's drivers lost out in the second shootout phase of the qualifying session.
With P6 to P13 covered by just half a second, the competition was extremely close, and suffering from a lack of grip, neither driver was able to put their three fastest sectors together in the space of a single lap. Respectively, they missed out on the final phase of qualifying by 0.076s (HK) and 0.136s (GF).
While the overall level of performance is disappointing, the team must now focus on making the most of the situation – and racing for points in tomorrow's Grand Prix.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: We felt we had made progress before this race but of course, the notion of competitiveness is always relative – and it is now clear that some of our rivals have made more progress on this circuit. Having said that, it is equally true to say that we didn't maximise our chances today. Clearly the overall level of performance is disappointing, but we now have to knuckle down and make the most of the situation we find ourselves in. We will look to take full advantage of our freedom to choose the fuel load for both cars, and race hard through the midfield pack tomorrow.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations: From the team's point of view, the first thing we look for is equality of performance between the two drivers and, unlike in Melbourne, we clearly have that today. The midfield battle is exceptionally close, but we are not at the front of that group, and that makes life much more difficult. Starting from the second half of the field means we cannot realistically hope for a strong result, but we must nevertheless race well, and make the most of our opportunities. On the engine side, we were disappointed to suffer a recurrence of our fuel pump problems on Heikki's race chassis this morning, but qualifying ran smoothly – and we hope to see this continue throughout the Grand Prix.
Second race of the season and second pole position for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, this time courtesy of Felipe Massa. It is the sixth time that a Ferrari driver will start the Malaysian Grand Prix from pole, the 188th in the history of the Prancing Horse in Formula 1. It was Felipe's fourth career pole.
Jean Todt: Today's qualifying was very exciting, with the fight going down to the wire between us and those who seem to be our closest rivals. The changing weather, with the threat of imminent rain, rather mixed up the programme. Felipe put in an extraordinary lap and I am particularly happy for him after his troubles in Melbourne qualifying. Kimi did a great job to take third spot. We have taken an important step towards our targets for this weekend, but the key part comes tomorrow. The race here will be particularly tough on both the cars and drivers because of the high temperatures. As usual, reliability, strategy, team work and the performance of the drivers will be the factors that decide the final result.
Luca Baldisserri: A very exciting qualifying, closely fought to the very last moment! We are happy with the overall result, with Felipe on pole and Kimi starting right behind him. Qualifying was affected by the weather forecast and the risk of rain meant we had to change our plans slightly, especially in terms of how we used the tyres. The F2007 showed it has great potential and we are sure we can get the most out of them tomorrow, while well aware that it will be very difficult as we are up against very competitive adversaries.
The Honda Racing F1 Team drivers endured a difficult qualifying session in Sepang today with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello ending the session in 15th and 19th positions respectively.
Given the performance issues experienced here this weekend, the team was realistic about the challenge of today's qualifying, but was disappointed that both cars were unable to make it through to Q2. A gearbox problem with Rubens' race car confined it to the garage at the start of the hour-long session, forcing a last-minute switch to the spare car, which was not set-up for him. Q1 was therefore an even bigger struggle than anticipated.
Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director: "Jenson's 15th place qualifying position is disappointing but unfortunately it reflects the current performance level of the car. Rubens' position is obviously even more frustrating and less reflective of the car's current capabilities. We found a gearbox problem on his race car shortly before the start of qualifying and we had to switch to the spare car, which is unfortunate as he had found a good balance this morning and this had put him closer to the pace of Jenson. Tomorrow will be a tough race and we now have to hope that the good work we did on Friday on race set-up can give us some possibilities to improve during the race."
The BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers were both much happier with the performance of their cars in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Timing was crucial as the rain was threatening, but it just held off and Nick Heidfeld will start the race from fifth on the grid while Robert Kubica from seventh.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): After problems with the set-up yesterday, we are happy with today's free practice and qualifying. In Q3 we started sweating when we saw the first rain drops. Along with the rest of the teams, we changed to new tyres earlier than planned. Due to lack of time, Robert was not able to do another fast lap, otherwise we would have seen him with a better grid position.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): Overall we are happy with the performance of the cars in today's qualifying, but certainly we are not enthusiastic. For Robert we were too late for his last outing, and if he had had the chance he would have improved at least one position. Nick asked for the harder tyres for his last outing and improved his lap time. In general the cars have a better balance than on Friday. It was exciting to have to be ready to deal with the risk of rain, and in such a situation we have to be spontaneous and ready to change our schedule.
Panasonic Toyota Racing will line up with two cars in the top ten of the grid for tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix after a strong qualifying session at Sepang. Today's action all took place in Malaysia's usual sweltering conditions but overnight showers around Kuala Lumpur made the track green for morning practice. In the afternoon clouds threatened further rain throughout qualifying but the track stayed dry. The three sessions were hard-fought but both Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher made it into Q3 for the second race in a row. In the final shoot-out the Toyota team brought the crucial new tyre runs forward due to the threat of rain which didn't materialise. Jarno set the 8th fastest time with Ralf 9th. Toyota will now push to make the most of these positions and chase a strong finish in tomorrow's race.
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis: It's good to have made the top ten again to confirm our results from Melbourne. We also have good news that we are close to BMW and quicker here than Renault. But we can't help but be disappointed because we expected to be P6 at the end of qualifying. Various things didn't work out but mainly we got it wrong with the weather forecast. We were expecting a shower in the last moments of Q3 so we brought our new tyre run forward and that cost us a few tenths. At the beginning of Q3 we also saw that we hadn't put the valve cap on Ralf's rear tyre. He was losing air so we had to bring him in for an unscheduled pit stop. Once again we have prepared more for the race than qualifying and we spent most of the morning on race fuel. Jarno didn't even put in a low fuel run in practice because of an electrical problem at the end of the session. The tyres are closer than they were in Melbourne and the second spec is easier to manage but there is still quite a noticeable difference and the soft tyre is faster both over one lap and over a race stint. Now we must look for the best result possible tomorrow.
Christian Horner: Mark again made it through to third qualifying session, with David narrowly missing out. We took a bit of a gamble in Q3 and went for an early run in the session as all the weather forecasts were saying rain was due, but unfortunately it didn't come in time and Mark qualified in tenth position. I'm sure he'll be able to race strongly from that position tomorrow. David qualified in thirteenth, meaning we have the ability to choose his strategy tomorrow ahead of the race.
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer, Track Support: Qualifying went pretty smoothly for us. It was quite easy to get through Q1, then Q2 was very tight but Mark did an impressive lap and did just what he needed to get through. The car seems competitive thanks to some aerodynamic evolutions in particular and our engine worked without any problem today. We are satisfied with our pace although we know it will be a very close fight tomorrow. We will definitely be racing to score points!
Saturday's qualifying session for the AT&T Williams team at the Malaysian Grand Prix delivered a strong outcome for Nico Rosberg, who claimed 6th place on the grid for tomorrow's race. Alex Wurz by contrast was hampered by a technical problem which compromised his ability to progress into the later qualifying sessions and he will start tomorrow's GP from 20th on the grid.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: Well done to Nico who did a good job with the car to qualify on the third row, he's obviously pretty good round here as he showed in his second Grand Prix last year, and he showed it again today. I am sure he can race strongly from where he is and we have a good strategy for tomorrow. Unfortunately, Alex's car got stuck in a gear during Q1 which meant he didn't get a proper run in and as a result, he's down in 20th. We'll check the car this afternoon and correct the problem for the race.
At a hot, humid and frankly sweaty Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia, the Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team has qualified with Christijan Albers and Adrian Sutil in 21st and 22nd position respectively. In the first 15-minute segment of the session, both drivers completed two Qualifying runs of three laps on the medium Bridgestone Potenza tyre, recording their best times on the second of their flying laps.
Although filling the back row of the grid was ultimately a disappointing result, the team has made good progress with its new aero package and the medium Bridgestone Potenza tyres throughout the weekend and will continue to build on the developments in the race tomorrow.
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: Although being at the back of the grid is never a great result, we can see the aero upgrade we brought to the track has made a difference. It's just one step in our development cycle, and we will keep working on it throughout the year. This weekend though we've suffered being only team that hasn't tested at the circuit - we've been playing catch up too much and yesterday it was hard to find a clear direction to follow. We looked at everything overnight and Christijan found his car significantly better today and was much happier with the balance, Adrian less so, but with the experience we've now gained from these four sessions our race pace tomorrow can only be better.
Super Aguri has maintained its performance momentum from the opening race of the 2007 season and once again made the cut in to Q2 of today's Qualifying Session. In Q1, Anthony encountered traffic on his quick laps, but was still able to finish in 18th position. Takuma made it into Q2 by ending the first session in 16th position, however he was able to improve on his fastest lap time and will start the Malaysian Grand Prix tomorrow in 14th position on the grid.
Graham Taylor, Sporting Director: It's quite strange having a disappointed feeling when you've got a car through to Q2. We did not enjoy the best run in Q1 from a traffic prospective, especially for Anthony. He's annoyed at one or two of the other drivers who did not pay enough attention to their mirrors when he was on his performance lap and that cost him time. We got Takuma through into Q2, which is fantastic, and it's where we believe a Super Aguri car should be. We are a young team and we are all growing up and need to take this on the chin and move forward.
Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has set pole position in Sepang for the Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix with a time of 1min 35.043secs. He will be joined on the front row tomorrow by McLaren Mercedes driver Fernando Alonso.
Alonso was fastest in the first two qualifying sessions but Massa pipped him in the dying seconds of the final session to score his first pole in Malaysia and the fourth of his career. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) will start from third on the grid with McLaren Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton alongside.
Hamilton set the fastest time in the morning free practice session with a time of 1min 34.811secs. Massa was second fastest with Alonso third.
Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations: As forecast yesterday, the Bridgestone medium compound dominated qualifying with only one car setting its fastest lap on the hard compound. It was an exciting and close fought battle for pole position and we had different cars top the order in the sessions today. It was clear from the morning practice that the medium compound has an average advantage over the hard of half a second, but the story could be different tomorrow if the conditions get hotter and become more favourable for the hard tyre. We did see clouds today but these didn't frighten me. Tomorrow will be an exciting race and certainly a tough one.
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