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Team Quotes - Sunday 26 September

SEASON INFORMATION
13/01/2018

2010 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix

Team Quotes - Sunday 26 September

McLaren
Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: "Jenson drove an impressively solid race to bag 12 valuable world championship points, and was unlucky to miss out on a podium finish so narrowly.

"Lewis, too, drove a great race. We reckon he has good reason to consider himself rather unlucky, since he appeared to have pulled off a sound overtaking manoeuvre only to be bumped out of the race by the car he'd passed. But I guess that's motor racing.

"He's disappointed - we're all disappointed - but we'll regroup and continue to fight for both the drivers' world championship and the constructors' world championship.

"There are four grands prix left to run - four grands prix left to win in fact - and both our drivers are within a win of the drivers' world championship lead. So, yes, we're still within striking distance of taking both the drivers' world championship and the constructors' world championship, and that's what we're still intending to do our utmost to achieve. That's what Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is all about, in fact."

Mercedes
Nico Rosberg continued his run of points-scoring finishes today with a strong drive to take fifth place at the Singapore Grand Prix from seventh position on the grid. Team-mate Michael Schumacher had a more eventful race with two out-of-sync pit stops compromising his track position and he finished the 61-lap race in 13th place.

Ross Brawn: "We had a small grid advantage starting from the clean side and Nico was able to make up a place which was good. We then stayed out under the first safety car when almost every car behind us came in which made us a little vulnerable but I was very pleased with our pace which enabled us to control the situation. Nico drove an excellent race today with a competitive performance that saw him pushing the McLaren-Mercedes at various stages. Michael had a more eventful race and whilst it didn't quite go his way today, he persevered to the end of the race. It was a very good team effort to improve the car over the course of the weekend and another well-deserved points finish."

Norbert Haug: "Nico drove a very clever race and brought home the best result we could have achieved under our existing circumstances. Michael had an action-packed first night race in Singapore but he kept going which speaks for him and his car, posting some competitive lap times after his second stop for a new nose. Thank you to everybody in the team for the hard work that was done here in difficult conditions when working in the garage was like being in a sauna at times. Singapore is one of the very best places to stage a race and on behalf of Mercedes-Benz, I would like to give our compliments to the organisers who have built up a benchmark race in a very short period of time. Our learning process is taking our team in the right direction and I am sure that we will have a better car and results next season. We are looking forward to the last four races and everyone will work very hard so that our team and drivers can compete with the leaders in the seasons to come."

Red Bull
Christian Horner, Team Principal: First of all a fantastic team performance to get a double podium with second and third. Both drivers drove excellent races today. We took a bold decision with Mark early on to stop him behind the pace car, which meant going a long way on the prime tyre. He managed to make it work by making some great passing moves and he had great pace. The incident with Lewis Hamilton was a racing incident. It seemed to be caused by a back-marker who cost Mark a lot of time and enabled Lewis to get a run. He squeezed Mark too much, so Mark didn't have anywhere to go through the corner and there was contact. Sebastian made a good start and harried Fernando for pretty much two hours. It's very, very hard to overtake here in Singapore and he gave it his absolute best. We were going for the undercut, but unfortunately Ferrari covered us, which meant we had to overtake on-track. Sebastian continued to push Fernando all the way to the chequered flag. It's a great team result on one of the hardest circuits on the calendar and we've extended our lead in the Constructors' Championship and Mark has extended his lead in the Drivers', with Sebastian closing in also. It's a positive weekend and congratulations to the team who have put in endless hours at the circuit and a lot of hard work at the factory.

Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support: An excellent result and a very good recovery from yesterday. Our strategists again did a very good job by choosing to stop Mark during the first safety car. It was a big risk, but was rewarded. Due to that and the big performance from Sebastian we got a second and third, which is very good for both Championships. Congratulations to the whole team, we are in very good shape for the last four races of the season.

Ferrari
Fourth win of the season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, the second in a row, with all of them obtained by Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard thus takes his twenty fifth victory from 155 Formula 1 starts, the second at this track. Fernando thus joins Jim Clark and Niki Lauda in the list of all-time winners, where he is now sixth equal with these two drivers. Having started last, because of technical problems in yesterday's qualifying, Felipe Massa was classified ninth. For Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, this is win number 214 from 808 Grand Prix participations, the first at Singapore.

Stefano Domenicali: This is an extraordinary result, which is down to an exceptional performance from Fernando, who once again proved what he is made of, in terms of driving ability and his mental attitude. The first and most important brick in this particular wall was put in place yesterday with pole position: if we had not started from the front, it would most likely have been impossible to overtake the Red Bull which proved to be so strong on track today, especially in the second half of the race. Qualifying was the key, this time in a negative way, to Felipe's race also: ninth place is definitely not a result that matches his or the car's potential, but starting last, it would have been hard to do better on a track where overtaking is very difficult. The team matched the performance of the driver, working perfectly in managing all the key moments and a major component of this victory is obviously down to everyone in Maranello, who gave their all to bring the F10 up to this level. As is traditional, I want to thank all our partners: the title sponsor Marlboro, Santander and the technical partners, first and foremost Shell, although I would actually like to name all of them. I am not the sort to feel defeated in difficult moments, but all the same I am delighted when we have happy ones like this. We have picked up two very nice wins in a row on tracks with completely different characteristics, but we are still behind in both championships: we must continue to work like this, if at all possible, multiplying our efforts to try and fight all the way to the finish. The maths will be done only at the end, on 14th November in Abu Dhabi.

Chris Dyer: A fantastic result thanks to an incredible performance from Fernando, first yesterday in qualifying and then today in the race. Honestly, I do not think we had an advantage in terms of performance over our rivals, but at least they did not seem to have enough of one to be able to overtake us comfortably. We had to get a clean start, doing quick laps when necessary, choosing the right moment for the pit stop and being ready to manage any eventual Safety Car periods: a lot of elements to put together to get the win and that's how it turned out, with no mistakes made. All of this is also thanks to a team that worked very well, making the most of the potential of the car. As for Felipe, clearly he had to gamble on a Safety Car, given his grid position. Unfortunately, that did not work out well, because the race was neutralised too early: a few more laps and it would have been another story for him: all the same, a points finish is a good result, given the outlook at the start.

WilliamsF1
The AT&T Williams stayed on course with its ambition of achieving double points race finishes and progressing its position in the constructor's championship after the Singapore Grand Prix today. Rubens Barrichello led the team home in sixth place, while Nico Hulkenberg put up a determined performance from 17th on the grid to finish the race in eighth place.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: It was a good points score from both cars today. Rubens start was poor so he lost two positions immediately. Nico had a great start and first lap. Then on the first Safety Car we decided to split the cars on strategy and it worked out for both of them. Nico did well to score points from his grid position. FW32 has been progressively stronger, and we intend to continue the trend in Suzuka.

Note: Further to a Stewards' enquiry following the Singapore GP, Nico Hulkenberg was adjudged to have left the track and gained an advantage on the opening lap of the race and has been penalised with a 20s penalty. Therefore, his final race classification is thus P10.

Renault
Eric Boullier, Team Principal: Overall, it's a disappointing and frustrating result because we scored very few points, while our nearest rivals Mercedes did a better job than us and stretched their lead today. Robert's puncture forced him to make an extra pit stop, and he drove superbly to fight back to seventh: it was the highlight of the race to see him make up six positions in nine laps. As for Vitaly, his race was compromised by a very ambitious manoeuvre from Hülkenberg, which cost him three places and some valuable points. We now must look forward to Suzuka and hope for a better level of performance across the weekend.

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: It was a pretty exciting afternoon - but we'd have preferred a more boring race and more points. Our car didn't have the pace to stay with Rosberg today, and it was hard to do anything creative with the strategy when everybody was making just one stop. Robert was headed for a sixth-place finish before his puncture, and he then did an excellent job to climb back up the order. We stopped Vitaly under the first Safety Car on lap three, and he was in a very good position when he tangled with Hülkenberg. That cost him a guaranteed points finish.

Remi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations: It was a tough race for both cars. Robert and Vitaly both made very competitive starts and were in good positions in the opening stages, but we ultimately lost ground to our main rival in the championship. For the engines, it was a very easy race: the temperatures were well under control, and we had no problems to push all the way through. It was the second race for both engines and, as per our plan, these units will not be raced again.

Force India
The Force India F1 Team picked up further points to add to its 2010 championship tally in today's Singapore Grand Prix. Adrian Sutil put in a fighting drive to eighth position despite starting from 15th on the grid. Adrian moved up through the field thanks to a creative strategy that saw him pit on lap three under the first safety car period. When the rest of the field pitted he moved steadily up the order to secure four points.

Tonio Liuzzi had a frustrating race after an incident on the first lap pushed him into the wall. At first it appeared Tonio had not picked up any problems, but the right rear suspension had been damaged in the impact and gave way the following lap.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: We knew Singapore wouldn't suit us as much as other tracks but we got the best outcome we could today. We got back in the points again - every single one counts at this stage in the championship. Adrian drove a great race, keeping a whole stream of cars behind him on very used tyres, and deserved his eighth position. Unfortunately Tonio retired early on after a racing incident. Given how qualifying went yesterday, to get one points finish is satisfying and we can now move onto the circuits that should work more to our advantage.

Note: Following a stewards' enquiry the Force India F1 Team's Adrian Sutil was handed a 20 second post-race drivethrough penalty for leaving the track at turn seven on the first lap of the Singapore Grand Prix and gaining an advantage. The penalty demoted Adrian to 10th position.

However the Stewards upheld a protest stating that Nico Hulkenberg had also left the track on lap one of the race and gained an advantage. The Williams driver was also awarded a 20 second drivethrough penalty. With the combined penalties Adrian thus moves to ninth position overall.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: Naturally I'm very disappointed to lose eighth position but we minimised the loss when Hulkenberg was awarded the same penalty. Onwards and upwards to Suzuka now where we hope to add even more points to our total.

Toro Rosso
Franz Tost: Unfortunately, on his laps to the grid, we noticed there was a water leak on Jaime's car and as we were unable to fix it before the pit lane closed, he had to start from the pits. This was a shame, as it meant he was unable to make the most of his best qualifying performance of the season, which had seen him secure eleventh place on the grid. After that, he drove a good race. As for Sebastien, on the opening lap, he told us he thought he might have a problem with the front wing, after making contact with another car. Therefore, we called him in during the first Safety Car period, changing his tyres and the nose section. Later on, he was unable to get past Petrov, so we decided to bring him in again for fresh tyres, after which he passed his team-mate. He was still unable to catch Petrov and when Kubica, on fresh tyres passed both our cars, we again brought Buemi in for new tyres, in the hope this would give him a performance advantage, but the strategy did not work. Overall, we should have got a better result, as the car had performed well throughout the weekend. Unfortunately, this evening a variety of circumstances kept us out of the points positions.
Lotus
A fantastic Singapore Grand Prix ended in spectacular style for Lotus Racing's Heikki Kovalainen after he pulled over on the start / finish straight and put out a fire in his car by himself that brought to an end a battling drive under the Singapore lights. Jarno Trulli had suffered a hydraulics failure on lap 26, which ended his race after both he and Heikki had made very good starts and had been fighting in the midfield in 15th and 16th in the early laps. A double pitstop under the first safety car period on lap three gave them both strong track positions which they both held until Jarno's retirement, and Heikki's eventual race-ending fire.

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: "The race tonight marks a major step forward for us. On the pitwall we were talking about beating Michael and Buemi in a straight fight on track, and we told Heikki to take the fight to them - not to take the conservative approach. If we'd taken the safer option maybe Heikki wouldn't have hit Buemi, but we're here to race, and that's what I mean about a big step forward. This is all part of our learning curve, but coming here and racing the Toro Rossos and Mercedes at the end of a pretty hardcore race is a sign of how far we've come. We'll take all these lessons into next year, and it can only help us be an even more potent force in 2011."

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "It was a very eventful race and a real shame at the end to see Heikki's race brought to an end with the fire. Both cars made a great start and got themselves in front of the Virgins which is obviously what we wanted to do. We stopped them both during the first safety car lap, which seemed to be the right call, and the pitcrew did a great job to get them both turned around as quickly as they did. Unfortunately Jarno then picked up a puncture from some debris on track and then a hydraulics problem brought his race to an end. We tried to get him back out, but after having done so the problems started again straight away so he had to come back in.

"Heikki clearly had a pretty dramatic race. When the fire started he made the decision not to come into the pitlane for safety reasons, and did very well to put the fire out himself. Until that point he was having a fantastic race and we were looking forward to fighting with Michael and Buemi right to the end, but unfortunately the fire put paid to that. The main thing really is to say thanks to him for being brave enough to put it out, and be thankful that he's fine after what was a pretty spectacular end to his race. After such a good race performance from him and the whole team, we will take some real positives from this weekend, and look forward to the last four races."

HRT
After showing good progress during the whole weekend in Singapore, Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team was very unlucky at its first night race. Both drivers, who were running at the Singapore Street Circuit for the first time, had to retire. Bruno Senna had to stop on lap 32 after not being able to avoid Kamui Kobayashi's car, who had gone into the wall just some seconds before. On the other hand, Christian Klien retired from the race on the same lap after detecting a hydraulic failure in his car during his second pit-stop. After an unlucky Sunday, the Spanish team is already looking forward to the Japanese Grand Prix.

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: "It was an unlucky weekend because we did not finish the race. As we knew that a lot of things could have happened on this track, we were in a good position after deciding to have an early pit-stop during the first safety car period. One car crashed in an unfortunate situation, and the other one had a hydraulic failure on the same lap. Now we have to look forward and think of Japan, which I think is one of the best tracks."

Sauber
Neither Kamui Kobayashi nor Nick Heidfeld finished the Singapore night race. Kobayashi was stuck for a long time behind Michael Schumacher, and after he had overtaken him he crashed into a barrier. A few laps later it was Heidfeld who was fighting with Schumacher, and who hit the barrier after a controversial manoeuvre by the Mercedes driver.

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: "Everything went against us today. We shall quickly leave that behind us and concentrate on Kamui's home race in Suzuka, which is important for our team."

James Key, Technical Director: "It's ultimately a shame not to finish. Our drivers had a split strategy to make use of the relative positions they were in. So we started Nick on the prime tyres, and Kamui was on the option compound from qualifying. With the very early safety car period we had to decide whether to pit Kamui or leave him out, and, like the guys around us, we decided to leave him out. Kamui got stuck behind Michael Schumacher, who was really slow and that cost Kamui an awful lot of lap time. Once he got passed Michael, Kamui had to push to the limit to get a gap to the cars behind him and to make the strategy work. Unfortunately in pushing he had an off, and that was the end of his race. Nick had a problem with his front wing and a puncture after a first lap incident, so we had to bring him in and give him the option tyres to catch up on. He then came in again during the second safety car period, and we put him on prime tyres, which would have taken him to the end. But then there was a racing incident which unfortunately saw him pushed out when he was the car in front."

Virgin
Virgin Racing's Lucas di Grassi finished the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix in 15th place, the only car from the new teams still running at the finish.

The team had opted to start with Timo on Prime tyres and Lucas on Options, and an early safety car meant that Timo would be forced to stay out, while Lucas, like his rivals, could benefit from the opportunity and switch to the longer-lasting Prime tyre.

At the restart, Timo was running in 10th place for nine laps, until the faster cars of the established teams were able to hustle their way past, and the team's focus switched to the battle for the new teams. Timo was running well, pulling out a gap to Heikki Kovalainen, who was in turn being hounded by Lucas. But before Timo could build a large enough cushion to pit and still stay in front, the Safety Car was deployed for the second time, leaving Timo no alternative than to pit earlier than planned.

The timing turned out to be disastrous for the team, as Kovalainen was ahead of the safety car and able to establish a whole lap advantage over Lucas and Timo. A fault in the hydraulic system forced Timo to retire with ten laps to go but Lucas continued to the finish, taking the new team honours when Kovalainen's Lotus spectacularly caught fire.

After a strong race helped by smooth and fast pit work, the team looks forward to the next race in Japan, with the expectation that the planned aero upgrades will further reduce the gap to the established teams.

John Booth, Team Principal: "Well done to Lucas who had a solid run to the flag to be the leading finisher for the new teams. He also set the fastest lap of the new teams. We tried a different strategy with Timo, starting on the Prime tyre and staying out during the first safety car. He had a good battle with the midfield cars early on, but was unlucky with the timing of the second safety car. Unfortunately he suffered a hydraulic problem towards the end of the race. Overall though it has been a positive weekend and once again the teamwork has been great."

Bridgestone
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Fernando Alonso won a thrilling and eventful Singapore Grand Prix with a Bridgestone super soft-medium tyre strategy at the Marina Bay street course.

Alonso led Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel across the line by a mere 0.293 seconds after a race long dice to score his fourth win of the season. Championship points leader Mark Webber finished third.

Hiroshi Yasukawa - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport: "Congratulations to Fernando Alonso and Ferrari for their second win in a row. Congratulations also to the organisers of the Singapore for putting for such a great spectacle. This race is very tough for teams and drivers but it gives us one of the most exciting events for fans and spectators set against the fabulous night time skyline of Singapore. I think that this will continue to be a strong event for Formula 1 with many new fans here. I believe that the Bridgestone brand has been promoted very well from here to the outside world."

Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development: "Today we saw another very exciting race. It was the first time this weekend that we had a completely dry track so there was a lot of track surface evolution. This made the strategies very interesting as we were all watching very closely to see how both compounds would perform. We could certainly see differences with tyre wear and degradation from different cars, car set-ups and driving styles. Both Fernando and Sebastian managed their tyres very well with very similar strategies meaning a very close battle between them for the entire race. Mark showed the durability of the medium compound by completing almost all of the race distance on the same set of tyres. Not only did Mark's tyres continue to deliver strong performance, but they also withstood the contact with Lewis. In this contact the front right tyre sidewall was pushed out of alignment with the rim, yet it retained its inner pressure for the rest of the race. We can say that this tyre displayed true Japanese grit today."

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