Formula 1
VETTEL LEADS A RED BULL FRONT ROW FOR THE START OF THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX AT MONZA.
AND HIS 50TH POLE!
Car 1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Position: Pole Position, (3rd Practice – P1, 1:24.360)
“We didn’t expect to be so strong here, with both cars on the front row. It’s due to hard work from everyone in the team working long hours; we’ve had years where we’ve had a good car, but not a car that’s competitive in low down force trim, so in that regard we did our homework. This circuit has been a bit up and down for us, but this year it’s surely been more up so far! The car feels great, but let’s see what we can do tomorrow; we don’t get any points from today.”
“We didn’t expect to be so strong here, with both cars on the front row. It’s due to hard work from everyone in the team working long hours; we’ve had years where we’ve had a good car, but not a car that’s competitive in low down force trim, so in that regard we did our homework. This circuit has been a bit up and down for us, but this year it’s surely been more up so far! The car feels great, but let’s see what we can do tomorrow; we don’t get any points from today.”
Car 2 MARK WEBBER, Position: 2nd, (3rd Practice – P3, 1:24.677)
“After yesterday we thought we could challenge for the front row, but you never know and as we saw in Belgium and today, the grid can sometimes get a bit mixed up. But overall we stayed strong and have to focus on ourselves. The guys did a very good job; it’s not an easy track to pull everything together over one lap. The result is the maximum for the team and it was pretty much the maximum for me today; Seb has always been very strong here and he’s a tough nut to crack at this venue. I hope to have a strong race from there tomorrow.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER: “A fantastic team performance to get our 50th and Sebastian’s 40th pole position here in Monza. We’ve had a strong car all weekend, but it’s a track that hasn’t historically been our strongest, so it’s the best possible place to be starting tomorrow’s race from to try and convert today’s result in to a good points haul. The weather could be a factor tomorrow and there’s still a long way to go, but a really satisfying day today.”
(Renault) THIERRY SALVI: “We’ve looked strong all weekend, but you never take anything for granted here: delivering strong top-end power without compromising stability for the chicanes sees you making decisions on a knife-edge. We’ve worked to consolidate the inherent speed in the car and it seemed to continue to come our way today. Seb and Mark both did a great job to lock out the front row, which we can hopefully convert into the same result tomorrow.”
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m23.755s 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m23.968s +0.213s 3. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.065s +0.310s 4. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m24.132s +0.377s 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m24.142s +0.387s 6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m24.192s +0.437s 7. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m24.209s +0.454s 8. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.502s +0.747s 9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.515s +0.760s 10. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m28.050s +4.295s Q2 cut-off time: 1m24.776s Gap ** 11. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m24.610s +0.633s 12. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m24.803s +0.826s 13. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m24.848s +0.871s 14. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m24.932s +0.955s 15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m25.011s +1.034s 16. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m25.077s +1.100s Q1 cut-off time: 1m25.030s Gap * 17. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.226s +0.907s 18. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m25.291s +0.972s 19. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m26.406s +2.087s 20. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m26.563s +2.244s 21. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m27.085s +2.766s 22. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m27.480s +3.161s