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2007 Europe GP
Team Quotes - Saturday 21 July
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Fernando Alonso will start tomorrow's European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring second on the grid after setting a time of 1m31.741. In the final part of Saturday's qualifying, Lewis Hamilton went off at Turn Eight, five minutes from the end of the session. The session was red flagged and continued after half an hour. If Lewis is able to race tomorrow he will start from tenth on the grid.
Ron Dennis: The main thing is that Lewis is absolutely fine with no injuries and no broken bones. He has been taken to hospital for a precautionary CT scan and we will know later today if he is able to race tomorrow. The accident was due to either a faulty air regulator or wheelgun causing the wheel nut on his right front wheel not to be tightened properly. The team is undertaking a full investigation to understand how this could have happened. Fernando could have been on pole today if it had not been for a small mistake but he has a good basis for the race tomorrow – particularly as he has been consistently quick through all the practice and qualifying sessions.
Norbert Haug: The most important news of today is that Lewis is OK and he is now in hospital for a precautionary CT scan. The accident was not his fault. What concerns the sport today: Fernando could have been on pole, however a little mistake cost him the amount of time he was lacking in the end, but what a great job from him to recover and put the car on the front row.
It was an afternoon of mixed fortunes for the ING Renault F1 Team's drivers during qualifying at the Nürburgring. Heikki Kovalainen will start from P7 on the grid tomorrow, his fourth consecutive top ten start, but Giancarlo Fisichella narrowly missed out on the final session (by just 16 hundredths of a second), finishing in thirteenth position. While the balance of the R27 was stable, both cars have lacked overall grip through the weekend, and the midfield battle was even closer than we have seen at recent races, with eight cars from P6 to P13 separated by just half a second in the second round of qualifying. Heikki will be able to race strongly from the fourth row tomorrow, while Giancarlo will aim to climb through the field to try and score points.
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: It was very difficult to get the car and tyres working together the way we wanted today, and we saw a substantial difference in our relative performance between the two types of tyre. After a run of races where both drivers made it into the final part of qualifying, it is clearly disappointing that only one did so this afternoon. We will need to assess the reasons for this when we get back to the factory next week but at the moment, our priority is to race strongly and to try and get both drivers in the points.
Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations: For any racing team, a good qualifying session in one in which both cars demonstrate an equal level of performance and perform to their potential. After a series of qualifying sessions in which we achieved exactly that, we were disappointed to fall short of our target this afternoon. The session demonstrated clearly that the top two teams are still ahead of the rest, and that BMW remain the third force. We are at the front of the next group, but the gaps are closer here than they have been at recent races. Now, we have to wait and see how consistently we can perform over 60 laps tomorrow afternoon and aim to continue our run of points-scoring finishes.
Sixth pole from ten qualifying sessions to date this season for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, the second one courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen. This is the third time that a Ferrari driver will start the European Grand Prix from pole position, the 192nd in the history of the Prancing Horse in Formula 1. For Kimi, it was his thirteenth career pole.
Jean Todt: A lot of drama in this qualifying! We got a real fright when we saw Hamilton end up in the crash barriers and it was a real relief to see him give the thumbs up to show he was okay. Then, it was all played out over one lap with both our drivers doing a great job, to finish first and third with Kimi and Felipe respectively, thus confirming the potential of the F2007. Clearly the race is the most important thing and as usual it will be very tough: reliability, tyre wear, performance and strategy will be the key factors. So far, we have been very competitive on this track and we will try and maintain that form tomorrow.
Luca Baldisserri: A good qualifying with one driver on pole and one in third place, overtaken at the very end by Alonso by just a few hundredths. We are very competitive and have been since the start of the weekend and we have managed to find a good balance on the cars, even on soft tyres. This means we can be confident for the race, while still aware that we are up against some very strong opponents and that when looking at today's results we have to take into account as always the unknown factor regarding the amount of fuel taken on for the first part of the race.
The Honda Racing F1 Team experienced a disappointing qualifying session at the Nürburgring today where Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button ended the day in 14th and 17th positions.
This morning's free practice session looked promising and a top ten grid slot was a possibility for at least one of the cars. In the end, Rubens missed out on Q3 by 0.3secs. He will line up on the seventh row of the grid for the start of tomorrow's 60-lap race with Jenson two rows behind.
Jacky Eeckelaert, Engineering Director: I'm disappointed with our grid positions today. We know that the race pace of our car is strong enough to fight for a top ten position in the race, however we still struggle to lay the foundations for that in terms of our qualifying performance. Rubens' car was quite well-balanced after some set-up changes we made yesterday. Jenson didn't have good grip or balance in qualifying which is surprising as he had been happy with the car on new tyres in free practice.
The BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, will start the European Grand Prix from fourth and fifth on the grid following a delayed qualifying session. Due to an accident involving Lewis Hamilton 5mins 13secs before the end of the third qualifying sector the interruption was for more than half an hour. The team was pleased to hear from initial reports that Hamilton was okay.
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): We are obviously very relieved the news is Lewis was not seriously hurt in his accident. Qualifying went very well for us, and we were very close to the front row. In the end Nick missed second place on the grid by just one tenth of a second. But we are very satisfied with grid positions four and five. This is an excellent position for our home race. Nick now has a half day off. He is able to fly home and hold his new son Joda in his arms, of course he will be back tomorrow morning.
Willy Rampf (Technical Director): The most important thing this afternoon is the fact, according to early information, Lewis Hamilton escaped his heavy crash without any injuries. I'm happy with our performance. This was the tenth time in a row that we managed to bring both our cars into Quali 3 - we can be proud of this. Of course, it's a shame Nick missed P2 by just one tenth of a second, but positions four and five are very good and put us in a strong position for the race. In addition, it's positive that the gap to the cars behind us is quite big. So far, we enjoyed an absolute trouble-free weekend which gives us all reason to hope for a strong race.
Panasonic Toyota Racing is looking forward to a positive home result in the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring after Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher qualified in the top 10 today. Qualifying started under blue skies in warm conditions, with track temperatures of 35°C, and both drivers easily progressed beyond Q1, with Jarno 10th, one place ahead of Ralf. Q2 saw both Toyotas in the top 10 but it was not without drama for Jarno, who spun at the Veedol Chicane in the final seconds. However, his earlier lap time was sufficient and he lined up just behind Ralf in the pit lane as the drivers waited for the green light in Q3. They had more waiting to do when the red flags came out with five minutes remaining, signalling a delay of over half an hour. When the session finally resumed, Jarno set the 8th fastest time, with Ralf in 9th, giving both drivers a platform from which to fight for points in the race tomorrow.
Pascal Vasselon – Senior General Manager Chassis: It was a bit of a disappointing qualifying session because the weekend was developing pretty much like Silverstone and we were expecting to fight for the top six. In fact both Ralf and Jarno were able to fight for the top six because they ended up within a few 100ths of a second of the cars in front but still, we missed out. That is quite disappointing. Otherwise the preparation to this session went really smoothly for both drivers and as a consequence we are reasonably well prepared for the race tomorrow. With the red flag delay late in Q3, we managed the last five minutes to make sure both cars could complete their laps without any traffic. We decided we would go with a strategy which minimised the traffic risk and everything went smoothly, except the final positions, which we expected to be better.
Christian Horner: Mark put together a sequence of excellent laps today. The first were in the second qualifying session, which comfortably put him into the top ten, and then again in Q3. It's a job well done by him today. David was unfortunate on his first run and then there was an issue getting his car out of the garage before his final timed lap, so he missed starting his laps by approximately two seconds. It was a mistake that shouldn't have happened.
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer, Track Support: Mark enjoyed a strong qualifying session this afternoon and did a very aggressive lap in Q2 especially. We are pleased to see that our package can be stronger than the Toyota and our other direct rivals. We have a real chance to score some points tomorrow and we will be racing hard for them. Unfortunately, on the other hand, we are very disappointed for David, he did not get the chance to set a good time through no fault of his own. He will have a difficult race tomorrow as it is particularly difficult to overtake here. However we must stay focused and seize every opportunity that comes our way.
The AT&T Williams pairing of Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz will line up in 11th and 12th places respectively on the grid for tomorrow's European Grand Prix. In one of the most closely contested qualifying sessions of the season so far, just one second separated the top ten at the end of Q2, with Nico and Alex missing out on a place in the deciding round by just one tenth of a second. The team will now have the advantage of selecting which strategy to run, while the temperamental weather conditions of the Eifel region could also promote an unpredictable result.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: It was frustrating not to get both cars into the top ten as we looked close enough all weekend to do that. However, from 11th and 12th on the grid, we're free to work with our fuel strategy so we'll put all efforts and concentration into that now. The long run pace of the car has been good as well. We'll now look to make some progress up the order tomorrow with the target of getting points.
Giorgio Ascanelli: Super-Aguri has done better than us today. Let's hope it's not the start of a trend. All we can do now is start taking a close look at what we are doing.
Spyker will start tomorrow's European Grand Prix with Adrian Sutil and Markus Winkelhock in 21st and 22nd positions respectively after a disappointing Qualifying session.
The team's all-German line-up struggled with balance and grip throughout the Qualifying and the earlier free practice and were unable to match the pace of the group in front. However, with rain predicted tomorrow and the Spyker F8-VII's pace much improved over a race distance, both Adrian Sutil and Markus Winkelhock will be hoping for improved fortunes in the race.
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer: A disappointing Qualifying session today. Whilst I don't think we expected to be anywhere else apart from the back row, the gap to the rest of the field is certainly much bigger than it has been in previous races. We have to try and understand why, but we have to hope now to get two cars to the finish.
Super Aguri drivers Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato both made it through to the second session for today's Qualifying at the Nürburgring. The pair was running extremely closely in lap times throughout the day and will start the 2007 European Grand Prix in 15th and 16th positions on the grid tomorrow.
Graham Taylor, Sporting Director: It turned out to be a very close fight between the Super Aguri Team drivers today and both performed well. It is nice to have both cars in Q2 – we have not had that for a while. The grid is getting tighter in lap times all the time and even within our team it is getting tighter and tighter. We have a healthy intra-team rivalry.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen made the most of an interrupted qualifying session to set pole position on Bridgestone's soft compound Potenza for tomorrow's European Grand Prix.
Raikkonen set a 1min 31.450secs lap around the 5.15 km Nurburgring in the final moments of the qualifying session which was interrupted by a crash into the tyre barriers by McLaren Mercedes driver, and championship leader, Lewis Hamilton.
The team and Bridgestone engineers confirmed the cause of the incident was not tyre-related. Hamilton was taken to the medical centre for checks.
Raikkonen's pole lap was achieved in the final moments of the restarted qualifying session, and he was almost three tenths faster than second placed Fernando Alonso (McLaren Mercedes). Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) will start from the second row.
Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations: Today's exciting qualifying session, in which we saw a number of drivers challenging for pole, was unfortunately overshadowed by Lewis Hamilton's accident. The incident itself was not caused by the tyre. The sudden loss of air pressure was caused by a mechanical issue that the team are investigating, and I hope that Lewis is in good shape to race tomorrow. Tyre graining was still evident this morning, but less than it was yesterday. The medium compound Bridgestone Potenza is more consistent, but for those who can use the higher grip, the soft has a lap time advantage. Everyone in the top ten except Hamilton set their times on the soft compound Potenza. In terms of strategy tomorrow it looks quite straightforward from what we've seen so far. However, if one of the weather forecasts is to be believed, and rain becomes a reality, we could see two other tyres in use with the Bridgestone Potenza wet and extreme wet tyres.
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