12/05/2018
NEWS STORY
Today's qualifying session ended up with Scuderia Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen occupying third and fourth slot on the grid respectively. After making the cut into Q3 with Soft tyres, which are less prone to degradation in the race, both opted for the same compound (classified as Option, versus the "Quali" Supersoft) for their final run in Q3-a choice also made by other drivers today.
Sebastian Vettel: Overall, I think it was a smooth session. The car was fine and we didn't have much to do. We were quite ok this morning, trying to find the right direction. It was straightforward in qualifying and then in Q3 during my first run I locked up a little bit in Turn 1, so my first sector was already slow. I tried to recover and fight for pole, but it was not enough. I didn't have a great feeling on the tires, which have been different the whole weekend. Even if they look the same, they are harder. However, it's the same for everyone. Obviously, I am not entirely happy, but we expected Mercedes to be very strong here. P3 is not a bad place to start from. Tomorrow we'll focus on the start first, and then we'll see. It will be a long race and the tires will be challenging, too. Even if the start doesn't go in our favor, I think we always have a strong car to keep fighting. I think tomorrow it will be an interesting race and we'll be close; the same as happened in the last couple of races. I'm looking forward to the Spanish Grand Prix and hope the people will enjoy it.
Kimi Raikkonen: It was a tricky qualifying, not the ideal one. In Q3, on my first attempt with the Supersofts, I made a mistake in turn 1 and went wide; obviously this affected my lap. At that point, I was in a position where I had nothing to lose, so we decided to try something else. The Soft tires felt pretty good in Q2 so we decided to use them in my last run. In the end we managed to do a decent job, but obviously we are not satisfied with the result. It's difficult to predict what will happen in the race and it's a bit of an unknown for me, considering I couldn't do the long runs yesterday. We'll try to make a good start and see how the race pans out.