Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso celebrate qualifying positions at the 2011 British grand prix. World Copyright:Charles Coates/LAT Photographic
Silverstone, July 9th 2011 – Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber has taken his second pole position of the season with a time of 1m30.399s, following the Australian’s pole at the Spanish Grand Prix in May. It is the eighth pole position of his career, continuing Red Bull’s domination of qualifying this year.Webber, the winner of the British Grand Prix last year, used his soft option tyres to set his quickest time, in a qualifying session that was characterised by changing conditions.
After intermittent, torrential at times, rain throughout Friday, the uncertain weather persisted today with an ambient temperature of 19 degrees and a track temperature of 19 degrees as well. In Q1, conditions remained dry until 10 minutes from the end, by which time Webber had already set a benchmark time.The track was damp at the start of Q2, ensuring that many of the leading runners came out on the intermediate tyres. As the track dried the drivers progressively used the soft tyres – but with all of them leaving it until the very last minute to set a time, it was a frantic dash at the end to avoid the drop zone.
Conditions in Q3 started off dry, meaning that all the drivers headed out to put in a banker lap on the PZero Yellow soft tyre straight away. The two Red Bull drivers were straight on the pace, with Webber leading Vettel, then with just over two minutes to go light rain began to fall again.
This confirmed the top positions, with a particularly fine effort from Force India’s Paul di Resta to secure a career-best sixth on the grid (beating his previous record of eighth in China) and a career-best seventh for Williams driver Pastor Maldonado (beating his previous record of eighth in Monaco). Both drivers used the soft tyres to set their times.
Driver Quotes
Mark Webber-1st“I’ve always enjoyed driving here, but you still have to put it all together. You don’t get these results without applying yourself. It was a very mixed session for all of us, even in the build up with yesterday’s rain. It was important to make sure every lap counted, as you never knew if it was going to be the one that counted for your main grid position, so even in Q2 you had to make sure you weren’t caught out. In the end I’m happy with the job we did; it’s easy to slip up in conditions like that from a logistical point of view and also from the driver’s perspective, so it was a good job by the team and we’re in a good position for tomorrow’s race.”
Sebastian Vettel-2nd“I think it was a difficult session with the changing conditions. I think when it starts to rain here it can be on different parts of the circuit, so it’s quite difficult to see where it’s wet and where it’s fine, so you rely on the out lap or the previous lap. If you go flat out and hit a damp area, it’s very easy to go off track. So, I think it wasn’t easy today, but in the end it was mostly dry. It’s a shame we couldn’t get the second run in Q3, I would have loved to have challenged Mark again, but he got a good lap. It was a very good result for us, especially with all the talk that was going on into this race, so it’s good to see that we’re still on top of our game and can produce quick lap times. Anything can happen tomorrow, I think this circuit is tough on tyres, so we will see what we get tomorrow.”
Fernando Alonso – 3rd“I think that was the best qualifying of the year in performance terms. It’s true that the actual result was better in Canada – second – but I was further off pole position than I am today. Furthermore, we are at a circuit that definitely does not suit the characteristics of our car and to be just over a tenth off first is a great sign. The new parts we introduced here worked well and I think that tomorrow, we can put those who start in front of us under a bit of pressure.The team has done so much work and this step forward is down to them. We have also made progress in the way we manage the tyres: from what we could see in the few dry laps we did today, we can even make the Hard tyre work, while back in Barcelona they lost us a lap in less than half a race distance. Tyre performance will be very important tomorrow, whether as forecast it’s dry, or wet, which can always ambush you here. We will have to be ready for any eventuality: it will be important to get a good start, which constitutes the only really new element at this track compared to the past. Am I hoping for rain? No, especially for the fans who have already got wet for the past two days. Let’s hope we can put on a great show for this very large crowd.”
Paul Di Resta-6th“I’m really happy with the result today. To be here for my first British Grand Prix and to be starting in sixth place feels great. The whole team did an excellent job and made sure we were out on track at the right times. The car has shown very strongly in every session and even in the wet yesterday we were very comfortable. Maybe there was a little bit of luck at the end of Q3 when the rain started again, but I think that in the worst case scenario I would have ended up in eighth. Hopefully we can carry the performance into tomorrow and come away with a strong result in my home race.”
Jenson Button-5th“Today was a bit of a topsy-turvy day. The balance of our car wasn’t great, and it’s always difficult when you find out at the last minute what you’re running: it isn’t a matter of a mere flick of a switch to change things. For some teams, the tightening of the regulations helped; but it hurt others. So I guess fifth place feels just about okay after what we’ve been through in the past few days. Hopefully, we can still take the fight to the guys in front at our home grand prix, and give the famous Silverstone crowd something to shout about.”
Lewis Hamilton-10th“I enjoyed the changeable weather conditions today, but it’s disappointing to have ended up so far behind. For Q3, we fitted a used set of Options for our first run when the others ran new tyres, and that hurt our performance. Then, when we fitted new tyres for the final run, it started raining so I couldn’t improve my time. I think there are a couple of guys in front of me who ought to be slower than me, so I’ll do my best to make progress in the early laps even though overtaking here is difficult. I hope we can still have an exciting race, but it’ll be tricky. I guess I’ll be hoping for rain tomorrow to increase my chances of getting a good result.Nevertheless, the fans here are the best in the world – they’re sensational in fact – and they’ll spur me on in the race. I really hope I can do something special for them tomorrow.
Daniel Ricciardo -24th“My first qualifying session was alright but it was a bit frustrating with the weather, we couldn’t do two runs so we were just limited to one but it was ok. I would like to be a little bit closer to the rest of the field but I can’t try to expect too much for now, it’s a big learning curve. I’m half a second off Tonio which isn’t much but for a racing car driver it is quite a lot, I want more but I shouldn’t really expect too much at this stage, if I can keep closing the gap then it’s ok. The F111 is actually quite good, with the option tyres the level of grip has surprised me, that’s one part that will come from experience; knowing how far I can push it. In high speed corners I can still race at my speed. I think there’s definitely potential and if I’m able to keep an open mind and am willing to learn; I think we will definitely move forward. I met the team on Wednesday and it’s been a pretty deep introduction and I think it’s gone quite smoothly, everyone seems really nice. With the engineers, it’s hard to come into Formula 1 and start a fresh relationship in the middle of a season but I think we’re doing quite well and I’m sure it gets easier from here. I expect to finish the race and be competitive, if I can maybe close the gap in the race and be within a few tenths of Tonio, I think that would be a positive start and some progress. If we can get ahead of a few other cars then that would be a good result.”
