F1: Red Bull driver Mark Webber claims second consecutive pole at Nurburgring

Nurburgring, July 23rd 2011 – Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber has claimed his second consecutive pole position, following his pole in Britain two weeks ago, setting a time of 1m30.079s at the Nurburgring. This was comfortably faster than his pole time of 1m32.230s in 2009 (the last time that the German Grand Prix was held at the Nurburgring) although on that occasion qualifying was held in damp conditions.

Red Bull remains unbeaten in qualifying since the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix in November, claimed by Nico Hulkenberg for Williams in mixed weather conditions. However, for the first time in 15 races, World Championship leader Sebastian Vettel is not on the front row and will start third, behind McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton.

Mark Webber during qualifying for the German Formula One Grand Prix at the Nurburgring (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Conditions for qualifying were overcast, although the day remained dry, with 14 degrees centigrade ambient in the afternoon. The majority of the top drivers used the  medium tyres to get through Q1, before switching to the P  soft tyres from Q2 onwards.

During final practice this morning, held in cool temperatures of 12 degrees, Red Bull’s World Championship leader Sebastian Vettel went quickest on the soft tyres with a time of 1m30.916s, to the delight of his home fans.

This remained the quickest lap of the weekend until Q3, which four of the six German drivers currently in Formula One took part in. Webber completed two runs during the final session, topping the time sheets on both occasions, to claim the ninth pole position of his career and his third of this season.

Mark Webber– “The session went pretty well, with the exception of my run in Q2, which wasn’t very smooth. The other sessions were good and the boys did a great job on the car; they’ve had some late nights in the lead up to the event, so they’ve recovered very well. I thought on my in-lap, ‘if someone gets me, they deserve it’, as I don’t think I could have got much more out of it – it was my limit and a pretty good lap. It was very satisfying to see no one got me there at the end, it’s quite an anxious wait for those thirty seconds. I will be in there pushing very hard tomorrow.”

Lewis Hamilton-“First of all I want to say a huge congratulations to the whole team, who did a great job today. Everyone back at the factory and here at the circuit has been working massively hard, and that’s the reason why the car was so quick today. I think we all underestimated how good the car would be, in fact. “To split the Red Bulls and be ahead of the Ferraris is a fantastic effort by the team. We’ve got a big job ahead of us tomorrow, of course, but today I’m on a high: that lap was a real boost.  “I reckon today’s qualifying session was one of my best ever, definitely my best this season. The car felt great, we had really good balance and I think it’s one of the best laps I’ve done in the car. You’re already on the limit in your first lap of Q3, and usually if you improve in the second run it’s by a tenth; but today it was by four-tenths. I don’t really know where I found the time, and to be honest I’m going to get a recording of the onboard footage and watch it back because I’d love to see it!”

Sebastien Vettel – “It was tough session. I think we had a good recovery, as yesterday I didn’t really find my way, but the car felt much better this morning. I think we could have been a bit quicker in qualifying here and there, but Mark did a good lap and I think we still have a good chance from third on the grid. It will be a long race and you never know what can happen with the weather here. Rain is forecast, but we don’t know how much we will have and when. However, in the end it doesn’t really matter, the most important thing is that we have a solid race and the target is to win, which is not impossible from third – it’s the clean side of the track and we go from there. I’m looking forward to tomorrow – it doesn’t happen too often that you have so many people coming here and supporting the German drivers, so I will make sure I enjoy the racetomorrow.”

Michael Schumacher– “We did not perform to expectations this afternoon and already this morning, the car was not the one I had in my hands up to the first run in P3. It felt like I was just sliding around out there and the balance wasn’t great. We had a KERS problem this morning, which we thought explained the big gap to Nico, however in qualifying I was still nearly a second away and couldn’t have matched his time, so we have to analyse deeply what could be the reason for it. Obviously then, I tried to push even harder to compensate which lead to a mistake in the last chicane on my last lap, probably costing me P8. We now have to see how we can improve for tomorrow, and I will certainly try to have a good start and a race as good as possible.”

Qualifying Positions