Who said what after qualifying for the Belgium Grand Prix

Marussia

Jules Bianchi

Jules Bianchi 15th: “Today is a fantastic result for the Team, who were so happy to be back in Q2. This was a nice feeling for everybody, including myself, as this was also the first Q2 of my F1 career. Things have been steadily improving for us over the weekend and I’m really happy that all the hard work paid off for us today. This result was not about luck because everyone was faced with the same dilemma at the end of the Q1 session; whether it might be too dry for the Intermediate tyre or too wet for slicks. On the first lap on the final run it was hard to make up my mind what to do; only the drivers could see what the track condition was really like and it was different from corner to corner. By the end of the lap I had decided just to go for it and stay on the Medium tyre and that gamble was exactly the right call. Tomorrow we line up on the seventh row, which will be a nice moment, but of course we don’t really know what the weather will bring. We have everything to gain and we will make the most of every opportunity.”

Max Chilton 16th: “What a great day for everyone! Together with Jules I’m so pleased to help put the Team into Q2 again. It was such a tricky qualifying, and as we can see from the classification, it’s difficult to make the right calls at a track where the lap is so long that the conditions are so different from corner to corner. When we switched to the dry tyre for the final run I was worried we may have made the wrong call and might have to switch back to the Intermediate but I also knew the track was drying quickly and we could easily make another wrong call by changing back. The engineers put the decision in my hands and I was undecided until the final corner, when I just made a judgment call in an instant and opted to stay out. I’m happy to say it was the right call and we went on to enjoy a strong Q2, when my time was pretty pleasing given that on my final run I was fuelled for two timed laps. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s race now, rain or shine.”

John Booth, team principal: “A fantastic result for the Team and it’s great to know that we have come so far operationally that we can now handle the scenario we saw today with such confidence. Although it is not the first time the Team has been in Q2, it is the first time that we achieved this with ‘both’ cars and in such challenging conditions. These were probably the most challenging wet conditions we have endured in Q1 in terms of the variation of water level through the lap and it really took mature heads on both of our drivers to take the necessary decisions guided by information provided from the garage. In general it has been a good day overall; we’ve seen a good balance on the car this morning, particularly for Jules, but during qualifying both drivers were the happiest they had been with the car all weekend, which should stand us in good stead for the race. We do however have both feet firmly on the ground and in what could be another wet scenario, remaining in our grid position will be tough. Nonetheless, it is a target every single member of the Team will be pushing for and we will make the most of every opportunity. Today’s result is a great reward for all the hard work the Team and Cosworth have carried out to come back from a challenging set of races recently to enable us to fare better at circuits which now play to the strength of our package.”

McLaren

Jenson Button 6th “In the dry we were relatively happy with our pace, and in the wet I reckon it was a bit better still. I think P6 for us was an okay outcome, therefore. However, we’re still lacking a little bit compared with what we’d hoped for here, which shortfall we suspect is the result of an aero efficiency issue. We’ll have to analyse that thoroughly before Monza. But, going back to Spa, our timing was just a little bit off at the end of Q3, which enabled the top three guys to put in laps quicker than ours. Even so, the fact that there are three Brits in the top six is just great. Looking forward to tomorrow, if the weather is wet, or changeable, as we expect it to be, then things could get tricky for all the front-runners, because I think we’ve all used our supply of inters. Anyway, let’s see what happens. It should be an exciting race.”

Sergio Perez 13th “In tricky conditions like today’s you have to be in the right place at the right time, and it’s a pity we couldn’t optimise our potential by doing that, because on a wet track our car is pretty strong and we therefore had a very good opportunity to qualify well here this afternoon. So I’m a bit disappointed, of course, because we went out a bit too late and thereby lost the ‘window’, preventing us from being able to put in a lap that would have moved us through to Q3. It’s a pity, because the track was improving quickly at that time, and we’d have therefore been able to improve our lap time significantly. But that’s racing – and tomorrow is another day – and our car should be reasonably competitive if it rains. So I’ll try my best to make up for today’s disappointment by scoring some good points for the team tomorrow.”

Martin Whitmarsh, team principal “”In the portion of Q3 during which the track was wet, Jenson was the second-quickest driver out there – so, although P6 is a decent place from which to start, he would have been closer still to the sharp end of the grid had the rain persisted until the end of the session. Having said that, he did a great job and is well placed to drive a competitive race in tomorrow’s race, which we expect will be a wet one. Checo had an even more frustrating time of it this afternoon, missing the one-more-lap cut-off flag by a second or two at the end of Q2, else he too would have made it comfortably into Q3. Even so, like Jenson, I’m sure he’ll drive competitively tomorrow, using the likely wet conditions to his advantage in an effort to move through the field and score some valuable world championship points for us. So, overall, today was a bit frustrating for us from a number of perspectives, but our pace has been decent in the wet conditions that we expect tomorrow so we have reason to be guardedly optimistic about the race.”