Who said what after qualifying for the Belgium Grand Prix

Sauber

Esteban Gutierrez 21st “I’m much happier with the car today. We were able to solve the issues we had in FP2 yesterday. Everything was looking good until the last part of Q1. We changed to a new set of intermediates too early, and that was the wrong choice. The track was drying and the tyres were gone after one lap, which was the main issue. There is not much we could have done at that moment, when the decision was already made, but I tried to do the best with what I had. In these weather conditions, it all comes down to the right tyre selection. Tomorrow will be a gamble too as the forecast is changeable. It will come down to the strategy, so we have to be very flexible, open to everything and very efficient. Whether it’s a dry or a wet race, we need to get it right.”

Nico Hulkenberg11th “It was a tricky day again qualifying in weather conditions like these. This morning I was struggling a bit on the medium tyre. Again this afternoon it wasn’t’ the easiest, but I guess that’s the same for everyone with the weather, as it’s always challenging. It was a wet Q1, which is always exciting, but I think we did a solid job there. We were only missing about three hundredths to get into Q3. P11 seems to stick to me. But it’s a good starting point for tomorrow. I hope we have a good race pace, so that we can score some points.”

Monisha Kaltenborn, team principal “The result today does not reflect our true potential. We came ever so close to our direct competitors this weekend and made a step forward. That’s why I’m not satisfied with the result, particularly because we missed Q3 yet again by just three hundredths of a second. The chance to still score points in the race tomorrow is quite high, so we will concentrate on that now.”

Tom McCullough, head of track engineering “We were happy with the overnight changes we made, and the cars performed well in the dry FP3. It was a typical eventful, wet-dry Spa-Francorchamps qualifying. Ultimately, for Esteban we didn’t make the most of it going out in Q1. For Nico it was frustrating in Q2 being so close to make it to Q3. Maybe we were a bit conservative running the new tyre a bit earlier than some of the competition. But this is a circuit where anything can happen in the race, and we’ll make the most with our strategy tomorrow.”

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne 18th “What happened today is easy to explain, it was just a team mistake. These things shouldn’t happen, but everyone gets it wrong now and again. It is very frustrating, as the car has been good enough this weekend to qualify really well in either the wet or the dry. As soon as I left the pits for the second time, I knew I was in trouble and I also had a bit of trouble with traffic, with some cars on slicks around me. Therefore, this was a clear missed opportunity, as I believe I could have been in the top five in the dry and the car was clearly working well in the wet too. It’s going to take me a bit of time to get over the disappointment, but now there is no use getting angry and, in any case, I really believe I can still have a good race tomorrow and score some points. We can learn from this afternoon and ensure we don’t make this mistake again.”

Daniel Ricciardo 19th “That was down to bad timing more than anything else. We went out at the very start of the session and that went fine, with a wet track and the chance of it getting a bit wetter before drying out later. I believe we should have waited a bit longer before fitting the second set of Intermediates. We went out too early for that second run and by the second lap, the tyres were already worn and that was when the track conditions were at their best. Obviously, it’s very frustrating, but now all we can do is put it behind us and concentrate on tomorrow. We have to learn from this and make sure we get it right next time.”

James Key, technical director “Up until Q1 we had been having a strong weekend, looking competitive in the dry and not too bad in the wet either in FP1. Jean-Eric in particular was showing good form and looking forward to qualifying, so we went into Q1 knowing there was a good chance the track would dry out towards the end. We timed our final tyre change at a similar moment to others, but somehow we were in the wrong place at the wrong time today: we should have had two cars in Q3, instead they both went out in Q1. Should we have switched to slicks? Some of the cars that are usually at the back of the grid took that risk, but in our case, it’s hard to know. As a team, we should apologise to the drivers, work out what went wrong to ensure we don’t do it again and, most importantly, see what we can do to still get the best out of the cars tomorrow.”Williams

Pastor Maldonado 17th “Today the changing weather conditions made it difficult to be on the right tyres at the right time and we went on to the intermediate tyre a bit too early. The lap here is very long and by the time I got to my second lap when the track was improving, the tyres had already gone and I couldn’t be competitive. The cars race pace is quite good so we will be pushing hard to make up places and I still think we have an opportunity to finish in the top 10.”

Valtteri Bottas FP1: 10th, FP2: 17th “It was a disappointing qualifying because we had the ability to be higher but we were caught out by the changing track conditions. We went out on intermediate tyres earlier than others but the track was drying faster than we expected and by the end we could probably have got away with being on dry tyres. We were also struggling for overall grip on the intermediates and we were sliding quite a lot in the corners and this was losing us time. It’s a shame as there was a good opportunity to do well today, but hopefully the weather will be like this tomorrow as it gives us the chance to look at different strategy options.”

Xevi Pujolar, chief race engineer “We knew qualifying would be wet and it started well with the track getting better throughout Q1. The end of the session would be where it was all decided and we brought both cars in for a new set of intermediate tyres. A few teams took the risk to change onto dry tyres, which worked for them, although the majority came in for intermediates as well. We were at the front of the queue so had time for more laps, but as the tyres were at their best on the first lap it meant that as the track improved we were unable to improve our times and unfortunately we did not progress beyond Q1. Overtaking is possible at Spa-Francorchamps and we have a good car for the race with a good top speed, so we can still make progress in the race tomorrow.”