(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)
Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team’s Lewis Hamilton will start
tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix from pole position as the Silver Arrows lock
out the front row. The double world champion set a fastest time of 1m 26.327s
with Rosberg’s fastest just 6 tenths of a second slower at a 1m 26.921s .
Speaking following the session Hamilton stated:
‘It’s been a great
start to the weekend and, honestly, it doesn’t feel like such a long time since
the last race! It’s been a huge effort from all the guys and girls at the factories
to have this kind of performance from our car and I feel very blessed to have
the opportunity to drive it. I’ve worked hard with the engineers yesterday and
today to find a good balance. Then, in the session, I just tried to push hard
and put the pieces together. It’s so much fun when it works right, because this
is the competition that I live for. And I’m immensely grateful to everybody at
Mercedes for the hard work that has gone into it so far. But there is still a
lot to do tonight to study for the race tomorrow because it will be a huge
challenge to try and fight for the win. We will be working as hard as we can to
make sure we have a good race.’
Rosberg commented on his lap saying:
Lewis did a good job
today, he drove like a champ. I also felt that I had the speed in the car but I
didn't get together the perfect lap. In general I'm happy that the team again
gave us a great car. It's fastest out there this year, too, so many thanks to
the factories back home. But tomorrow I still can make it happen because it
will be a long race. A lot can still happen and I will put on a great show. My
long run pace on Friday was better than Lewis but he did quite a few set-up
changes on his car, so there may be more to come from him.
Mercedes Executive Director (Business) Toto Wolff commented
on the team’s performance saying:
It was a great day for
the team and it’s clear now that we have a very quick car. But you always have
to stay careful – there are no points awarded on Saturday so we need to keep
our feet on the ground and do our job properly tonight. It was a mega Lewis day
out there on track. Both laps in Q3 would have been enough for pole position
and he totally deserved it. For Nico, it was a bit messy today in Q3. He lost
the car on his first run and had to pit, then decided to do his second run
earlier so he could have some safety margin. He had a slow first sector – but
the final sector was the quickest of anybody. He just didn’t put the pieces
together today but P2 is still a strong result. Looking to tomorrow, we will
not be getting carried away. Sebastian looks strong and the Williams are very
competitive, on the straights particularly. We have the pace in the car – but
any mistakes from our side will cost us dearly. We will keep our heads down,
prepare the best we can and see what Sunday brings.’
Mercedes Executive Director (Technical) Paddy Lowe concluded
by saying:
‘It’s a great result
for the team. The two laps from Lewis that were, in all honesty, much quicker
than we had expected. And while it was a tricky session for Nico after the
problem on his first run, he made a good recovery to lock out the front row.
Overall, it hasn’t been an easy day running the cars. P3 proved much hotter
than any other session of the weekend, with high track temperatures and the
challenge of adapting to them. Then, in qualifying, we saw temperatures falling
rapidly and a gusting breeze that was also frequently changing direction. That
made it a real challenge for the drivers to put in clean laps, so credit to
them both for a superb first qualifying result of the season and credit to the
teams at Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart for what appears to be a great car.’
It was a fantastic session for the Williams Martini Racing
Team as Felipe Massa ended the session as best of the rest behind the Mercedes
pair and will start the race in third place after setting a time of 1m 27.718s
and speaking afterwards the Brazilian stated:
Mercedes have been ahead all weekend so
we knew that on pure pace we were fighting for the best of the rest. Qualifying
P3 means that we have done a very good job in getting the most out of the car;
especially as the Ferrari’s looked strong and were pushing us hard. It will be
a tough battle tomorrow so we need to get the start right and have a good
strategy to secure a podium and really start the season on a high note. ‘
It was a great session for the Scuderia Ferrari duo of
Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen as they will start the race from fourth and
fifth place respectively following an extremely impressive display by the pair.
Valtteri Bottas qualified in 6th place but his
participation in the race is in doubt and I’ll have more on this story coming
up. Daniel Ricciardo will start the race in 7th place having had a
challenging free practice three where the Australian came to a stop at the exit
of the pit-lane. Speaking afterwards Ricciardo stated:
‘We made progress
through the session which is promising, it was so good to feel the car for once
and push it properly. I think seventh is where we are now and I’m happy we
achieved that as the weekend hasn’t gone well until now and qualifying was the
first time I used the soft tyre. The drivability has been
tricky; we suffered a bit this time last year, but there are a few more issues
this year which weren’t expected, but it’s how it is and we need to try and
sort it out. I’m really happy with seventh as realistically that’s the best we
could have done today. The progress we made through qualifying is real and
hopefully we can carry that on for the race.’
Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jnr will start his first
Formula One race from inside the top ten starting the race from 8th
place just ahead of the Lotus F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean who will start the race
from ninth place on the grid. Speaking afterwards the Frenchman stated:
‘I’m really happy to be back in Q3, and
especially happy for our guys who have been working so hard over the last
twelve months. We knew we had a good car from winter testing and today we are
more or less where we thought we could be. It’s a tight field and if I had
sneaked another two tenths from my lap, I would have been seventh on the grid.
I think we can generally be very happy with what we’ve been doing. Our long
runs have looked good so far so let’s see what we can do during the race
tomorrow.’
Pastor Maldonado rounded out the top ten with a time of 1m
29.480s having completed 20 laps. Speaking after the session the Venezuelan
stated:
‘Getting into the top ten is a pretty good
result for us and it’s positive to think that it could have been better as we
did lose a little pace in the final qualifying session. Looking to the race
it’s quite encouraging as we’re starting the season in a much better place than
we were last year so it’s all looking very promising. Fingers crossed, we’re
looking to have a good race tomorrow.’
The Sauber F1 Team’s Felipe Nasr will start his first
Formula One race in 11th place for the Swiss based outfit. The
Brazilian completed a time of 1m 28.800s and speaking afterwards he stated:
‘As a team
we can be happy that we nearly made it into Q3. MissingFP1 on Friday
affected the performance of the car to a certain extent, and I also had less time getting to know the new track in Melbourne.
All in all I am satisfied with the result and I am looking forward to the race.
Tomorrow is an important day with it being my first ever Formula One race, and
we are going to push for points.’
Following the session Sauber F1
Team Principal Monisha Keltenborn stated:
‘It was a strong
first qualifying for the team. We are pleased to confirm the positive
impression from the winter tests. It is also nice to see the car further in
front, which gives the team additional motivation. We are going into the race
with good prospects for a positive result.’
Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Max
Verstappen will start his debut Formula One race from 12th place on
the grid ahead of the man he replaced at the Italian team Daniil Kvyat who will
start the race from 13th place following a disappointing session for
the Russian.
Speaking following the session
Kvyat stated:
‘We are
trying our best. It was hard with the few laps that we had and I was just
trying to get up to speed; I didn’t have enough confidence to make a good lap.
It’s not easy at the moment because we are trying to solve some problems, but
we are making progress.’
Following the session Infiniti Red Bull Racing Team
Principal Christian Horner stated:
‘After a difficult build up to qualifying,
Daniel did a great job to make it through to Q3 and qualify seventh, which was
the optimum today considering the issues we face this weekend. Unfortunately
Daniil’s qualifying was compromised by a gearbox issue which limited his
mileage, but he acquitted himself well, although he lost two tenths at Turn 15,
which could have got him through to Q3. Hopefully from rows four and seven on
the grid, we will be looking to make progress in tomorrow’s race.’
The Sahara Force India Formula One Team duo of Nico
Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez will line up in 14th and 15th
place respectively. Speaking about his session, Nico Hulkenberg stated:
‘We always want to be further up the grid, but
being realistic I don’t think we had the performance today to challenge for Q3.
However, it’s only the first qualifying session of the season, so it’s still
very early days and we have a lot of development work ahead of us. I enjoyed
the qualifying session today: it was good fun out there and I felt comfortable
in the car, and as a team we squeezed everything we could from the session. For
tomorrow, I’m optimistic that our race pace will be stronger than our
qualifying pace, as was often the case last year, so I’m looking forward to the
race.’
Sergio ‘Checco’ Perez commented on his day saying:
‘It was quite a difficult qualifying session and
the windy conditions seemed to have a big impact on our car. In terms of
performance, I think we are where we predicted because we knew Q2 was
achievable and we managed to get the maximum from the car. For tomorrow, we
know this is a race where anything can happen: it’s unpredictable and sometimes
you have to be patient. We need to see what the weather is like because the
wind and track temperature will play a big part. Whatever happens, I will work
hard to have a competitive race and target some points.’
The Sauber F1 Team’s Marcus Ericsson will start the race
from 16th place with a time of 1m 31.376s. Speaking following the
session the Swedish driver stated:
‘It was a disappointing session for me being
P16, and we cannot be satisfied with this result. I had quite a good feeling in
the car yesterday, but today I have been struggling to feel confident,
especially in the braking zones. We need to analise the data tonight to see what
we have changed from yesterday, so that we can learn from that and fight back
during the race. Tomorrow is a new day.’
Jenson Button’s prediction of McLaren starting at the back
of the grid was, unfortunately for the Woking based outfit right on the money
as the 2009 world champion and team mate Kevin Magnussen will line up in 17th
and 18th place respectively.
© Ben Johnston 2015
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