Mexican Grand Prix Qualifying Reaction (Team and Driver)
After a wonderful qualifying session, here’s the reaction from the paddock featuring both teams – and drivers.
Mercedes – Mexican Grand Prix Qualifying Reaction
Lewis Hamilton – 1st
“It’s been a really solid weekend so far, Q3 was actually not that great for me and even though I got pole, it wasn’t a great lap.”
“It’s a long, long run down to turn one so the start will be important tomorrow but our long run pace has looked really strong and we’re on the better tyre so the signs are good.”
“Red Bull might have a slight advantage off the line – on the supersoft tyres, but it looks like they grain quite badly. As always we have our strategists who do a fantastic job.”
“Looking after the soft tyre, avoiding lockups and flat spots will give us a challenge!”
“The car has been great this weekend – I hope it continues through to tomorrow, this is a race which I haven’t won yet and I’d love to tick it off the list in front of this amazing crowd. They’ve been spectacular all weekend.”
Nico Rosberg – 2nd
“This weekend it took a bit longer to find the rhythm, at the end of qualifying I was quite happy with how the car felt and I managed to pull out a good lap but Lewis was just that bit quicker.”
“I’m not happy to have missed out on pole position but on the other hand, starting from second place here is not too bad.”
“It will be a challenging race and we have our eyes on the Red Bull – I think Mexican fans will have an exciting Sunday.”
Toto Wolff – Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“We might have both cars on the front row today but that was a really tough qualifying session and it took some special laps from Lewis and Nico to put us there!”
“Lewis had the performance in the car all day and was able to deliver in spite of the threat from Red Bull and the Ferrari. This is a tricky circuit overall and managing to put in a clean lap is decent.”
“As for Nico, he was having a tougher time out there and through practice – struggling to get the tyres in the right window for his quick time. It was a great response under some big pressure.”
“Looking at tomorrow, we will be starting on the soft tyre with the two Red Bull’s behind us on the SuperSoft tyre.”
“This may lead to a small disadvantage off the line so it will be a very interesting run to the first corner and a big strategic battle after that.”
Red Bull – Mexican Grand Prix Qualifying Reaction
Max Verstappen – 3rd
“I am very pleased with the way qualifying went – we have put ourselves on the second row again which means that we are in an ideal position to fight right from the start. All weekend we have had a good car.”
“We are still a little bit down with the top speed which makes it harder to compete with the Mercedes in Qualifying but we are still pretty close and that is a good achievement.”
“It’s a fun race but a different kind of fun – at some tracks you can have a perfect lap but here it is so hard! It’s a long run into Turn 1 and we start on the supersoft compound so our chances of making progress straight away is high.”
“Our race pace looked strong which means we are really looking forward to tomorrow.”
Daniel Ricciardo – 4th
“I think the fight was there but to be honest – my last lap was terrible!”
“I was fighting it already out of Turn 1 and by Turn 6 I was nearly four tenths slower than my previous lap. We managed to recuperate some of that but looking at the gap to pole, it was only four tenths so it could have been a lot better but it could have also been a lot worse….”
“Let’s see what tomorrow brings, I think we can have a good race but to predict what’s going to happen tomorrow after this qualifying session is difficult.”
Christian Horner – Team Principal
“An exciting qualifying session and with a great performance by both our drivers to lock out the second row for the eighth time this season.”
“We got nighty close to splitting the Mercedes with Nico just sneaking ahead of Max right at the end. In adopting different strategy to the cars around us by starting on the supersoft tyres tomorrow, it creates a strategically interesting race which should make for an exciting Grand Prix tomorrow.”
Ferrari – Mexican Grand Prix Qualifying Reaction
Kimi Raikkonen – 6th
“In Q1, the feeling with the car was good – better than in the morning during P3. Then in Q2 it was quite tricky to get the tyres to work consistently and to know where the grip was. In the last qualifying sting we were trying to get there again but I could feel the first run was a bit odd in the last part of the lap.”
“On the second try, for whatever reason, I had no speed in the straight and something was just not right – we could not even try to go faster. It’s a pity because I think there was easily a lot of speed there today but we couldn’t use it.”
“Now we have to find out what the problem is and what happened, obviously it’s disappointing where we finished today but tomorrow we will see what we can do.”
Sebastian Vettel – 7th
“I am very disappointed because the car is quick – our Q2 has been a walk in the park with the Soft tyres.”
“I had a much better feeling but then with the supersofts, we were nowhere – yesterday we were gaining a lot on the supersoft compound and today – we gained nothing.”
“We tried a couple of things but in qualifying you can’t turn the world upside down – so now what we need to do is have a look and see why and what happened.”
“The car is quick, there is nothing wrong with it but we start where the car doesn’t belong. It doesn’t make our race easier to start further back but I do think that we still have a chance.”
Sahara Force India – Mexican Grand Prix Qualifying Reaction
Nico Hulkenberg – 5th
“It’s been a very good qualifying session for me, I am happy with the result and our car works pretty well on every circuit nowadays.”
“I felt that it got better and better through qualifying as the track conditions improved. My first lap in Q3 was mega, possibly my best qualifying lap of the season! I don’t think there was anything more which I could have extracted from it.”
“We need to keep ourselves out of trouble at the start and be careful – I won’t let what happened last week influence me, every time you get to Turn 1 there is a unique dynamic and you just have to play it by ear.”
“We have a good idea of where we are for the race – we’ll get our heads down and build on today’s result.”
Sergio Perez – 12th
“It’s a shame to miss out on Q3 today – I am optimistic that we can regain some positions in the race with a strong race strategy.”
“Unfortunately I made a small mistake on my final lap which ended my chance of qualifying inside the top 10. I just locked up the front tyres going into turn 1 and ran wide.”
“I apologise for the mistake and I hope that tomorrow I can give all my fans some happiness in the race, the good news is that we have made progress with the car and our race pace looks competitive and I am hoping that we can come away with a good result tomorrow.”
Robert Fernley – Deputy Team Principal
“Overall this is a satisfying session for us. Nico has been competitive all weekend and qualifying in 5th place is a fantastic effort – even ahead of both Ferrari’s.”
“Sergio also showed good speed today and made real progress with the car this morning. Had it not been for that small mistake in Q2, he would have joined Nico in the top 10.”
“Starting from P1 will open up some interesting choices in terms of strategy and we are confident that he can make progress in the race – it’s a huge weekend for us with great support from our Mexican partners and fan base.”
“I’m sure he will do all he can to give everybody something to celebrate on Sunday evening.”
Sauber – Mexican Grand Prix Qualifying Reaction
Marcus Ericsson – 15th
“Another decent qualifying for us, we showed that we are working in the right direction and it paid off!”
“We can all be satisfied with today’s performance, we knew that reaching Q2 would not be an easy task because all the lap times were close together. It was again nice that I was able to put in a good lap in Q1 and make the jump to Q2.”
“P15 is a decent starting position, I feel confident that we can continue the hunt for points tomorrow.”
Felipe Nasr – 19th
“Qualfiying was not as good as I was expecting. Before FP3, we chose the identical set-up to the other car but the outcome was completely different.”
“In general, I had lack of grip in a lot of corners.”
‘The other car seems to work so we have a reference there – I will focus on the race tomorrow and I am confident that I can recover some points due to the pace we had on the long-runs.”
More to follow.
The Formula 1 Girl 🙂
xxx