Qualifying Notes
• Valtteri Bottas qualified fifth and Felipe Massa 11th for the Chinese Grand Prix.
• Felipe missed out on making it through to Q3, after a red flag brought Q2 to a premature end
• Valtteri set his fastest time of the weekend so far on his final run in Q3
Weather: Overcast, drying track
Temperature: Air: 22-23C, Track: 23-25C
Q1
V. Bottas: 1:37.537 (3rd)
F. Massa: 1:38.016 (9th)
Quickest time: S. Vettel 1:37.001
Q2
V. Bottas: 1:36.831 (5th)
F. Massa: 1:37.347 (11th)
Quickest time: K. Raikkonen 1:36.118
Q3
V. Bottas: 1:36.296 (5th)
F. Massa: –
Quickest time: N. Rosberg 1:35.402
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: If we start with the positives, and I think there were plenty of them, it was a really great lap from Valtteri. He dragged the most out of the car and I’m very happy with that, as was he when he crossed the line. So that’s absolutely fantastic. We’ve actually moved up a bit, in respect to the frontrunners, as we’ve made up a bit of time through some good car changes here. They’re starting to pay dividends and help us learn more about the car. On the other hand, Felipe was desperately unlucky but we have a free tyre choice starting from 11th tomorrow.
Valtteri Bottas: It was a good qualifying for me, and as a team I think fifth was the maximum position. It felt great to do the lap on my second run in Q3, it was clearly my best lap of the weekend, so that was a good feeling. It’s always nice to finish qualifying knowing you’ve made the most out of it and as a team I think we are in a good position for tomorrow.
Felipe Massa: That’s not the position I wanted to have. I was a little bit unlucky with the red flag, but tomorrow in the race you never know. We have to try and do the best we can. I hope choosing the right tyres will have a positive effect, we will see tomorrow, but I’m not really happy with my position.
No comment