Sebastian Vettel is again on pole, followed by teammate Mark Webber. This marks Red Bull’s 11th pole position in 12 races, its sixth 1-2 qualifying of the season and its 100th grand prix.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso takes the final spot, but was more than a second slower than the Red Bulls.
Here’s what the top three drivers had to say in today’s press conference:
Q: Sebastian, 100th grand prix for Red Bull Racing. A front row lock-out and a commanding performance from yourself in qualifying.
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it was a very good day for us. All weekend here we felt very comfortable, from the first practice session onwards with the car. I think we were able to improve it again another bit overnight. I said on the radio to the boys ‘this is your moment.’ Mark and myself were pushing hard to finish first and second but I said ‘it is your moment, enjoy, you built this wonderful car.’
Q: Sebastian, an extraordinary margin over your team-mate and the rest of the field. What’s the secret?
SV: I don’t think there is any secret. If you look at yesterday I think we were in good shape. We didn’t know how good but we knew that we definitely can put the cars in the first row. If you look one week back I think we were probably racing on a track that suited the Ferrari car quite well, so over a period of two weeks they did a massive step. Everyone was wondering how and why. Somehow this week it seems that the track suits us very, very well this year. I am confident for tomorrow that we have a very good chance to win, so I am happy.
Q: It hasn’t been a particularly good circuit for you in the past though.
SV: Yeah, the circuit is quite a tricky one. It’s probably like a woman alongside you who doesn’t behave well. I think the main thing if I look back, the races I had here, is to have the confidence. Of course you need the car but you need to have the confidence as well, because then you just brake five metres later and you’re five to ten kph quicker at the apex and it just works.
Q: Mark, so close between yourself and Sebastian until we came to Q3. What happened?
Mark Webber: I did my best. Probably not the cleanest lap in the first one, but that’s the way it goes. Seb deserves pole today. It was a good lap, 18.7. For sure there was a bit more change there for both of us but in the end it came down to who got the lap and it wasn’t my day today. I am on the front row tomorrow. Still a great place to start the race.
Q: [Mark,] looking forward to the start of the race?
MW: Yeah, can only go forwards.
Q: Sebastian, you have got Fernando just behind you. You have Mark alongside you on the front row. How do you play the start? Which way are you going to go?
SV: Ideally, I just go straight. You can make up all scenarios but in the end it comes differently but I think we found the problem from last weekend where we had a bad start and therefore I had to decide which side to go to. I am confident I will have a normal start and a normal start for us so far meant that we had a good start and we were at least able to defend the position.
Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, 1.2 seconds. Is it as big as you could have expected or does it come as a surprise?
Fernando Alonso: Surprise, no doubt. I think four or five days ago we were winning the race in Hockenheim and Ferrari was the quickest car there on Sunday. Six days later we are 1.2 seconds behind, so it’s a surprise, no doubt, but as I said, I’m still happy with the car performance, there was nothing wrong with it.
Q. (Carlos Miquel – Diario AS) Mark, is your car exactly the same as Vettel’s?
MW: Yup.
2010 Hungarian Grand Prix
BBT
31st July 2010, 17:40
Ferrari’s pace at Hockenheim was more of a suprise than this weekend, that was the ‘odd’ result IMO
Felipe Bomeny (@portugoose)
31st July 2010, 17:48
What I’m more interested in is if Vettel will have a decent start, and the first lap battle between Mark Webber and Alonso. Let’s see if all three will end up in a giant heap of carbon fibre, and if Massa will go around the outside and take the lead again. :)
Cari Jones (@cari-jones)
31st July 2010, 20:43
Deja vu?
BasCB (@bascb)
31st July 2010, 18:28
We must hope at least one of the Red Bull guys gets cought at the first corner to have a fight for the race tomorrow.
Hardly any chance of rain helping out expected.
Optmist
31st July 2010, 22:33
who’s this ‘we’ – I say good luck to them and hopefully they hold the red mist back long enough to get through the first corners cleanly..
bosyber
1st August 2010, 9:37
We is probably those of us who would like to see a race, not just two cars cruising for a race-distance, and some behind trying to overtake. I am one of them, at least.
bosyber
1st August 2010, 9:39
trying to overtake each other behind those two cars, I mean, I would love for a Turkey like race – could do without the Red Bulls crashing this time.
Marcello
31st July 2010, 22:21
Webber must SURELY ignore Christian Horners advice and try a banzai on the outside of Vettel? He just can’t let his team mate boss the race from start to finish….
DavidS
1st August 2010, 5:48
I’m kinda expecting Vettel to quickly turn towards Webbers car to fend off his team mate, leaving the door open for Alonso.
In other words, a repeat of Silverstone.
GeeMac
1st August 2010, 5:52
He shouldn’t need to though, Webber is on the dirty side of the track, so Vettel only needs a half decenmt get away to keep him behind. All he should be worried about is Alonso.
If I was Webber I’d be worried about a fast starting Lewis Hamilton.
bosyber
1st August 2010, 9:40
He might have wanted to be a bit cheeky with the “can only go forward” but I thought it was a bit optimistic given his side of the grid. There is a lot of space to go backward in the field.