“We have a car that works well over a long run, especially on the softer
Bridgestone tyres, and we will do our utmost to bring home as many points as possible. The start will be important, as will strategy, while as ever the crucial element is reliability.”
Ron Dennis [McLaren – team principal]:
“A competitive qualifying session from the team. It looks like we have closed some of the gap to our main competition, but we have to see how the race unfolds. Obviously we would have liked to be on pole, but at the end of the day both drivers did a great job.
“Heikki has been consistent and quick since his very first lap on Friday. Lewis made the decision to use the prime tyre for his final run as he felt the option was going off a little bit at the end of the lap. With two cars in the top three we look forward to a competitive race tomorrow.”
Norbert Haug [Mercedes-Benz Motorsport – vice-president]:
“Second place on the grid is a great re-start for Heikki following his accident in Spain, whilst Lewis is one place behind his team-mate. Positions two and three are a good basis for tomorrow's race, but of course ideally our aim was to start from pole.”
Mario Theissen [BMW – motorsport director]:
“We are not satisfied with the qualifying result. While Robert was pretty quick in Q2 with low fuel, the third and crucial qualifying session did not go perfectly for him. Nick was on his last quick lap – and just as fast as Robert in the first and second sectors – but then lost time in the final sector. I think the tyres have been the deciding factor today. During qualifying, depending on the fuel loads, we saw very different tyre performances.”
Willy Rampf [BMW-Sauber – technical director]:
“Let's start with the positive things – on this demanding track we were able to get both our drivers into the top ten in qualifying, but we really expected more after the good performance in the second part of qualifying. Robert did not get a perfect lap, and Nick lost about half a second in the final sector of his fast lap. We expect a difficult race tomorrow.”
Christian Horner [Red Bull Racing – team principal]:
“A strong team performance in this morning's practice was converted into solid grid positions this afternoon for tomorrow's race. Mark used his head in the final session and aborted a lap he wasn't entirely happy with, which meant he saved a lap of fuel. He then did an excellent lap and extracted everything from the car on option tyres to get P6.
