Formula 1

Horner hails ‘fantastic team performance’ in Korean qualifying

2 Mins read

The Saturday morning practice session in Korea this morning suggested that qualifying would be a competitive car, and that pole would be completely unpredictable. It was not to be though. The front row at Yeongam tomorrow will be occupied by two Red Bull RB6’s, and Sebastian Vettel sits on pole position.

“It's a special feeling to be on pole – it was very close,” said the German. “The track is good here – in the first sector there's not so much you can do, just hit your braking points at the right time, but the second and third sectors are quite entertaining with nice flowing corners, but it's easy to make a mistake. It was a small margin for pole, but it was enough and it was a good result as yesterday we didn't have smooth running.
“We had a puncture in the practice, so I hadn't done too many laps on the new track, which makes it harder to get into a rhythm. You have to take every race as it comes, Japan was a good result, but now in Korea all the focus is on tomorrow's race.
“The car was quick today, no doubt, but you still need to get the job done and the most important thing is that you remain calm, which we all did as we knew what we had in us. So, we got the job done today, but let's see for tomorrow.”

Mark Webber knows that this weekend could be pivotal in this season’s close fought drivers’ championship. Pole would have been nice, but the Aussie realises that second still gives him a good chance to collect valuable points tomorrow:

“I wasn't that happy on my first timed laps to be honest, so it was more comfortable for me to do two timed laps for my last run. It worked out okay, but obviously it was very close with Seb and I got second on the grid. It's not a bad position to start the race, but it would have been nice to get pole, still – we can get a good result from there.

I'm starting on the dirty side of the grid tomorrow and Fernando (Alonso, in third) will be solid off the line, but that's not going to make or break the Championship, so we'll press on from there – we're certainly in a good position.”

Christian Horner, understandably, was very pleased with the result. He is hoping that the possible rain holds off tomorrow. “A fantastic team performance today,” said the Red Bull team principal. “A one two start on the grid at this new circuit is a great result and the drivers were again split by the narrowest of margins. They elected to take different strategies in Q3, Sebastian focused on two one-lap runs while Mark elected to do two laps on his last run. The difference between the two of them was almost identical to the gap in Japan, so a great team performance. We need to continue this tomorrow and hopefully the weather won't interfere with the race.”

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David is an occasional contributer to the site on matters related to Formula 1. You can follow him on twitter at @Dr_Bean.
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