Vettel To Start From Row 3. Raikkonen Fourteenth Fastest

Image Credit: Ferrari Media 

Mogyorod, 23 July – Come the end of today’s qualifying at the Hungaroring circuit, Sebastian Vettel was fifth fastest with a time of 1.20.874. The session was heavily affected by rain which started to fall before the start, giving rise to many red flags. Raikkonen paid a high price on the progressively drying track, failing to make the cut into the top ten, as he was the first driver to take the checkered flag in Q2. Kimi thus ended up fourteenth with a time of 1.25.435. Starting from pole tomorrow will be Nico Rosberg who took his Mercedes round in 1.19.965.

Kimi Raikkonen: ”I’m disappointed by the result of this qualifying, it’s really a shame because our car has been working well all weekend and even in wet conditions the handling was very good. For sure we are far from where we should be. At the end of Q2 I went out for my last attempt and I did a decent lap, at least for that moment, but the conditions were improving every lap, the track was getting faster and unfortunately we did not make it through Q3. Whatever the reason, when the conditions are like today it’s not easy. We tried to do the right things, unfortunately we will pay a price tomorrow, it will be difficult to overtake starting from the back but we won’t give up. We’ll do our best, the speed is there and I’m sure we can make something out.”

Sebastian Vettel: ”I am not happy with P5, because it could have been better. It was quite a mess at the beginning to get through, then at the end I think we had a good performance in the car. We improved for this afternoon, but unfortunately the result doesn’t show it. The pace was there, but we were not able to get the lap. It’s a shame because in the end it was very good, I think it was already half a second down, then there was a yellow flag which caught us out, but we kept going. Then there was a bit of traffic, sometimes it is just like that. I think we have the pace to compete for the podium tomorrow, hopefully we’ll have a good start then we’ll go from there. It’s a long race, anything can happen here. Other than that, I think that in the race pace usually we are quicker. Usually all the people decide to do the fastest strategy possible, but there’s always something you can do. If the occasion comes up to do something smart I know we have the people on board to do it, so I trust them.”


... notes from STP