As F1 2010 prepares to rouse itself again from the comparative slumber of its mid-summer break with next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, former three-time world champion Niki Lauda has offered his evaluation of events so far – and those perhaps to come.

With seven races to go between now and the end of the campaign, the title tussle is developing into a thrillingly unpredictable five-way affair – with Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso all determined to be the one to lift the laurels following the Abu Dhabi finale in November, should the battle as is widely anticipated go all the way down to the wire.

Between them, the quintet have claimed all twelve of the grand prix victories thus far – though Felipe Massa should arguably be added to that list, Lauda’s feelings on which can be read here – and the Austrian legend reckons it is all shaping up to be a bahnstorming finish.

“Still Sebastian Vettel,” the 25-time grand prix-winner responded, when asked by the official F1 website who he deems to be the standout performer of F1 2010 to-date. “What he showed again in Budapest qualifying in terms of sheer speed outclasses everybody – especially as team-mate and race-winner Mark Webber had the same material. Behind him I see, of course, Mark and the other usual suspects in this year’s championship – Hamilton, Alonso and Button.

“The driver with the most wins and the team with the best team results hold the top spots in the respective standings – it’s as simple as that. Mark has won four races while his pursuers Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso only have two under their belts. Winning a race indicates that you were able to react to every situation to your benefit. Sometimes there is luck involved, yes, but there is also the saying that fortune favours the bold…

“Webber has surely had a cheerful summer break and Vettel will be fretting for a while, but that is something that he has to go through. He is young enough to put things like this behind him quickly. I am not sure if this is any consolation for him, but the championship is getting more-and-more exciting with every race, and I think that millions of fans are interested to see if after so many unhappy situations he can still win the title.

“We have seen very often that there is an outstandingly fast car that doesn’t make it to the chequered flag too often, and until the Hungarian Grand Prix that was the case with Red Bull. They have the fastest car, and I have always believed that it is only a matter of time before they will prevail and internally come to terms with errors of the human and technical kind.”

That, Lauda contends, makes Vettel and RBR the favourites to clinch respectively the drivers’ and constructors’ crowns, as he mused that whilst double F1 World Champion Alonso is still in the fight, the Spaniard is ultimately ‘no Schumacher’, adding that both Hamilton and Button have kept their title bids alive ‘despite their car not being as competitive as the Red Bull’ by ‘wisely keeping a respectful distance’, explaining that the British McLaren-Mercedes duo ‘know what it takes to win a championship and that every DNF is a little blow to any aspirations’. And on the subject of Michael Schumacher’s much-debated comeback to top flight competition this year, the 61-year-old characteristically pulls no punches.

“Very mixed to say the least,” he summarised. “Nico Rosberg is constantly outperforming him, and he definitely has to work on that. It will be interesting to see which road he will take to get back on the podium again. I am sure [Mercedes Grand Prix] are not satisfied with their performance so far. My advice would be to start to focus on next year’s car right away. I don’t think that we can expect significant improvements for the last seven races, as it is too late to change course fundamentally.”

Reflecting on the trials and tribulations of newcomers Lotus, Virgin and Hispania (HRT), finally, Lauda admitted that he is frankly ‘not interested’ in anybody not competing up at the sharp end of the field, and concluded: “The gap to the front-runners is much too big – that has always been the way, and that will never change. I am strictly against having them on life support. Either they are able to stay alive on their own or, ‘bye bye!’”

Of course if i’m better between now and then I’ll add some stuff but I really do need to rest up! SORRY guys but honestly not had a throat like this in ages and it bugs me

Anyway hopfully will update before i’m away

thanks

Claire x

So yes vote thanks

Q: Mark, a commanding win by the end of 70 laps. But it was probably the 43 you managed in your first stint that really set it up.
Mark Webber: Yeah, that’s right. The start we always knew was going to be a little bit tricky on that side. Fernando got a good start. Seb’s was pretty good as well. But we all jumped into the slipstream in the run to the first corner and then I had Lewis (Hamilton) there as well, so had to make sure to at least get out in third position. If not, see what happened in front. Then settled in. You know around here it is going to be very difficult to make any moves on the track unless anybody made a mistake, so it was not a surprise to see Seb disappearing with Fernando doing his absolute best but I was still marking him and waiting for the crucial part of the race to see what would happen. That being the pit stop. Then we had the safety car and I had to go off strategy to try and pass Fernando and make it a bit easier to try and do that. But we were asking a lot of the option tyres. You are right, building from safety car through to when we decided when to make the stop we knew that we needed around 20 seconds but I told the guys ‘let’s get a bit more of a buffer to make sure the guys have less pressure in the pit stop.’ All those types of things. But they were on it anyway. The front left was completely finished, it was pretty difficult with the grip that we had finishing that stint. But in the end, I knew once I got the primes on, these guys had already done 20 odd laps and the race was pretty much in the bag. I knew that Seb had some difficulties on the re-start for whatever reason and it was a bit of a gift to day for me. But I have not had many of them, so I will take today’s. Tough luck for Seb as he lost a couple of spots. I enjoyed the fight with Fernando at the start. Not much of a fight but as I was saying I was just trying to get the most out of the car and keep pressing on and we were gapping Felipe (Massa) and Lewis. But an incredible day for the team. Another victory. One-two was our goal. Unfortunately we didn’t get that, so we still got a big chunk of the points, so it was a good day.
Q: Not a bad way to celebrate your 150th grand prix and we heard you say on the team radio when you lapped Michael Schumacher ‘boy that felt good.’
MW: Well, you know he did it a lot when I was in the middle of the field. A calibre of Michael, a driver like him, you know that you need to get everything right at this level. Credit to the team. Everyone pulling together. To lap someone of Michael’s quality is a good day out, so it is not rubbing anyone’s nose in it, it is just a unique thing to happen.

Q: Fernando, Mark said that the victory might have been a bit of a gift. A bit fortunate for him. Was second place for you and Ferrari a bonus given the pace difference between yourself and Red Bull this weekend?
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, I think so. But I think we have some credit still from this year’s bad luck. If we have five or six more gifts like this, still not enough maybe. I think it was a good race. The start was super. We passed Mark thanks maybe to the clean side and then we were side-by-side with Vettel in the first corner. Not able to overtake this time but very close. Then very stressful moments when the safety car came in. Tried to go to the pits. We were before the last corner, so there is always the minimum time to respond, so we were taking care about all the stints to do a good Sunday today with no mistakes, no penalties, not anything, so we found ourselves second. Mark was incredibly quick and the soft tyres this weekend were not too soft, so he was able to do 40 laps with a set of tyres which normally is not the case. Overall a good weekend knowing that the pace was not good enough. We had 40 laps with Vettel behind and one second or two seconds quicker than us, so the lay-out of the circuit also helps today as I think on a normal circuit it was impossible to maintain second.

Q: Sebastian, third place after starting on pole. The safety car caused a lot of confusion, a lot of chaos. You came in, in what seemed like a very late call for your pit stop but it was the resumption behind the safety car that seems to have clearly upset you. We saw your expression as you had the drive-through penalty, raising your hands off the steering wheel as you came in.
Sebastian Vettel: I didn’t understand what was going on and why I was penalised. It was a question mark for me. I didn’t understand at the time. Now after the race people told me what happened. The start was fine. We knew it was a long way to the first corner, so Fernando got the tow but we were able to defend. After that we had a very good first stint where we could use our speed. Then with the safety car it was very late, a late call, so I just managed to come in and after that usually it was a very easy race from there as we knew we had the pace advantage. We were probably the fastest car out there, so not much to do. At the re-start I was sleeping. I was probably relying too much on the radio but somewhere in the first stint I Iost the radio connection and I didn’t hear anything. I saw the safety car boards and was waiting for instruction when the safety car would come in. I didn’t see the lights. Also Mark, usually the leader when he does the re-start, he tries to drop back and then dictates the pace. Mark was very close and I was warming up my car. I was sure we had another lap, so I didn’t really understand. Then I saw Mark and the safety car at the second last corner, quite a big gap to myself. I noticed the safety car going into pits, so that must be the re-start and I was caught out, so I lost a lot of momentum and lost a lot in the first couple of laps which was not the intention. Then I got the drive-through. But during the race I did not understand. Pretty unlucky. Obviously very disappointed as otherwise it would have been a walk in the park today and we could have won the race but it didn’t happen, so we saved the podium. After that I was behind Fernando. I was clearly quicker but they are faster than us on the straights. We knew that, so it was impossible to pass.

Q: It is not the first time this season you have started on pole and not won the race. Is this the hardest one to take?
SV: Well, as I said I did not understand inside the car what was happening and I still do not really understand why I did get a penalty. In the end I should have won. For some reason it did not happen and we finished third. As Mark said none the less it was a good result for the team but surely I am very disappointed.

Q: Mark, you go into the summer break now as the man leading the World Championship. How much does that mean to you and how much does that spur you on for the return when we come back to racing in Spa?
MW: The victory is good. To maximise your opportunities is always good irrespective of what happens to your rivals. Not getting ahead of ourselves. We’ve still got some big events coming up. They all dish out the same amount of points, but all of them will provide different challenges for us as a team and technically for the cars. It is nice to have a few more points than other people, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Looking forward to the break for sure. Very, very timely. But two sensational venues to finish the European season off in Spa and Monza, so looking forward to them. Spa we all love driving there, so looking forward to going there.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Mark, so you managed to stay awake this afternoon then?
MW: Ha, ha, yeah. The first stint I thought ‘here we go.’ Budapest all over again. All of us have followed many cars around this track for the duration of the race. The start was pretty much standard, probably what we expected. It was going to be very, very difficult for me to pass Sebastian off the start. It was always damage limitation. Fernando got a very good start and was straight in behind Seb and then we settled into the first stint. It was totally obvious that Seb would start pulling away. Fernando was driving on the limit and trying to pull away from the other guys within reason for his first stint. I was just waiting for the stop or the part of the race where we could try to do something about Fernando and make an extra position and get our grid position back. Then there was some debris out of turn 11. The safety car was deployed and we had to go off strategy, to do something different to the Ferraris. Not a massive gamble, but not without its risks. We knew the option tyre was pretty sturdy but I still had to find the limit of driving flat out but without going off the edge. If you lose either end of the car I would not have had enough of a gap over Fernando. I needed to pull over 20 seconds to him and the front left tyre was not enjoying the last 10 laps for sure, particularly in the last corner. I was pretty happy with the way I drove there. I knew I needed to put some decent, consistent, solid laps in and pick the back markers off. Fernando would be coming across then too. All those facets are very important in the race. Once we got the gap it made it more comfortable for the boys in the pit lane. I was very conservative for the whole thing, got the stop done and then went back out on the primes and controlled the race from there.

Q: You mentioned it was a bit of a gamble. You must have had a very short time to decide as you were one of only two top drivers who stayed out. Otherwise everybody came in.
MW: Yeah, you would have to ask our strategy guys that. We didn’t have much time. Seb and Fernando, particularly Seb had the least time out of all of us, then Fernando and all of a sudden I was thinking when they told me to ‘stay out, stay out’ coming out of turn 13 and then we come to the pit lane I said ‘come on Fernando please pit, please pit, pull off, pull off.’ At least then I could try something. He pulled into the pit lane and I thought now I have to get a stop back in the race at some stage of the race. It was pretty much the obvious thing to do having been put in that situation, but for someone like me who probably had a bit of a pace advantage we could try to do something different, so it worked out okay.

Q: I guess the victory is pretty unexpected, isn’t it? You were one of the quickest cars.
MW: Yeah, unless Seb had a technical problem. He was on pole and he was leading the first stint and unless he makes a mistake or has a problem it is probably going to be his race. Second was certainly on the cards for me. But this is racing and sometimes it happens. Most of my other victories haven’t been gifted to me. Today I gained one position. Tough that Seb lost two positions but obviously in the Constructors’ we lost a few more points through that mistake on the radio or whatever. Look, I am not sitting here complaining. You have got to take them when you can get them. I still had to do the job today. It is a pretty long race and it is easy to not always get it right but we did today.

Q: Fernando, how hard were you being pushed by Sebastian in those closing stages?
FA: Well, a lot. I think we were clearly slow compared to them all weekend, so no surprises in the race. I had a similar feeling in the first part when I had Mark behind me, so I knew more or less the important places were the main straight, maybe the only opportunity, so last corner became crucial to do a good exit to avoid any risk. Lots of pressure. We felt very slow today compared to them but thanks maybe to the lay-out of the track and the difficulties to overtake we were able to maintain position and finish in second which is good for us but we know that we need to improve. I think this weekend the race pace and the qualifying pace we were not quick enough to fight with Red Bull, so we need to also be realistic about what we did this weekend. A fantastic result Sunday, but overall a weekend that we need to push and keep improving the car as we saw this weekend.

Q: And in fact second place was perhaps unexpected but also the fact that McLaren weren’t really in the hunt this weekend.
FA: Well, I think third place was our deserved place this weekend. We were third in all the free practices, in Q1, Q2 and Q3, so third position was maybe what we expected from the race but we knew that we maybe had an opportunity at the start, starting on the clean side. The car did a very good start today, so we nearly arrived first into the first corner, so we nearly had the chance to overtake both Red Bulls. In the end, it was not possible but it was enough to put me second and then with the safety car period, tried to pit and to secure second place and then Mark did a fantastic first stint, forty laps with the soft tyre with no problems at all, so that maybe surprised us and we were not able to react, or we were not quick enough to make our strategy work. When you have such a pace advantage as Red Bull had this weekend, any strategy works. That was the case this weekend.

Q: Sebastian, obviously disappointing for you, and you still don’t seem to know in your mind what happened, why you had the penalty.
SV: Well, people have told me what happened. I don’t like it but I cannot change it now.

Q: What happened after the safety car went in, because you did lose quite a lot of time to Mark at that time.
SV: Nothing happened. I think somewhere in the first stint we lost the radio, so I was probably relying too much on the radio call that the safety car was going to come in. Mark was still close to the safety car in turn twelve, turn 13. I had a little bit of a gap but I thought the safety car would stay out, so no problem, and then going through turn 13 I saw that Mark was still very close to the safety car, and all of a sudden the safety car pulled in, so I was surprised, I went onto the power. It looks like I was asleep and I totally lost out on the restart. I don’t know how much time but too much, not acceptable. If anything, that was already a penalty for me and from there onwards, I lost the rhythm a bit and lost a little bit on the first couple of laps. I knew that when the race goes normally there’s nothing to fear because we have made our stops, so we just have to finish the race and we had the pace. Then I got the drive-through. As I said, I was lucky to see the board, it wasn’t easy. Then I came in and got the drive-through. I was obviously pretty angry and had to finish the race (driving) thirty laps behind Fernando. We were clearly faster but there was no way to get past. When you run too close your tyres start to lose the grip. We also knew that we weren’t quick enough on the straights.

Q: You had one fairly big moment off the track at turn four, I guess.
SV: Yeah, there was a back marker and I couldn’t really see where he was and Fernando was right behind him. We passed him and I was a little bit late on the entrance, so I decided to go wide. It was not a big deal. I knew that even if I had a gap of two or three seconds to Fernando it would take a lap and I would be back again (close behind him). I tried to stay as close as I could and waited for my chance. It didn’t come. As I said in the car, I didn’t understand what happened but this weekend we were obviously not very lucky. Maybe you can argue that we did something wrong against the regulations but then I don’t know. The way I grew up and what I learned about life at the last race, there was also something that is written in the regulations and it wasn’t followed. Nothing happened. This week… nothing you can compare but we had to pay a very expensive price and in the end we got good points for the team but of course I would have loved to have won the race.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) Sebastian, can you tell us exactly when you lost the radio and how you knew when to pit?
SV: I don’t know when I lost the radio. Obviously I cannot say the (exact) lap because you’re not in contact with your team on every lap, and then from race control I got the message on the start/finish straight. It’s not so easy to see it because it’s just coming out of the last corner. I think I was just right, so probably a bit lucky that I didn’t miss it, and didn’t do too many laps.
For the safety car? I was obviously ten seconds clear of the rest of the field, and I was just exiting turn 13 and there is a light, a board on the right hand side with SC that just popped out, and I was already on the way to approach the last corner and then I saw it at the last second and decided to slow because I knew that within half a second, I knew what could be the consequence if I had to stay out. In the end, we had the pace advantage, so yes, it might have been the smarter thing to do, looking back, but you don’t know at that stage, so I cut the entrance a bit which was last minute and came into the pit, so it was fine.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, yesterday you were 1.2s behind in qualifying and you said that in the race you would be a little bit closer. What we saw was that you were quite a bit further away, even today. Were you expecting the gap to increase instead of decrease?
FA: Maybe it was not increasing. In the first sector we were taking care of the tyres. We knew that we were taking Mark at the start. We knew that maybe the first stint was quite long, because they would wait for us to stop and we had to avoid that, so we knew that maybe the first stint was quite long, so I was taking care of the tyres and Sebastian was pulling away, not by 1.2s I think. And when the restart came after the safety car, Mark was pulling away quite quickly, because I think the soft tyres were working very well at this stage, but with Vettel we were maybe four or five tenths slower than him. He was pulling away at a much, much slower pace than in the first stint. In fact when he had the drive-through we were able to pass him, because the gap was not big enough to do the drive-through and stay in front, so more or less as expected but for sure, we had some slower pace in the race and especially some parts of the race when we took care of the tyres etc. They don’t need to do that with the pace that they had.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Mark, a lot of talk this weekend about flexing front wings. One rival team reckons it’s worth almost a second a lap. Tell us about your front wing, how good is it as part of the overall package of the car?
MW: Yeah, I think it’s at least one second, if not two! It’s like the adjustable front ride height control! It’s like everything else which constantly comes up. Our guys have broken their balls to design a car in the spirit of the regulations, and every time we are tested by the FIA, we pass. The car has always been passed by the FIA, so when people don’t like (what they see on) the stopwatch, they have to justify their own positions in some other teams sometimes, and when there’s pressure on people to perform and they’re getting destroyed, that’s how it is. McLaren have had a great year, if that’s one of the teams that… I’m happy obviously, but they’re a few points off, they’re still right there. Some teams have done certain things, other teams have done other things. They incorporated the F-duct which is a sensational idea. We’ve turned the world upside down to try and do that which is not without our resource difficulties. That’s Formula One. We’re more than happy with what we have on the car and we’re sleeping well at night, the guys, when they have inspections from the FIA that we’re doing enough. You should never penalise things that are ingenuous and people that are doing a good job, and that’s sometimes the case. Not about this particular part, but the whole concept of the car. If you have a slightly different concept here and there… The blown diffuser was all of a sudden worth four seconds a lap. It depends what week you’re talking about. There’s always something new to bring out of the cupboard.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Mark, when you decided to go for this strategy, to stay on the track with the softer tyres for so many laps, did you have references about the tyre wear because today was the hottest day of the weekend?
MW: Yeah. No we didn’t, is the answer to your question. It’s impossible to do a 42 lap run on Friday. We had a pretty good idea that the tyre might be OK but as always, we found in Canada and a few other places sometimes you might have a surprise. We were pretty optimistic that we wouldn’t get a surprise to be honest, and that we could do enough, but if the tyre still starts to go away, then I have a crucial point in the race where I cannot get the gap to Fernando, and then it would not have worked. So what was important was that I kept the rhythm, I kept the pace very high, but without killing the tyre but in the end I don’t think there was much left of the front left. It was completely finished and that was the balancing act I had to do, so there was a sensational job from the team, they got it right and it was good.

Q: (Carlos Miquel – Diario AS) Fernando, my first question is if you think that this defence is similar to Imola 2005 when you stayed in front of Michael Schumacher, and the second question is about the rule to enter the pits? Do you think it’s Ok to cross the kerb at the pit lane entrance?
FA: About the defence, I think this was a little bit easier, because it’s impossible to overtake on this track. It’s like in Monaco. You can drive whatever speed you want and you will more or less maintain position. There’s no place to overtake. As I said, turn one is the only opportunity. If you do a very slow lap and do the last corner quickly, it’s enough to maintain position. Today was just a very long race, a boring race in a way but important for the points, for the championship.
Concerning the entry, I think it’s part of the track, the kerb, so I don’t know if you gain time or you lose but it’s OK.

Q: (Alvaro Faes – La Nueva Espana) Fernando, what are your calculations now for the next races, and your goal to get closer to the leaders?
FA: I don’t know what the gap is now, if Mark is leading now. Twenty points? I don’t know. Two races ago it was 47 before Germany, so after Germany and Hungary we have reduced half of the gap which was important for us as we enter August and four weeks’ break with less than 47 points which was too big a gap to recover. Now, twenty is still a lot, especially because we know how competitive Red Bull is, we know how competitive McLaren is, even if they had a tough weekend, I’m sure they will come back very strongly after the break. We know it’s going to be difficult, very difficult but with the car we have now, the improvements that we’ve done, we know that there will be some circuits with some opportunities as we had in Germany and there will be some other circuits like this one where we will maybe have no chance to win and we need to score as many points as possible, as we did. It’s still open, but it remains very difficult, so we stay calm, we know how difficult it will be and we also know that we must improve. If we don’t improve, we will not win the championship. If we improve enough, maybe we have a chance. There are still very important races now, the next four or five races, so it’s important, for sure, to have less than one race distance, less than 25 points going into this break.

Q: (Jaime Rodriguez – El Mundo) Fernando, what do you feel inside the car when there’s a faster car than yours right behind you for many laps?
FA: I felt like a back marker. I felt like one of the new teams, when we approach them, because I was doing my maximum and they were quicker than us, but we were lucky to have this scenario here in Hungary, which is a circuit where it is very difficult to overtake. I’m sure that with the pace advantage that Red Bull had, if we had this situation in Germany last week or in Spa next race, I cannot defend my position for more than two or three laps because they will overtake soon or later. Here we were lucky to have this opportunity.
MW: Just one more thing. In his question, Dan asked about how each team is asking for front wings and this here and there and all that sort of stuff. The reason our car is quite good on these sort of tracks… we’ve been looking for engine parity for the last few years. We know we don’t have the most powerful engine. When we go to a track where there are not many straights, the car is good because we’ve had to try incredibly hard to get the car performing in this type of situation, so we would love parity with the engine. Other teams sometimes want everything, but we need parity on the engine and then it would be a fair game and that’s all we want, again, is similar horsepower to other teams and this is another example, when you go to different venues like here, we see who has a nice car. It’s not a one way street with this stuff you know.

Ferrari man Fernando Alonso was shocked to find himself so far behind the pace setting Red Bull’s today in qualifying for Sunday’s F1 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Alonso had a good qualifying session and just like in the practice he was the only one anywhere near Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. However, despite finishing Q3 in third place, he was disappointed to be so far off P1.

Indeed in the end his best lap, a 1 minute 19.987 seconds, was 1.2 seconds off the pole – and over eight tenths off second, quite a surprise, especially as he had been just 0.002 seconds off the top spot in Germany last weekend, although admittedly the Hungaroring is a rather different challenge to Hockenheim.

“I am pleased with my qualifying lap and with the performance of our car, as I don’t think I could have done better today. The Red Bulls proved to be very strong and the gap to them is certainly a surprise,” Alonso said.

“Having said that, we have to remain focussed on our work and try to do the maximum, aiming at getting on the podium. We must bear in mind that the leaders in both championships are behind us on the grid and our aim is to make up ground on their points total.

“The start will be very important. Usually at this track, starting on the clean side brings a clear advantage, but this year we have seen good starts from the dirty side and bad ones from the clean: it will be vital to do everything as well as possible and then we will see where we are at the end of the first lap. At that point we can also decide whether to have an attacking race or to manage the situation.”

Team-mate Felipe Massa also went well in qualifying and while he was around three tenths slower in the sister F10, he still did enough to take fourth and ensure the Scuderia locked-out the second row.

“When you are gapped by over a second in qualifying, there is always something to think about: the way in which they [Red Bull] make their tyres work on the first lap is especially incredible and their aerodynamics help them so much in some corners, especially in changes of direction,” Massa continued. “In the race though, the situation can be different, but clearly we cannot claim that we will be quicker on track.

“However, overall, we have to be pleased with this result because, all the same, we are ahead of everyone else. I did not produce a perfect lap: with these tyres you have to drive extremely precisely because you can easily run the risk of going off the ideal line. The start will be very important and, unfortunately, I am on the dirty side of the grid: let’s see what we can do. The race will be very long and as always, anything can happen.”

Ferrari boss, Stefano Domenicali and chief track engineer, Chris Dyer meanwhile echoed those thoughts and both felt their drivers did a top job.

“We are pleased with this result because it is the most we could reasonably have expected from this qualifying session,” Domenicali stated. “Certainly the gap to the top is very significant and it’s incredible to see how the picture can change in the space of one week: from a gap of two thousandths, we have gone to 1.2 seconds on the same tyres and with almost identical cars to those raced in Germany.

“Probably, we were not that close in Hockenheim and we are not that far off here: as they said in Ancient Rome, ‘in medio stat virtus.’ I wish to congratulate both our drivers who got the very most out of the car’s potential. Now we must concentrate on the race which will be very long and tough, both in terms of reliability and for the drivers: here the slightest mistake carries a high price. Our aim is to try and make up as much ground as possible in both championships.”

Dyer added: “A good job from both our drivers who today were able to extract all the potential available to them from the car.

“Honestly, I do not think we could have aspired to a better result: we definitely did not have the speed to fight for the front row, however, we managed reasonably comfortably to lock out the second one. We will try and get a good start and to get amongst the cars starting ahead of us: if we manage it, the race could turn out to be interesting.”

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.’ It was a pleasure to drive yesterday and even more so today, so looking forward to tomorrow. Quite a difficult session. I didn’t have a very smooth run in Q2 with the options. I didn’t feel 100 percent, but there is not much you can do with the car. Little trims, but it worked quite well. I had a lot of confidence in Q3 and I was able to go quite a bit quicker, so overall a very good step and I am happy again to be on pole. I think every Saturday and Sunday is special, so being on pole also means a lot for us, for the team, for myself and hopefully we will have a good start tomorrow and then we should have a great race.

Q: What is the performance advantage this Red Bull car is giving you? Where is the secret? Where are you finding the time on this track?
SV: Well, I think it is probably as well hidden as we were all asking ourselves where Ferrari found the time last week in Hockenheim. I think this circuit suits us. Traditionally it is a very difficult circuit for the car as the car is very nervous, the track is very bumpy and it is not easy to get it right. You need to know the track but also you need to have the car and I think this weekend so far has been very good for us. The track suits us, suits our car, therefore we are a little bit quicker than the rest. It is a difficult day tomorrow, the main challenge. No points on Saturday as usual but for now it is the best we could do on Saturday, so we can be proud of ourselves and can go to sleep well tonight.

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. The guys have done a phenomenal

job all weekend, so look forward to the race tomorrow.

Q: How difficult is it from a driver’s perspective knowing that the team has a performance advantage but you have got a guy on the other side of the garage that could be the one that nicks pole from you?
MW: Well, it was pretty similar to Barcelona here. We knew that it was probably going to be between both of us. There wasn’t maybe a chance for the other guys to have a crack at us today, so we knew that it was going to be pretty tight between us like it was in Barcelona. Whoever did the quickest lap out of us two was probably going to get pole.

Q: Looking forward to the start of the race?
MW: Yeah, can only go forwards.

Q: Fernando, Ferrari chasing the Red Bull and really the best of the rest this weekend.
Fernando Alonso: I think we found a big gap between Red Bull and us this weekend already from yesterday’s practice. I think we maximised our potential today. We did our job which is as you said to be the best of the rest. Congratulate Red Bull. I think they dominate so far the weekend and they deserve this first row, so hopefully tomorrow we can make it a difficult race for them, as so far this weekend it has been too easy.

Q: How do you maximise your potential for tomorrow’s race? Is it all about your start?
FA: The start we know is important. We know Hungary. The track is very difficult to overtake. We know strategy will be important as well. The start, first corner, first lap will be 60 per cent or 70 per cent of the final result, so hopefully we can do a good start as we did in Hockenheim last week and try to overtake positions and try to fight a little bit.

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. Usually in Hungary it is quite important to be on the clean side. I was second last year, Fernando was on pole and I think if I had been on the clean side it would have been a different race. But that’s Hungary. It is very difficult to pass here, so for sure the start is important as well as turn one. But there are a couple of laps following, 70 laps is quite a difficult track for the car, for the drivers, so it will be an exciting race tomorrow.

PRESS CONFERENCE

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 all the cars haven’t changed a lot. 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. Maybe now you have the same people wondering what has happened to us. I can assure you there is no secret. We have been working hard since Hockenheim, trying to clean up the table and approach the weekend trying to be on top of our game. I think we were and in the end it converted to a very, very smooth Friday and a good Saturday. Happy to be on pole. I think it has been close all weekend between us, Mark and myself, so it is good to be on pole on Saturday. I think we have been there a couple of times this year. But 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. It’s not always easy to get around here. The bumps are quite harsh and the car is very nervous. It tends to move a lot. 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. I think last year we had a good race here, a good car, unfortunately not – sorry, not a very good race, but we had a good car. Mark did the fastest lap and this year again we seem to like this track. Traditionally you need a lot of downforce and I think we have got some, so it’s good for us.

Q: What did you learn from this morning’s session to this afternoon because Mark was substantially quicker this morning and yet you seem to have turned it around this afternoon?
SV: I didn’t have a clean lap this morning, I had lots of traffic, so it was difficult to get a lap together and Mark was a bit quicker. That’s it. I was happy with the car but I think the fine adjustment was not yet there. Also, at the beginning of qualifying the car was moving a bit too much and as I said, around here you need the confidence over the bumps, over the kerbs. And then I think we made the right step from this morning to this afternoon. There are no secrets, but it’s playing around a little bit with the front wing, with the diff and with tyre pressures. As I’ve said before, sometimes the effect is very, very big. Sometimes you find two or three tenths by tuning the tyre pressures. To find something that improves the car by three tenths is very difficult. The tyres are black gold, or one of the most important factors and I think we did a good job this afternoon, as simple as that.

Q: Mark, do you feel you could have done a 1m 18.7s?
SV: It was a good lap from Seb but, as he touched on, it’s all about getting the tyres ready and getting everything in shape for that one lap. I wasn’t quick enough today, I didn’t get it together for those two laps. I don’t know how Seb’s second lap went but obviously his first lap was very good. Yeah, we could have done better of course but we didn’t, so we deserve to be second and not first.

Q: In fact neither of you improved on your second, so it fizzled out as a session. Was there a track condition reason for that, do you think?
MW: I didn’t have the best sort of preparation to start my lap. I obviously had Lewis and I think Kubica was starting/finishing his lap, so you’ve got to get everything right, the tyres, everything needs to be ready to put together three perfect sectors here. The second lap was not easy to get right, so that’s why.

Q: This is actually not a bad circuit for you; it’s actually a better circuit for you than it is for your team mate. You’ve finished seven out of eight races here. What are your feelings about it?
MW: Yeah, it’s going to be an interesting start, then after that, we know with these regulations the race can be interesting in terms of trying to stay awake. But let’s see how the start goes and then after that we will try and stay awake.

Q: Fernando, you really had quite a lot of work to do from yesterday to today, as far as we could see from your comments from yesterday. Was there a lot of analysing, the blown diffuser, a lot of set-up work to be done?
FA: Yeah, I think yesterday, as usual, we tried to use free practice one and free practice two to get some data, to try new components on the car, some for this race, some for future races, and try to see if they work. Then on Saturday morning we normally put everything in place. We put the car in the best condition we can and we see where we are. I think the difference we had yesterday to Red Bull was too big to improve overnight. This morning we checked this as well and we saw that they were dominant this weekend and untouchable. Again, the race is tomorrow. As Sebastian said now, I think many times on Saturday there are some results that on Sunday are difficult to repeat, so we will see tomorrow if we can do a good race, finish on the podium and I think our job today was to maximise the car, to be third which is maybe the best position we could do and I’m still happy, with the lap, with the car and I really felt good grip and good performance in the car, obviously not at the level of Red Bull but enough to be the best of the rest.

Q: Somebody said last weekend that the dirty side here is probably the dirtiest of the season, so do you feel that you have a good chance of slotting into second tomorrow?
FA: We will see. I think it basically depends on how the start is. I think we know that the dirty side here is quite bad, maybe the worst of the calendar but at the same we’ve had some good starts this year starting on the dirty side, and some bad starts starting on the clean side. I think it will be down to the start and how things go when the red light goes off but no doubt that we will have a good chance tomorrow to overtake cars at the start.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, 1.2 seconds. Is it as big as you could have expected or does it comes as a surprise?
FA: 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. We will maximise our potential and it’s 1.2 seconds to me but two seconds for fifth or sixth position, so I think there are people who are more worried than us.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Lap times have been amazingly quick here this year, much quicker than last year. Do you have an explanation for that?
SV: I think first of all, if you compare the cars and the lap times we did last year, if you compare this year’s cars to last year’s cars, they are built around the double diffuser. Last year, some cars had the double diffuser and other cars then adapted it, so it was different. For this year, I think everyone knew what the regulations would be. Yeah, then like Fernando said, especially if you look at Q3 times, we don’t do it with fuel anymore, so of course they will be quite a bit faster. In the end, you need the conditions, you need the right weather. I think the circuit was exceptionally clean from Friday onwards. Usually, in Hungary, you see the track improvement is massive, so I think these are the main reasons.

Q: (Alvaro Faes – La Nueva Espana) Fernando, what racing strategy will you use tomorrow? Will you be defensive to keep the McLarens away from you, or will you attack to try to overtake at least one of the Red Bulls or both?
FA: I think we will see. As we said now, the start will be an important part of the race, first corner, but there is nothing you can plan. It will depend on how the car starts tomorrow afternoon. Sometimes we did some very good starts, sometimes not so good, so fingers crossed tomorrow it is one of the good ones. But I will be happy to be on the podium. There is no doubt. I think that knowing how the weekend has gone so far, winning the race would be a dream, but we need to be realistic, we need to know that there are two cars much quicker than us, so at the moment we deserve third position in qualifying, and theoretically we deserve third position in the race, so we will see what we can do. At the moment, the McLaren drivers are leading the (Drivers’) championship and the McLaren team is leading the Constructors’, so we need to take points and reduce the gap to them. Once the Red Bulls are leading the championship, if they do so, we will see what we can do, but at the moment hopefully we need to keep taking points from McLaren.

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Yesterday you said that you were worried about qualifying pace, and not so much for the race pace. Are you still confident that should you be able to be second after the first turn, this could be the only chance to try to win the race?
FA: I think it’s something we need to check tomorrow as well. Sometimes on Saturday we’ve been not close enough to Red Bull to fight for pole positions and then on Sunday we are much closer on race pace. This was the case when we were three or four tenths away from pole position. Today we are 1.2 seconds, so even if tomorrow we have a better race pace, it may still not be enough to fight for victory but we will see. Anything can happen. There is a 70 lap race, a very demanding circuit for drivers, for gearboxes, engines, brakes. It is not an easy circuit. We’ve seen very interesting races here in Hungary, so we will fight until the chequered flag.

Q: (Carlos Miquel – Diario AS) Mark, is your car exactly the same as Vettel’s?
MW: Yup.

Fernando Alonso says Ferrari has not been distracted by the ongoing team orders controversy and is instead fully focussed on ensuring it keeps the performance momentum up from its Hockenheim 1-2 in Hungary.

The Italian squad has been in the centre of a media storm since Felipe Massa moved aside to let Alonso win last Sunday’s race and has faced a barrage of criticism from drivers and team principals at rival squads for clearly breaking the team orders regulations.

Alonso remained largely tight-lipped about the incident in his pre-race press briefing at the Hungaroring on Thursday, simply insisting that both he and the team were only thinking about how to perform strongly this weekend after its resounding display in Germany.

“Hungary is our main target now,” he told reporters.

Fernando Alonso says Ferrari has not been distracted by the ongoing team orders controversy and is instead fully focussed on ensuring it keeps the performance momentum up from its Hockenheim 1-2 in Hungary.

The Italian squad has been in the centre of a media storm since Felipe Massa moved aside to let Alonso win last Sunday’s race and has faced a barrage of criticism from drivers and team principals at rival squads for clearly breaking the team orders regulations.

Alonso remained largely tight-lipped about the incident in his pre-race press briefing at the Hungaroring on Thursday, simply insisting that both he and the team were only thinking about how to perform strongly this weekend after its resounding display in Germany.

“Hungary is our main target now,” he told reporters.

“Our head is completely concentrated on this weekend’s job

“So [there has] not really [been] any loss of concentration in anything.”

Although Ferrari has continued to insist that Massa didn’t receive any order to cede the lead to the sister Ferrari in Germany and simply took matters into his own hands after being told Alonso was faster, the switch of its position has led to suggestions that Alonso is the team’s number one driver for the remainder of the season as he pushes for the title.

Asked on Thursday if he thought he was at an advantage compared to his chief title rivals at other teams because he now appeared to be the only one with a supporting team-mate, Alonso rubbished the suggestion he is Ferrari’s top dog – insisting both drivers drive in the team’s interests and it was time to move on and look ahead.

“I think there is not a number one, number two driver,” Alonso claimed.

“It is more about respect of each other, respect of racing for Scuderia, which means a lot.

“I think we are happy with the performance of the car in the last couple of races. In Germany finally it was the point that we arrived with both cars at the chequered flag we scored points.

“But also in Silverstone and Valencia the car was good so our aim here is to continue in this line.

“The talks, or the no talks, I think is the past and we will not have nothing to say anymore. We all said everything in Germany, and our president [Montezemolo] as well.”

The former two-time world champion also brushed off the criticism he and the team had received in wake of Sunday’s race.

“As I said, nothing really to say about any thing, or any polemic or any opinion of any one,” Alonso added.

“Many opinions, many things have been said in the last couple of days. The only important thing for us is the car is competitive and we can do well here in Hungary as well.

“What is the opinion of everybody, of some of the drivers or team principals or whatever – is their opinion. We respect everything, but we concentrate on our job.”

Ferrari’s apparent team orders in Hockenheim was punished by a $100,000 fine by race stewards in Germany, while the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council has also been asked to investigate the incident further.

Alonso said any further disciplinary action was outside both of his and Massa’s control, therefore they had to simply focus on continuing to perform strongly on track.

“I think we will see,” he said when asked about the spectre of further punishment from the WMSC.

“As I said, drivers now need to concentrate in driving. We have a very interesting grand prix in front of us now in Hungary.

“We have some good possibilities of doing a good performance so anything that happens in the future or [at] the World Motor Sport Council is something that is not in our hands.”