CHINA GP – QUALIFYING RESULTS

Tough time for Raikkonen: In the third wet qualifying out of four races so far this season, Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest, while Kimi Raikkonen had to settle for eleventh place. The Spaniard did not have much difficulty getting through to the final part of qualifying, but in the last 12 minute session, he struggled on his first run, while on his second set of intermediates, he set a time of 1.55.637.

Raikkonen had a much tougher time, failing to make the cut to Q3 by just 13 thousandths of a second, with a time of 1.56.860. The Finn got caught up in traffic, which wiped out any advantage from having fitted new tyres. Kimi ended up in a train of cars, which is always a problem in the wet as visibility is so restricted.

Lewis Hamilton took the 34th pole of his career for Mercedes. He will share the front row with Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull. Ahead of Alonso are Sebastian Vettel, third and Nico Rosberg fourth.

FINAL TIMES

Pos  Driver             Team/Car              Time       Gap
 1.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1m53.860s
 2.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m54.455s  +0.595s
 3.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault      1m54.960s  +1.100s
 4.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes              1m55.143s  +1.283s
 5.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari               1m55.637s  +1.777s
 6.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m56.147s  +2.287s
 7.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m56.282s  +2.422s
 8.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m56.366s  +2.506s
 9.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault    1m56.773s  +2.913s
10.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault         1m57.079s  +3.219s
                        Q3 cut-off time:      1m56.847s
11.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m56.860s  +2.831s*
12.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m56.963s  +2.934s*
13.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m57.289s  +3.260s*
14.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari        1m57.393s  +3.364s*
15.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes      1m57.675s  +3.646s*
16.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes  1m58.264s  +4.235s*
                        Q2 cut-off time:      1m58.411s
17.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari        1m58.988s  +3.472s**
18.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault      1m59.260s  +3.744s**
19.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m59.326s  +3.810s**
20.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault      2m00.646s  +5.130s**
21.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari      2m00.865s  +5.349s**
22.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault

QUOTES

Kimi Raikkonen: “The past two days have been difficult, because after yesterday’s technical problem, this morning I also only did a single run, but overall, I felt more comfortable in the car. Unfortunately, on my last run in Q2, when I was on my quick lap, I lost a lot of time in the final sector and that meant I didn’t make the cut to Q3. The car’s handling was inconsistent, as it was stable in some parts of the track and less so in others. I had some problems with the balance and this had an effect on my performance. It’s too early to say what happened, but the time lost yesterday definitely didn’t help. Now I want to concentrate on tomorrow’s race and try my best to end this weekend with a good result.”

Raikkonen – Inconsistent handling: “The car’s handling was inconsistent, as it was stable in some parts of the track and less so in others. I had some problems with the balance and this had an effect on my performance. The past two days have been difficult, because after yesterday’s technical problem, this morning I also only did a single run, but overall, I felt more comfortable in the car. Unfortunately, on my last run in Q2, when I was on my quick lap, I lost a lot of time in the final sector and that meant I didn’t make the cut to Q3. It’s too early to say what happened, but the time lost yesterday definitely didn’t help. Now I want to concentrate on tomorrow’s race and try my best to end this weekend with a good result. I have had difficult years with other teams and with Ferrari. I think 2009 was even more worse. It’s not ideal but there is only one way that we can go. I’m sure we can make things better and make me happier and make better results.”

Pat Fry: “The weather forecast for today proved to be right and a light but persistent rain had a significant effect on both sessions. In the morning, we chose to run as little as possible so as not to use up the rain tyres in order to have as many new sets as possible for qualifying and the race. Kimi unfortunately did not get past Q2. Yesterday he lost the first free practice session and today he was fighting with the balance of the car, especially in the slow corners. As for Fernando, he managed to get through the three parts of qualifying without any particular problems and fifth place on the grid tomorrow will mean he can be in the leading group. With him, we will try and exploit any opportunity to attack while with Kimi we will try and move him up the order to take as many points as he can. In both cases, the opening two laps will hold the key.”

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