Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg qualified in 3rd and 6th places for the Japanese GP
The session also saw unusually close gaps, with the top six in less than half a second and top 10 less than a second
Photo by: XPB Images
Lewis Hamilton
I am really happy with P3 on the grid and the team has done a great job this weekend, so thank you to everybody for their hard work. It seems to me that we have a better package here than we've had for a while and the car felt awesome to drive. The wind direction changed around from yesterday's practice session and that changed the characteristics of the circuit, which felt like it had much more grip. Third place is a strong result from Qualifying but the Red Bulls were just out of reach today. Managing the tyre degradation will be key tomorrow so hopefully we can get a good start from the clean side of the grid, then see what we can do from there against the guys in front.
Nico Rosberg
Ross Brawn
That was a slightly patchy qualifying session for us during which it was tricky to put the laps together in the very gusty conditions, so I think we can be reasonably pleased with third and sixth positions on the grid. Both drivers did a very creditable job in the circumstances to maximise the car they had under them. Looking down the timesheets, it's intriguing to see such close gaps on a circuit of such challenging complexity, with hundreds of a second accounting for several grid positions up and down the field. Tomorrow's race will in large part be dictated by how well the cars and drivers are able to manage the tyres and I think we can expect a very interesting afternoon.
Toto Wolff
Both drivers worked hard this afternoon to get the best out of a session where the gaps were very close indeed behind the two Red Bulls. The key factor now is finding the correct strategy for the race and I am sure we will see a mixture of approaches tomorrow afternoon. We will be working hard overnight to find the right compromise for our cars and drivers in the race.
Mercedes AMG Petronas
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments