Belgian GP: Top 10 quotes after qualifying

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg claims pole on Supersoft and will start the race on soft; two and three stop strategies expected tomorrow.

Qualifying top three in parc ferme (L to R): Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, second; Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1, pole position; Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, third

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid

Sahara Force India F1 VJM09 of Nico Hulkenberg,

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'46.744
"We had a difficult weekend until Qualifying. Especially, this morning we were thinking that we were off the pace a bit. So I was really happy to grab pole today. The Red Bulls were quickest on the long runs on Friday, so we need to be at our best to beat them. The tyres are a big challenge in the heat here this weekend. The degradation is very high. My disadvantage at the start is that I have a harder tyre with lower grip, so Max should get off the line quicker on the Supersoft. I reckon that, with some luck and a maybe a Safety Car, Lewis can climb up to the top very quickly, so he can't be ruled out either. In any case, I'm pleased with my qualifying and looking forward to tomorrow. It will be an exciting and intense race."
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	1'46.893	0.149
“It’s a great feeling. As soon as I crossed the line in Q3 on my fastest lap, I could see the fans going really wild so I knew it was a good lap. It’s been already an amazing weekend. To see so many fans around the track and feel their support is incredible and I’ve been enjoying the whole week a lot, so to be second on the grid is fantastic. It would have been very difficult to get pole position. The chance is always there if you are that close and in sector two we were very strong, but we were missing some top speed. Tomorrow will be very interesting with the different strategies between us, Mercedes and Ferrari so I think it’ll be a good fight. Hopefully the supersofts will give me a bit more grip in the first few laps and then for sure I will drop off a bit but that’s my strategy. I will probably have to pit a bit earlier but we have to wait and see how the race goes. Big thanks to the team for such a quick turnaround and working so hard on getting me out on time in Qualifying.”
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'46.910	0.166
“So far it has been a decent weekend, the car was behaving well today and we had the speed. My first run in Q3 was very good, but I went sideways and off track. The second attempt was even better, but in the last chicane I had some slight understeer and lost a few tenths compared to my Q2 sector. Today I felt we had the chance to get pole position, so I'm a bit disappointed, my laptime was not good enough. On a positive side, we are very close compared to the last couple of races. We decided to start the race with Soft tires, if you can make them work it will make a massive difference, we'll see how the race will pan out but I think our plan will be fine. We'll do our best, of course the hot conditions won't be easy for the tires, but it's the same for everybody. Hopefully we'll be up there fighting also tomorrow.”
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'47.108	0.364
“I'm sure we made a step forward from yesterday! If you look at the gaps between the cars, they are very close, so tomorrow it should be a good race. Obviously you always want a little bit more, the exit of the last corner in particular wasn't very strong, so I can't be happy with that. The rest of the lap was ok, we had a much better balance than on Friday, but it's important to be fast in all three sectors to be up there. We decided to start the race on the Soft tires, we believe that this is the best strategy, we'll see tomorrow. Anything can happen, there could even be some rain, in Spa you never know...”
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	1'47.216	0.472
“In Q3 I would have loved to have got a bit more out of it, but I’m not too disappointed looking at the race tomorrow. I’m really pleased I got through on the softs in Q2, that was our objective, whether it works tomorrow or not let’s see, but that’s what I wanted to get out of it. I’d be less happy with P5 on some tracks, but I’m not disappointed for two reasons: you can overtake here and with the tyres we’ve got this weekend, you can do a lot during the race tomorrow. If you can have a faster car or if you can be a bit more intelligent, then it can pay off. In Q2 my objective was to start on the softs. It was a nervous few minutes but we did it. I’m happy; it’s close enough to the front and I’m on the softs, sure a few cars in front have them too, but it’s going to be a good race. Two years ago I started in P5 and won! Max did really well to get on the front row – but we have a split strategy for tomorrow, we talked about it before qualifying and he wanted to start the race on supersofts and I wanted to start on softs, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
6	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	1'47.407	0.663
“I think we are in a really strong position for the race and I am really looking forward to tomorrow. We got as much as we could out of the session: I made a small mistake at the end of my lap and I could have been about a tenth faster, but that’s all we lost. Some of the cars ahead of me are starting on the soft tyre compound, which should be a big advantage for them, but we are still in good shape to get a strong result. There will be a variety of strategies at play and I hope we can move forward, enjoy the battles and bring home some points. The hot weather is making it really difficult for everyone – you reach a point where you can’t go any further with the tyres. Strategy and making the right calls at the right time will be very important: you don’t want to be on the wrong tyres at the start of such a long lap because it’s going to cost you.”
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	1'47.543	0.799
“I’m reasonably satisfied with our performance today. Q1 and Q2 went to plan, but I had an issue with the power unit during Q3 and that cost me some time down the straights and proved quite costly. We’ve got to start the race on the supersoft tyres, but I think we made the right decision to use them in Q2 because it would have been difficult to make Q3 on the softs. It’s certainly going to be a challenging race if the weather stays this warm because Spa is already a demanding track on tyres in cool conditions. We need to explore our options tonight and make the right decisions tomorrow.”
8	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	1'47.612	0.868
“Obviously it was a bit of a problematic qualifying session for us. Considering the software issues we had, I think we performed like we should have. It’s a shame that we had the issues because it meant we couldn’t get a top six position. At the end of the day, the race is tomorrow and that’s what counts. The car felt better today than yesterday so we’ve already made progress. Our long runs in practice looked good in terms of the race pace, so I think we can have a strong race tomorrow, even though we didn’t get the perfect result out of today.”
9	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	1'48.114	1.370
“I’m very happy with ninth place. Spa is a tough circuit for our car so I don’t think we expected to get the result we did. You’ve know when you’ve done a good job, and I feel I did just that. We obviously won’t be near the front, but our race pace should be better than our qualifying pace was so we’ll certainly be competing with the cars that have qualified around us. The team have done a great job this weekend, and Honda have brought us a new power unit, so we’re looking at a situation of definite improvement. We didn’t expect to be this far up in qualifying here, so hats off to the whole team; it’s good progress as I say. All in all, I’d say it’s the best qualifying of our season so far.”
10	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	1'48.263	1.519
“I had a software issue in Q1 which caused a misfire so I couldn’t put a lap together. That really didn’t help my qualifying, because I only had one set of supersofts left for Q3. I gave it everything on my final lap, but I locked the front into turn one and lost a lot of time, so I’m not happy with that. If I had two sets of tyres in Q3 it would have helped me a lot, but that didn’t happen so we lost a few places. We will see what we can do tomorrow though. I was happy with the car, the balance and the laptimes in qualifying.”