Vettel: “Very strange” to take pole in the pits

2011 Turkish Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Istanbul, 2011

Sebastian Vettel said it felt “very strange” not to run at the end of qualifying in Turkey.

Vettel gambled on no-one being able to beat his best time at the end of qualifying and the gamble paid off as he scored his fourth pole position of the year.

Vettel said: “Both Mark and myself decided in the last bit of qualifying, in Q3, to skip the second run.

“It’s very strange, the feeling, because the others are on track and they you know they can beat you and you can just watch – there’s nothing you can do.

“Obviously it’s good to save a set of tyres for tomorrow but, yes, it is an odd feeling, so I’m very happy.”

He added his apologies for damaging his car in a crash during yesterday’s wet practice session:

“First of all, apologies to the team, the to mechanics, obviously I damaged the car pretty much yesterday so we couldn’t run at all.

“We missed the session in the afternoon but they fixed it for today.”

2011 Turkish Grand Prix

    Browse all 2011 Turkish Grand Prix articles

    Image © Red Bull/Getty images

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    23 comments on “Vettel: “Very strange” to take pole in the pits”

    1. Red Bull is so much faster than anybody else that can hardly do any wrong.

      Webber obviously had a poor run in Q3, but even that was enough.

      Mercedes had to take the risk to go out at the session end and perhaps it cost Schumacher deerly. He might have wanted another run. Which they could have done if they’d gone out at the start of the session rather than at the very end.

      1. yes but as china has proven, it is more important to save tires than to do two runs in qualifying. Mclaren could seriously struggle at the end of the race

        1. It is more important to not have the wrong strategy. Everyone overestimate the importance of saving tires because of Hamilton’s win with the correct strategy and Webbers impressive run to 3rd.

        2. Yeah, both McLaren drivers said they regretted having gone for another lap in. They did not really improve, just took distance out of the tyres.

      2. If they went out they’d have two options:
        1 – if the lap was decent, do no more runs;
        2 – if the lap wasn’t decent, do another run.

        1. but they said the tyres lasted better than expected. They probably gambled on that fact.

          1. Yes but given the pace of the Red Bull anyway the worst Vettel would end up is 2nd or 3rd. And with the extra life in the tyres he will get another lap or two in the race which could prove crucial.

    2. ‘Very strange’ and very boring.

      Even though it has bored me a bit to see Vettel dominate qualifying this session did seem like dull compared to the rest of the season.

      At least there was some excitement to see Vettel beat his previous P1 gaining time by .05 after the flag was waved.

      1. I remember in 2009 Button used to steal pole in the dying seconds. Now the last 5 minutes of Q3 are snore-fests (Sepang excepted)

        1. China was exiting for a bit as well, at least until Lewis finished his lap in Q3 and was still miles off.

    3. I’d really like to not have to see that finger again in the next few races (better yet, for the rest of the championship).

      Yep, that would be really nice.

      And oh so unlikely at the moment.

      1. Good thing Vettel showed it only in the garage, seems he heard everyone is getting annoyed with it and now is more carefull with rubbing it in their faces.

        1. How exactly is celebrating rubbing it in their faces?? Really do you expect those who come in first to not be excited or show happiness? Just bc Vettel is dominating should NOT mean he has to hide his excitement. Who cares how everybody else feels!!

          1. No, he ought to keep his hands clasped behind his back at all times and be sure not to even smile too hugely. A moderate smile would be acceptable. However, he should also be careful about not smiling *enough*, because then people would complain that he was being arrogant and acting as though he expected the pole position/victory all along and it wasn’t a big deal. See, it’s a fine line Vettel must walk!

    4. for sure it’s strange. He’s too fast.

      1. I think Red Bull could have gone out at the end of the session, but they didn’t and decide to take their drivers out of the cockpits to show everyone their supremacy, because they could have left them in the cars looking at the monitors.

        1. I think there might be an element of truth in that!

    5. It was weird seeing him get pole so quickly, it’s usually in the dying seconds. It was also weird seeing him on top of Q1 so much.

    6. You could put a 3rd rate driver in that RB7 and he would dominate. Adrian newey designs championship cars. He is the real champion.

    7. lol, he still doesn’t get it. He did not leave the garage because it is the garage that is winning for him. About time he appreciated the technical guys.

    8. The dullest Qualifying in nearly a decade. Oh, well maybe the race will be better.
      The only plus was the improvement from Merc’
      Mclaren messed up but not even fitting most of their minor updates.

    9. While I enjoy the new Pirelli tyres in the races, I’m beginning to despise them in qualifying.

      I don’t want to hear:

      “Obviously it is good to save a set of tyres for tomorrow but it is an odd feeling – but very happy obviously.” (Vettel)

      “You cannot get through with any less tyres than that unless you are running scrubbed tyres all day but you are not going to qualify anywhere, so good decision from the team” (Webber)

      “the positive is that I have a new (set of) option left for tomorrow because I didn’t use it in Q3, so that’s going to help me a lot in the race, for sure, so I’m confident that we can have a really good race. ” (Rosberg).

      Why must I sacrifice excitement on Saturday for that on Sunday? I want nail-biting, last-second bids for pole, not tyre saving. Give them an extra set or two!

    10. It was a confident gamble by the team they know what they were doing.I was a bit worried for Webber as his time wasn’t that strong but in the end it was OK.

    Comments are closed.