Abu Dhabi '11

[Anna]

For all the news on the Abu Dhabi GP....

[Anna]

Abu Dhabi GP - Thursday press conference


Buemi, di Resta, Glock, Kovalainen, Liuzzi & Petrov

Thursday 10 November 2011 - 19h40, by Mylène Drui
Q: Tonio, one or two changes in the team. Have you seen differences within the team and how the team has reacted.

Vitantonio LIUZZI: I have to say the team is changing, on-going at the moment, the structure is improving every time and I think there are a lot of changes for next year, plans on-going in the next month. I think the structure improved a lot during the 2011 season, we are focussed on 2012. We want to improve and get better in the field and I feel these changes are going in the right direction for the future. Still nothing completely clear how will be the line-up for next year in terms of the set-up of the team, but I think we are going forward.

Q: Your future? Would you just clarify that? Did you say something has not been decided yet?


VL: No, I was talking about the team, not about me or the other drivers. For me I always said I have a long-term contract with the team. We started with this adventure and we knew that it could not be just a one-year situation if we wanted to improve. The team hired me to help them develop and bring experience in the team and I think everything is going well and everything is looking positive for the future so not much to say about it.

Q: So you are hopeful of staying and going forward?

VL: Yes, I believe so.

Q: Heikki, both drivers have been confirmed for next year. You seem to still be making progress as well with the team. Again, a certain amount of optimism I would have thought?

Heikki KOVALAINEN: Yeah, absolutely. I think we made more progress than the other two new teams in these last couple of years especially this year. We need to take the next step, but I think the team is making the right kind of moves back at the factory and in terms of the structure of the team to go forward so I am confident and I am optimistic that next year we will move another step forward. It has not been too far away, actually, in the last few races. I have been able to race some of the cars ahead of us so it is not that much we need anymore to join the pack and then the middle of the field and to be ahead of them we need a bigger step. Hopefully over the winter we can make another gain compared to the teams directly ahead of us.

Q: Tell us your view of the way Tony Fernandes works. He seems to be a particularly dynamic guy running goodness knows how many companies. Not only the racing team, Caterham and even Queens Park Rangers.

HK: Yeah, he is an exciting guy. He is not afraid of making decisions and taking an adventure into an unknown. I think that, quite often, is how the good leaders and successful businessmen, how they work. To make a successful business you have quite often got to do something different to what the group of people is doing and he is certainly doing that. This morning was a good example of how Tony operates. I sent him a text regarding Caterham, his car company, and I said we should do that. He just texted me back, ‘Done, tell Riad (Asmat)’ and so, the deal was done. That’s how he works and I believe he meant that. I really enjoyed working with him and it was one of the reasons I joined the team and I have enjoyed these last two years. He is a funny guy.

Q: Timo, do you feel you have done a good job this year overall? Obviously it has been a very difficult at the back of the grid and what are your thoughts on next year as well?

Timo GLOCK: Yeah, I am happy with my performance in general. I think I got the maximum out of the package we had. I just did my best in qualifying and the race. Sometimes we were a bit unlucky in the race, like in India at the last race. In general, as I said, with the package we got it out most of the time and now we have to keep concentrating on working for next year and make improvements like Lotus did this year and move on.

Q: And looking forward to this race. We have got two DRS zones here. I know there is not a lot overtaking going on at the back, but what are your feelings about two DRS zones here?

TG: I think you are right, you have to ask the guys in front, it is difficult for me to say. But I think it will be good possibilities here to overtake, especially with DRS and it could make the race quite interesting. Let’s see, maybe we can overtake on the back of it as well but the possibilities are much higher here.

Q: Paul, you are probably better prepared for this circuit than any of the ones we have been to so far as you did about 110 laps in a Force India this time last year.

Paul di Resta: Yeah, I think coming here obviously having a bit of experience isn’t negative having done the Pirelli test last year. But, really, it is all about the work you carry out on Friday and Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon in this case. We want to try and maintain position in the Constructors’ Championship and our performance has been very close to Toro Rosso and Sauber and Renault if we get it right and really that’s our focus at the moment.

Q: So it is quite tight between all you guys. You still feel there is potential for change there?

PdR: Yeah, I don’t think you can really give up on any approach. I think you have got to be fairly aggressive. Already this year we saw it change a lot. We are in a strong position at the moment but we are very focussed on trying to get our performance level and equally bring new updates if we can. Really just to try and maintain that. These guys seem to be very strong in the race and really me and Adrian (Sutil) are doing our upmost to try and grab as many points as we can and race against these guys.

Q: Given that no announcement has been made about the drivers, although that has been brought forward, I am sure you put pressure on yourselves anyway. But does that put more pressure on you?

PdR: I suppose it does in a way. I have always said you always want to know as quick as you can but you have to respect Mr (Vijay) Mallya’s decision and really he has said he is going to change. But, at the moment, I have a contract for the year so I am focussed on doing the remaining two races, which we should be, and really the future will take care of itself hopefully.

Q: Sebastien, we only have to look at the last few races to realise the team has made a lot of progress. So you feel, probably, in a position where you can fightback?

Sebastien BUEMI: Yes, now we have got the same amount of points as Sauber so it is already good for us. We are 10 points behind Force India. It was a shame what happened in India, but still I think we can continue to fight and, like you said, the car is really quick now. We have a good qualifying pace. We were both in Q3 in India and then, also in the race, we are normally quite quick as well so hopefully we can finish in the points and be in front of Sauber by the end of the weekend. Then for the last race we will see what we can do.

Q: The problem in India, does that have consequences for the rest of the year? Are you going to have to use a ninth engine perhaps?

SB: No, we were not planning to use this engine anymore so it is not going to be a problem at all.

Q: And your thoughts about the future, for next year?

SB: I don’t think too much about it right now. Let’s say I try to get the maximum out of myself and the car in the remaining two races and then we will have enough time to speak about next year. I believe we have got to be concentrated. We have a good chance to achieve a very good result for the team so I think it is really important to dedicate ourselves completely to this before thinking about anything else.

Q: Vitaly, we remember you last year with your red shadow. Would it have been very different with DRS?

Vitaly PETROV: Definitely, and with new Pirelli tyres.

Q: It would have been very different, would it?

VP: I think we need to forget already what’s happened last year here. I know I did a good race by myself to improve and to show the team I could stay for next year. It was not to use tactics for Fernando (Alonso), and with the lack of overtaking here he couldn’t do anything.

Q: There have been a few changes in the team this year; is that something that affects you most recently?

VP: I don’t think anything changes for me. I think it will be better for the team. It’s like football; when a new coach joins a team, what he does first of all is look at the team and watches where the players are playing. Then he puts the people in the right places, where they should be playing. Then teams become more competitive and play stronger. This is actually what we try to do inside the team. The team principal tries to change some people, to move them around and try to profit from this.

Q: What’s the situation for next year, your future?

VP: For me, everything is clear. I have a contract for next year, I don’t need to be worried, so I just try to do my job, try to gather a lot of information for next year for us in these last two races. I and the team are fully concentrated on the team for next year also so I’m quite clear.


QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR


Q: (Alex Popov – RTR) Heikki, does the change of name to Caterham mean that your business car will be very fast but not very comfortable?

HK: I’ve been waiting for the Caterham already this year. They haven’t sent me one yet but I’m sure I will get one soon. I’m quite looking forward to taking one to Finland; I have a fantastic road leading up to my log cabin house, so I’m going to test it there, I think, when there’s a little bit of snow banks around, on studded tyres.

Q: Will you have to build your company car yourself?

HK: No, I don’t think so. I have a good car crew; they will do it for me.

Q: (Alex Popov – RTR) Heikki as a Finnish driver, your main target may be the Williams team next year?

HK: For next year, the target ahead of us doesn’t change – whoever is driving in different teams. Obviously you’re referring to Kimi at Williams; I have no idea whether that is happening or not. What’s going on there… it doesn’t matter who is driving the cars in front of us. We are targeting the cars ahead of us, joining that group and hopefully sometimes being ahead of more than one team if we have a good day. That’s all I can say. If Kimi decides to come back, I think the main difference for me will be that the parties after the races will be a little bit better.

Q: (Michael Stauble – SRG/DRS) After 17 races with DRS, how would you rate it, has it improved the racing in your opinion?

VP: I think that it’s definitely a big step forward. I think we will keep this for many years, five or ten years. I think it’s a good chance for us to overtake and good for you to write something about overtaking, so I think it’s a good step.

SB: I think it’s definitely a positive. We’ve seen a lot more overtaking; we’ve even seen some overtaking in Monaco. It’s definitely good. Sometimes it feels like the DRS zone is not long enough but I definitely think it’s going to help a lot this weekend.

Q: From a lapping point of view, is it better that the people who are lapping have DRS? Is that better from your point of view?

TG: In general, it’s not that big a difference for us. In general, it’s quite difficult overall, in the race, to keep out of the (way of the) top five, especially if you have a safety car and we are in the middle of the pack and it’s just a big mess. DRS doesn’t make a big difference for lapping cars.

HK: The only difference I see is that maybe sometimes they give us a big tow in a straight line when they go past, so it’s definitely better for us.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, is the increased performance from your car related to the development of the blown diffuser?

SB: Yes, I think it’s mainly because of that, but in general I think we improved the car very well from mid-season to the end now. I think we’re now improving the car race after race and this is why we can actually catch up the other guys. We were maybe a little bit too slow developing the car in the middle of the year, but now I think we’re doing a good job. It’s only the second year that the team is building the car, so it takes a bit of time to get into the rhythm but I think we’ve definitely got a lot of lap time through the blown diffuser.

Q: (Alex Popov – RTR) Vitaly, you mentioned the football team but which one of the team would you prefer to be your team-mate next year, stay with Bruno or maybe change or maybe Robert will be back: your personal preference?

VP: I think that if you had asked me this question last year, I would definitely have chosen the most experienced guy, because when Robert was with me in the team, I learned quite a lot from him, so I analysed the date, watched the video, listened to how he talked to the engineers and what he… At the moment, now, for me, it doesn’t matter, to be honest. I already know how to improve the team in general, to set up and how to work with my team, so this is why for next year or for this year, it doesn’t matter at all.

Q: (Gaetan Vigneron – RTBF) Timo, what is your opinion about your team-mate for next year? Is it important for you to have the same one because it’s better to improve the team or is it better to have a new one or it doesn’t matter to you personally?

TG: In general, I think it doesn’t matter to me; it’s a decision to be made by the team. Sure, on the other hand, if both drivers remain, then you have more consistency in the team but on the other hand, it doesn’t matter to me, as I said. We have a long road in front of us so it’s up to the team to decide.

Q: (Muthyalu Satyanarayan – Gulf News) Most of you have grown up and raced in your early careers in Europe. Now, two or three years back, we had Abu Dhabi and now India, so how is this experience with venues shifting to this part of the world, Middle East and Asia? What’s the experience of racing in these new venues?

HK: I have a good answer for this one. I much prefer to be at these kind of warm races because the golf courses are fantastic. I would happily stay near Bangkok and just race from there; the golf courses are great. I arrived here on Monday already and I’ve played four rounds of golf already, so I’m happy for this direction.

VP: It’s a good answer!

VL: Maybe it’s much colder in Europe but I prefer the European races. For sure, we have a different kind of circuit here in Asia, it’s completely different, much more modern, beautiful circuits but I still love the historical circuits like Spa, Monza and the European races.

SB: I think it’s good to try some new circuits, some new countries to visit. I think it’s definitely a positive to come to these races and I think what we experience here is completely different. It’s the best infrastructure in the world and it’s definitely quite nice to be racing here, starting the race when it’s still daylight and then we finish in the dark. I definitely think it’s a positive.

PdiR: Yeah, I think it’s always a good experience, but I think the questioner talked about drivers as well and I think given where junior categories are in Europe compared to Asia, it’s not quite there yet but I think that is just generally through time and I think it builds up, the whole experience, how popular racing will get. Given how many people there are in India, I’m sure that with the first Indian Grand Prix, that will generate interest and for the future, you never know where that might lead to.

Q: (Alex Popov – RTR) Sebastian, as I understand it, you used to live in Bahrain, do you still live there?

SB: No, I’ve lived in Monaco for two years but part of my family lives in Bahrain and that’s why I moved there three years ago.

Q: (Alex Popov – RTR) Is all OK there now; do we have a chance to go back for the race next year?

SB: I hope so. Bahrain is a nice circuit and I enjoy being there but first of all it has to be safe but I didn’t hear anything bad for a few months now.

[Amanda]

Yas Marina weather update: Bright days, clear nights

10 November 2011

Highly pleasant viewing conditions are anticipated for this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with rain certainly no factor for Yas Marina’s third Formula 1 event.

The UAE round is unique in that it is the only twilight race on the calendar, with the red lights going out shortly before dusk and the chequered flag falling under floodlights.


Ambient daytime temperatures will remain in the high 20s across the weekend, never falling any lower than 15°C (59°F) at night, with good visibility throughout. A 10mph wind speed of Thursday will gradually drop to just 6mph by race day.

This weekend marks the first time that Abu Dhabi has not hosted a season’s final race since it joined the calendar; after Sebastian Vettel led home a dicing Mark Webber and Jenson Button in 2009, the German dramatically sealed a maiden title last year.

[Pete]

So roughly what time in the UK will you be doing the commentary on the weekend? I know you said you'd tweet during the race and do a seperate one on here later but I need to know so I can be online to moan .

[Anna]

I don't know, Quali could possibly be the same as last race which will be quite late in the UK... About midnightish. I mean I can usually wake up for work no matter what time I go to sleep and I fast forward boring parts of Quali and it isn't that important I comment on it just it makes it more fun and its strange doing that on twitter when other people have seen it a long time before you .

The race I'll probably try and watch the moment I get home. But the problem with that is Sunday we have Strictly and X-Factor results I want to watch Strictly and have to watch X-Factor, then it isn't fair on everyone else if I put it on for the rest of the night. BUT I don't even know what time I'll get home, the buses are only 1 per hour on Sundays and I'll probably miss the 4pm one and have to wait an hour in town...... So I might get home about 5ish in the UK? I don't know I'll let you know its difficult for me to say!

[r1ch91]

Can't wait to be told what a great circuit this is whist we watch a shiny hotel change colour for 90mins or so whist enduring a million clichés about the sun setting on a great season

[Anna]

How can you not find Abu Dhabi so interesting! Its so worth the time we waste going there and the space in the calender that some other track could fill.

[Anna]

Vettel equals Mansell's record with 14th pole of the season in Abu Dhabi
By Matt Beer Saturday, November 12th 2011, 14:04 GMT

Sebastian Vettel equalled Nigel Mansell's record of 14 pole positions in a single season as he beat the McLarens to the top spot in a huge qualifying battle in Abu Dhabi.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button had to settle for second and third behind the world champion's Red Bull, with Mark Webber fourth for RBR ahead of the Ferraris.

After topping both second and third practice, Hamilton went quickest in Q1 and Q2, then took provisional pole on his first Q3 lap with a 1m38.704s - which was 0.042 seconds quicker than Vettel could manage at that stage.

Button was only fourth after the first runs, but burst to the top with his second attempt.

He only stayed there for a handful of seconds before Hamilton came through 0.009s faster to reclaim pole.

Vettel was still on his last lap, though, and he produced a 1m38.481s and beat Hamilton by 0.141s.

Behind Button and Webber, the Ferraris filled row three, having never looked likely to threaten for the leading positions. Fernando Alonso was 0.6s off pole and a similar margin ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa, who caused a brief delay to qualifying when he demolishing a chicane marker post in Q2 and left debris on the track.

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were seventh and eighth in their Mercedes, with the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta completing the top 10. This time di Resta was the only driver who did not attempt a Q3 flying lap.

The major news outside the top 10 was the Williams team's awful season getting even worse, as its cars ended up sharing the back row of the grid. Pastor Maldonado was only 17th quickest and already had a 10-place penalty for exceeding the eight-engine limit, while further engine issues for Rubens Barrichello meant he did not set a time at all.

As practice had hinted, Force India had a comfortable margin over its usual rivals Toro Rosso and Sauber, with STR's Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari only 13th and 15th, and Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi 11th and 16th for Sauber. Renault's suspicion that it would struggle at Yas Marina proved correct too, as Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna took 12th and 14th.

Heikki Kovalainen beat his tail-end rivals by a comfortable 0.9s, with his Lotus team-mate Jarno Trulli next up.

HRT's Daniel Ricciardo produced a sensational first qualifying lap which put him close to Kovalainen, and ahead of the rest of the backmarker pack, but he would ultimately slip behind Trulli and Virgin's Timo Glock.

Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m38.481s
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.622s + 0.141
3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.631s + 0.150
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m38.858s + 0.377
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m39.058s + 0.577
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m39.695s + 1.214
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m39.773s + 1.292
8. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m40.662s + 2.181
9. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m40.768s + 2.287
10. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes
Q2 cut-off time: 1m40.554s Gap **
11. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.874s + 2.440
12. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m40.919s + 2.485
13. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m41.009s + 2.575
14. Bruno Senna Renault 1m41.079s + 2.645
15. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m41.162s + 2.728
16. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m41.240s + 2.806
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m41.760s + 3.326
Q1 cut-off time: 1m42.605s Gap *
18. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m42.979s + 3.197
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m43.884s + 4.102
20. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m44.515s + 4.733
21. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1m44.641s + 4.859
22. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m44.699s + 4.917
23. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m45.159s + 5.377
24. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosoworth no time


107% time: 1m46.766s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2

[Anna]

Post-qualifying press conference
Saturday, November 12th 2011, 16:32 GMT

TV UNILATERALS

Q. Sebastian, you equalled Nigel Mansell's record of 14 poles in a season today, congratulations, but you had to dig pretty deep to get this one?

Sebastian VETTEL: Oh yes, especially after yesterday where to be honest I wasn't very happy with the car and we weren't happy in general as we thought there is more in the car, the performance is there, but we couldn't really get to it. Today, this afternoon, it was already quite a bit better but this place is tricky in many ways. You have the practice on the one hand in day conditions, the sun is up, the track is a little bit hotter, and then in the evening you qualify and you race and the circuit is quite a bit different. The car behaves differently. The tyres come in differently. It is not easy to get that right all the time. Then in qualifying I had a much better feeling especially moving onto the soft tyres. Already in Q2 we looked much better than before. Then the other difficulty around here is to get everything into one lap. It is a long lap. There are a lot of corners, especially the last sector. Once you start to turn into Turn 11 after the second straight it is basically left-right-left-right. Plenty of opportunity to gain time, but also if you take a lot of risk it is very easy to do a little mistake. It is very easy to lose straight away a lot of time. We are not speaking one, two, three hundredths. It is immediately a tenth, tenth-and-a-half. I was not so happy with my first run in Q3, but the second run much happier especially the first two sectors and with that I was buying myself a little bit of a cushion in the last sector which was a bit trickier towards the end of the evening. But all in all just enough to jump ahead of Lewis who has looked very strong all weekend. It is good that in that session, where it matters on Saturday, we were able to be just that little bit quicker than him.

Q. Lewis, as Sebastian said you have really been in control all weekend. Did you think you had done enough there?

Lewis HAMILTON: No, no. It was a good session for me. I think it has been quite a good couple of days to be honest, quite a big improvement for me, I feel, from the last race at least. Yeah, we were quick, the car has been feeling good, but just at the end there that was as fast as I was really able to get out of my lap. It wasn't particularly a great lap, the one in Q2 was much better but that's the way it is and well done to Sebastian, he did a great lap. As always, he is very, very quick but the race is tomorrow, that's the most important day.

Q. Jenson, you put it all together there on your final run. Is this a result a surprise for you and the team today?

Jenson BUTTON: I don't think a surprise, as we know the pace in the car and it was finding the right balance. I have not felt 100 per cent comfortable this weekend in terms of the balance of the car but we have improved it, we've tried a few different things, and was finally getting there through qualifying. But Q3 was very strange as there was less grip as the circuit was a lot cooler and with the break from Q2 to Q3 the car was acting differently but in some ways it was a good thing for me as I couldn't get enough front end into the car. All weekend I have been struggling with a nervous rear. Finally, when we get into qualifying, I have got massive amounts of understeer so more in the direction I like but in the tight section towards the end of the lap you need a reasonably pointy car but I didn't have that. Not a bad lap, but still, as Lewis said, the car is working well around here. It is not perfect, Seb did a good job and put it on pole, so we will have challenge from behind tomorrow.

Q. Sebastian, clearly you are in a very fierce battle here with the two McLarens. What are you expecting from tomorrow?

SV: Well I think it is going to be a long race, a fun race. As we have seen all weekend McLaren, both Lewis and Jenson, looked very competitive. Very quick on the long runs as well. That's what we expect. They will be very quick in the race. I think we need to see from some people behind, but we have to focus on ourselves first of all, try to get a good start, but then it will be a long fight. A long fight to the chequered flag. Looking forward to the race. I think the car is good, especially with the steps we were able to make after yesterday's practice. So confident and ready I would say.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Sebastian, you seem to come up with the goods every single time. Just where does it come from?

SV: I don't know. There is no box in the car that I open and get it from. To be honest I wouldn't say a surprise. We expected that if we get everything right to be closer than in practice, much closer. McLaren looked very competitive straight away yesterday in particular when I wasn't happy with the car and I wasn't happy with myself. I went off, did a mistake, and it cost us probably a proper long run. But the balance of the car wasn't as good as it could be. I felt there was more in the car and we just had to get to it, so overnight we tried to find out where the problem is. I think this afternoon it was already quite a bit better but then, I think, this is a tricky place as I mentioned with the different conditions. Conditions changing with the sun being up in FP3 this afternoon, the sun going down during qualifying. The circuit changes and the car changes and the behaviour changes. Ideally you would like to change the car, but once qualifying starts you have made your choice and then only thing you can change is yourself. You have to play around and fortunately I felt much better this afternoon and it was only getting better until later on in qualifying. In particular then, in Q2, we were quite close in reach of Lewis and I thought in Q3 if we got everything together, we would have a chance. Surprisingly the circuit did change after the little bit of downtime between Q2 and Q3 and it wasn't getting quicker. It didn't seem at least, particularly the last sector. It is such a long lap, plenty of opportunity but also once you are really pushing to the limit quite possible, quite easy, to maybe ask for a little bit too much and go off slightly. My first run in Q3 I pushed a bit too hard and the second run I was much happier and able to have a very good start into the lap, first two sectors, and with the difficult sector three I was able to have a little bit of a cushion. When I crossed the line I was looking up towards the monitor. I can't read the lap time but I can see if it is yellow or green and green is good and yellow is maybe not so good so that's a good sign but I didn't know if there were people coming behind me. Then I got the call on the radio and I was very pleased.

Q. You have won this race twice before. You have clinched the World Championship here. You have been on pole twice here now as well, it must be one of your favourites mustn't it?

SV: Today yes, yesterday no. As I said it is a tricky place. It is an amazing place. I have a lot of good memories, in particular last year, but the standard here if you look at the facilities, the place itself, it's incredible. It's a bit like wonderland if we come here with a fantastic circuit, tricky as I said, especially the last sector, so many corners, it is so long and it easy to do a mistake. But once you get into the rhythm around here it is really good fun and you are one unit with the car. The car is doing what you want and you are doing what the car wants, then it is very enjoyable.

Q. Lewis, second on the grid. Must be nice to be on the front row as you've been on the front row both time before. Is there one side better than the other to start from?

LH: Yeah, I was just thinking about that. I am not really quite sure. I think a lot of us once we hit the apex, the exit kerb, we come back across. I am sure the pole side is a little bit cleaner than the left side, but I don't think it will be too big a difference. I am happy with today. To be on the front row and not have any penalties is a blessing for me so I can look forward to tomorrow.

Q. You are pretty close. It is not as though Sebastian has got a massive margin over you in spite of the fact that you felt that was probably all you could get out of the car.

LH: Yeah, I think, as I said, it wasn't a particularly spectacular lap. Neither of them in Q3 were. In the first two qualifying sessions the car was looking really good and then we got to Q2 then I started to feel the car was understeering a little bit and that's really the limitation of the car. Then in the final runs I was pushing as hard as I could, but just wasn't able to improve on my last lap. I think there were bits of time there. As Sebastian said, sometimes you were up, sometimes you were down and there were a couple of small bits of time all over the place but unfortunately I wasn't able to extract that. Nevertheless, I am still happy with the job I did.

Q. Jenson, you were within nine thousandths of a second of...

JB: I've heard that one before! Sorry, I was getting all excited. I said I've heard that one before. Carry on.

Q. Given the hard luck stories and the balance of the car, that must be pleasing to be as close as you are.

JB: Yeah. All weekend I've been reasonably happy with the balance but I still feel that there's more to get from the car but it's just trying to find it, trying to help the rear of the car. I've been struggling with, as I always say, a nervous rear end, and I don't like that. Tried a few things before qualifying and at the start of qualifying, felt a little bit better but during qualifying, I suddenly found myself with massive amounts of understeer, so a completely different car balance than I felt all weekend, so then we had to work on trying to put front end into the car and ran out of all the options, really, in the end. It was pretty good. I'm quite happy with the lap and happy with the improvements we've made. In qualifying there's not so much you can change so we played with everything we could. It was a pretty good lap.

Q. After yesterday, you said that you didn't think DRS was going to help overtaking that much, or it was still going to be very difficult. Is that still your opinion?

JB: Yup. I think it's going to be tough to overtake with DRS. Hopefully, we will have a different story tomorrow in the race. I don't want to finish third. So we will have to see but it does feel short still. Yesterday, I was DRS-ing out of turn seven all the way down to turn eight and I still couldn't overtake anyone. We will see how it goes, but yeah, hopefully there will be possibilities. It's a long, long race. There are a couple of pit stops, which will be important to get right. We really don't know what's going to happen with the tyres but we know more than Seb, obviously.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Dan Knutson - National Speed Sport News) Jenson, with the balance problems you have, are they better or worse on the prime or the option or are they the same on both tyres?

JB: For a long run, it's definitely better on the option tyre, I think. It felt pretty good in terms of grip level for a high-fuel long run, so hopefully we will see that tomorrow.

Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) Jenson and Lewis, congratulations on your outfit, which is very nice. Did you have any thoughts at the beginning of the weekend that you were actually going to be faster than Red Bull, knowing that you were fastest in FP1, FP2 and FP3?

JB: I think we've seen it before. We've been very quick in practice, but basically we're just doing our own thing. We're working through our programme and it's not about being the quickest during the day, it's just the way it seems to happen. We obviously run a different programme to Red Bull. We've seen this before and we expected the Red Bulls to be quick, so yeah, it's always a challenge to beat them and to beat Seb with the consistency they've had this year in qualifying. The race, also, is very difficult, but I feel that we are more competitive and we can challenge more in the race than we can do in qualifying.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Question to the two McLaren drivers: what is your plan to prevent Sebastian winning tomorrow? Is there something special you can do?

LH: I think it's about getting a good start, from my side at least. I can't remember if it was last year when we… was it last year when I started second and you [Vettel] started on pole again last year, didn't you? Yeah. And I remember into turn one, I braked early and let him go. I don't plan to do that tomorrow.

JB: Any plans? Yeah, a good start's important but it's more difficult from third than it is from second, so I don't know, we will see. As I said, we've got a pretty good race car, I think. We will see tomorrow if that is true or not but it feels that it's pretty good. It's not all about the start, I don't think.

Q. (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) For those of us who haven't had time behind the wheel in an F1 car, could you talk us through the way the track changes as the night falls and everything gets cooler and the way that affects the handling of the car?

SV: It's a difficult question. We all, surely, feel something… as I said earlier, we would like to change the car in the session, it's not possible, we haven't got the time and we're not allowed to. And then you can be surprised either way so as Jenson described, I think he said he had quite an understeery balance and then finally he found the grip so yeah, the circuit did pick up some grip for the fronts but then I think it's not the same for all the cars. It wasn't really in my case, there wasn't a clear trend, it was just coming together or going away from you. In particular, you can feel when there's a lot of cars running it gets cooler, it seems to get quicker. We saw that from Q1 to Q2, then a little bit of a break, not too many cars running, only ten – I don't know if the last cars did a timed lap – but it does make a difference and the little break, not many cars, again the circuit seems to get a little bit slower and the cars are moving a bit more. It's difficult to highlight a trend, to say OK, the front picks up, the rear picks up. That's the difficulty, it's a bit of everything.

Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, you couldn't do a long run in Suzuka in Friday practice due to a crash; yesterday you said you missed out a little bit. In Suzuka you were surprised about the behaviour of the tyre in the race; is something similar possible tomorrow?

SV: No, I think I did a long run in Suzuka. I crashed in the first practice didn't I? I crashed on Friday for sure. It seems to be a habit. No, I don't think so, to be honest. Yesterday, as I said, I wasn't happy with the car, I'm much happier today. You see that across the fuel loads, not only on low fuel but also on high fuel, so for the race I think we are in good shape, we have enough experience from previous races, I think. The problem in Suzuka was different. We shouldn't run into the same problem here, I think we were able to learn from that straightway for Korea so we will see. Also, I think the tyres lasted pretty well yesterday. Obviously I didn't have a go on the soft tyre with higher fuel but all the others did and no one seemed to have a real problem. It's interesting to see how many stops we will have tomorrow. I expect something between one and three; everything is possible but the tyres seem to last fairly well.

Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) Sebastien Loeb just won his eighth title in rallying yesterday; what are your thoughts about that and do you think that someone in Formula One could reach that score?

SV: Look at Michael. I think he's an exception and then you look at rallying. Sebastien is another exception, for sure.

LH: He's the best by far.

SV: Yeah. The consistency? You don't need to talk about it. The most important thing is that he's a very nice guy. He's very down to earth and a great, great person. You could probably talk forever about his skills. What the guys do is pretty amazing. Generally, I'm a big fan of rallying. I think we would be overwhelmed by the adrenaline and those guys… for them it obviously becomes normal after a while, but what they do is pretty special. To always then make sure that you are that little bit quicker than the rest, or sometimes much quicker than the rest and for many years be that consistent, very little and very few mistakes says it all.

Q. (Gary Meenaghan – The National) Seb, we heard you being addressed on the team radio as Mr Mansell; is that something that's been discussed within the team this week?

SV: Not really. Discussed by you, discussed by the press but not within the team. I was very happy to get pole because it was difficult. We weren't sure about it or… I was positively surprised when we crossed the line, I think, and the same on the pit wall. Because everyone – not us – talks about it, you are aware of it. He (Mansell) obviously took two races less to achieve the same but still, it's something very special. It's a great feeling, for sure.

[Anna]

Belated comments.....

What the hell is EJ wearing?

[Anna]

And I love how Vettel couldn't turn his alarm off he had a terrible weekend didn't he at least his finger wasn't around!

[kelli52]

EJ's shirt was completely horrendous.... and DC's looked like when the TV goes funny and its all static, between the pair of them my eyes started hurting!!

Boring race.... so everyone's been wishing Vettel would retire to spice things up and it didnt do any good!! A super rich race track but an incredibly boring one....

Think this race will be remembered for the one where Seb retired and absolutely nothing else.

[Anna]

It was boring, I watched it at work and at times wished there were customers to talk to in the shop. In fact it was so boring that even though I was going to watch it again to comment on it here I'm not because I didn't want to go sleep .

I didn't want Sebi to retire to make the racing better I wanted him to retire to give Alonso a chance to win unfortunately he retired the one race where the only person on the grid I get angry about winning managed to win. And then look smug and ridiculous . But I'm happy I got a break from the team radio and finger, partly because he looked so cute on the pit wall I just wanted to hug him (if I'd seen his hand I probably would have stopped thinking that but I didn't see the finger so I kept on feeling sorry for him) .

I'm happy we've got Brazil for the last race, the thing is whether or not Vettel has dominated when your at a good race you forget about Vettel and just watch 2nd onwards and its been alright, but these tracks have no character to them and are the same boring over rated event. Looking forward to Brazil.

[Pete]

It felt like nothing was happening this weekend. There was a F1 race? No one seemed to care, everyone always raved about Abu Dhabi but I feel like this year not being the finishing race made people realise that the excitement came from unexciting things.

I mean come on, one of the "exciting" parts of last year was Alonso NOT being able to pass Petrov.... The excitment of seeing a car not be able to overtake .

[kelli52]

Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado have hit out at the blue flag penalties they received in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and claimed the officials lacked consistency.

Four penalties were issue for lapped cars blocking the leaders in yesterday's race, with Senna (Renault) and Maldonado (Williams) both getting drive-throughs. Maldonado was later judged to have committed the same offence again and had 30 seconds added to his race time, while Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari had 20s added post-race.

Senna said that the penalty had ruined his chances of a good result. He ultimately finished 16th.

"The drive-through completely destroyed the race because then you have your hands tied with strategy and it cannot be changed again, so at the end in the last 15 laps the pace was very slow because I had no rubber left on the tyres," Senna told AUTOSPORT.

"It's very disappointing. For a good performance in terms of driving, it was a very, very weak result."

The Brazilian wants to talk to FIA race director Charlie Whiting about the matter, as he believes the rules are being applied inconsistently.

"I think it was a lack of consistency, because we see people doing much, much worse," said Senna. If you think about it, I probably held Jenson [Button] for one corner, which was Turn 7, and people held other guys up for a whole sector and didn't get a blue flag.

"The fact is, we get the blue flags at the same time as the slower cars, but if we decide to slow down to let the other guys past, we can lose five seconds and this is absolutely not fair.

"I think the decision making was pretty harsh and I think we need to talk to Charlie about that, because Jenson was coming into the pits on the following lap anyway."

Maldonado had a similar stance over his penalties, saying he could not have got out of the way any quicker without a significant time loss.

"I saw the guys for sure, but I cannot lose four seconds every time," he told Williams's official podcast.

"I think in the past it's always been the same for everybody, even when I get the Virgin cars or the Hispania cars, I'm always losing time. This is part of the job, especially when you're fighting for the points. In that moment, I was fighting with Alguersuari, so it was a difficult decision.

"I'm really disappointed because it's the first time this year that they've done that. For me, it's completely wrong."