Fri: Red Bull, Merc, Lotus, Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel set the pace under lights in Singapore, edging team-mate Mark Webber and Merc's Nico Rosberg... Red Bull: Sebastian Vettel: "It was quite busy; it's pretty hot out there, good fun and a nice place, but for all of us it's quite hard work. The time we set was a surprise today, I got a good lap in, but I don't think it's completely representative. We seem to be quick, but I think Mercedes will be very strong in qualifying tomorrow. I think Turn 10 is the best solution we have with the space that's available." Mark Webber: "We got most of the work done today that we planned to. It's an easy venue to not get what you want, but in the end I think we've got a reasonable set-up. We've got work to do on the long run and also on the short run, you can't neglect that. We won't count our chickens yet, but it was a smooth day. Turn 10 is better now I think." Mercedes: Nico Rosberg: "It's great to be back in Singapore although the conditions are incredibly hot out there and it's a tough challenge for the drivers. We had a reasonable day but there is still some work to do this evening as our competitors seem to be very quick again. We will be looking at how we used the tyres this evening and make sure we are on top of potential overheating and degradation on the long runs as there are no long straights here to cool the tyres down." Lewis Hamilton: "It wasn't the perfect Friday for us but we got on with our programme and know where we have to make improvements for tomorrow. The balance of the car felt really good in P1 but it definitely went away from us in P2. There is a lot of work to do this evening but we're used to that on a Friday night and will just get on with it and focus on our car and performance. It's so difficult to overtake around at this circuit that you want to qualify as high up as possible and, of course, aim for the front row but that will be tough. The circuit is much improved here without the chicane and Turn 10 feels like a much nicer corner now." Lotus F1: Romain Grosjean: "We had a lot of problems today with the car which meant I didn't complete many laps. It wasn't the ideal situation, but nevertheless the baseline we have here is pretty good. Hopefully we can get on top of the issues we had and have a strong car for qualifying as track position is pretty important here. Tyre degradation was better than we expected with the super soft performing well, so we'll have to look closely at the data for the rest of the weekend." Kimi Raikkonen: "It was a pretty decent day. The car felt OK, but I had some traffic on my fast lap on the softer tyres so I wasn't able to set a faster lap. The car isn't too bad and there are still some places where we can make it faster. The times don't matter on Friday so we'll see what happens tomorrow." Ferrari: Fernando Alonso: "We can't say this was a good start, because we weren't competitive, but if we consider that last year, at the end of a difficult weekend we managed to get on the podium, we definitely aren't throwing in the towel yet. We have yet to analyse the data, but we certainly have to be realistic, because when you have one car in sixth place and the other in fifteenth, it's clearly not the result we were hoping for, without taking into consideration the updates we have brought for this race. Now, we have a lot of work to do to find the right set-up and the best strategy. Then we will need to put in a very good qualifying lap and attack from start to finish in the race. However, we know that won't be easy because on tracks which require high downforce, we suffer more and, just as in Hungary, apart from the fact that Mercedes seem to be on a par with Red Bull here, there are others who also look strong, like Lotus and McLaren." Felipe Massa: "This was a difficult day, because I struggled to find the right way to move forward in both sessions. In the first session, we concentrated on evaluating various aerodynamic components, while in the second one, we managed to complete the programme, doing a long run, starting on the Supersofts and ending on the Mediums. Along with the team we decided to go in another direction to try and find a set-up with which I was more comfortable on this track. Unfortunately this did not produce the results we were expecting. I think that for tomorrow's qualifying we need to retrace our steps, trying to improve the balance of the car. I am sure it will be better and that I will manage to once again find the car I'm used to driving." Related Links