Christian Horner: “We never really saw Sebastian’s ultimate pace…”

Mark Webber’s brilliant pole position in Turkey was aided by the RBR team’s huge effort to fit a new rear wing at the very last minute.

The wing was collected from the local airport less than half an hour before qualifying started and having been rushed to the pits – in what team boss Christian Horner called ‘Starsky and Hutch’ style – it was fitted straight to the car.

The team opted for the new wing because it chose not to continue with the F-Duct it ran yesterday and thus had to switch configurations. Sebastian Vettel already had his on Saturday morning practice.

“I think Mark had a really solid qualifying and he strung together a good lap when it mattered,” said Horner. “We managed to get a last minute arrival of a rear wing assembly that went onto the car just before the session started.

“We reverted from the F-Duct and went from another configuration of rear wing that Sebastian ran this morning, and Mark had one for qualifying.

“It only arrived at the airport at twenty to two, so it was a big effort by the boys back in the factory and here to get it onto the car. It was always going to be tight, but apparently it was delayed coming out of the UK, but you certainly wouldn’t want to cut it much finer than that…”

Although on paper McLaren is much closer to RBR this weekend, Horner is adamant that had he not suffered a rollbar issue in final qualifying, Vettel would have done a much quicker time.

“We never really saw Sebastian’s ultimate pace because of a problem that he has as he entered Turn 12 on his first timed lap in Q3. On initial investigation it looks like the rollbar linkage. You’ve got no control over roll in the car, and as soon as you turn, the think rolls over. So he just locked the inside front wheel as it stuck up in the air. He set his fastest lap with that broken linkage. It’s one of those things.

“If you’re on pole it doesn’t matter by how much. Sebastian was on a mighty lap when the roll bar issue occurred. Both drivers should have been on the front row. It shows how far the team has come when you’re talking about being disappointed to be only first and third…”

Horner says he’s not concerned by the closer gap to McLaren here.

“We are very quick in the corners, the McLaren is monstrously fast up the hill on the back straight. Their strengths are in different areas to our car. We do a lot of damage at Turn 8 and in the high speed corners and so on, but you can hide the straight line advantage they have, which is quite significant.

“You certainly wouldn’t want Lewis too close behind you as you came onto the back straight because with that kind of straightline speed advantage I think he could go either side of you. But the important thing is to arrive there with a sufficient gap. The start is important as it is at any Grand Prix. Both guys just need to get their head down and get into a rhythm.”

One interesting issue tomorrow could be how driver find the fuel heavy cars on the first lap, especially at some of the knife-edge faster corners. Co-incidentally Vettel lost a potential win here last year when he screwed up on the first lap.

“Seb got out of shape at Turn 9/10 last year, but I’m sure he won’t make the same mistake twice…”