Formula One 2012

[Katsuya]

Not sure if anyone's seen it, but it's sort of relevant to F1: Anthony Davidson had a huge crash at Le Mans today, the car flipped and went spearing at high speed in to the barriers. He's relatively okay it seems; not as spectacular as McNish's crash last year but still pretty violent. Le Mans is starting to have a habit of these :/

[Lineker]

It was a heart in the mouth moment. Horrendous crash. It's remarkable that Davidson escaped with only two broken vertebrae. Hopefully he will be back sooner rather than later!

CVC has sold a further $500 million stake in Formula 1, almost a month after announcing a 21 per cent sale to a trio of investors for a total investment of $1.6 billion.

The sale also comes just 16 days after Bernie Ecclestone confirmed in Canada that the planned flotation on the Singapore Stock Exchange would be postponed in the wake of ongoing market unrest.

Waddell & Reed and its associates, who along with Norges Bank and BlackRock made the initial investment on 22 May, have now spent a further $500 million, taking its share to almost 21 per cent.

A CVC statement read: "CVC Capital Partners is pleased to announce that several funds managed by Waddell & Reed Investment Management Company and Ivy Investment Management Company have today agreed to invest a further $500m in a private placement in Formula 1 at $9.1bn enterprise value, increasing their aggregate stake to 20.9 per cent."

The FIA is hoping to finalise the implementation of cost-control measures in Formula 1 for 2013 by the end of this month, the governing body said after a meeting of its World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Friday.

As AUTOSPORT revealed on Thursday, FIA president Jean Todt is keen for moves to be taken that will help secure the future of the sport, amid concerns from some teams about rising costs.

Those efforts are focused on trying to frame a type of Resource Restriction Agreement into the 2013 regulations - which will be policed by the FIA.

A statement issued by the governing body said: "At their request, the FIA is having active discussions with teams regarding cost control and any amendments to the technical regulations resulting from a further limit on expenditure on the chassis will be submitted to the WMSC via a fax vote before 30 June. The intention is to help all teams participate in the championship in a fair and equal manner."

The June 30 date is significant because it is the late day that 2013 regulations can be changed with only majority support from the teams.

Any attempt to implement an RRA after that date would require unanimous support – something that is not present at the moment because it is understood that Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso are against the FIA policing budgets in the sport.

The FIA also said that it hoped to finalise the terms for a Concorde Agreement in the next few weeks – and that that matter was sorted there was little point in proceeding with official entries for the 2013 championship.

It was therefore decided that rather than stick with the normal July 15 deadline for entries for next year, that the closing off point would be in September instead.

The statement added: "Constructive Concorde Agreement discussions are on-going between the FIA and the Commercial Rights Holder, with the intention of finalising an agreement in the coming weeks. It was also decided that the deadline for the closing of entries be deferred to 30 September."

Lewis Hamilton says the pressure remains on him to keep delivering results this season - despite his victory in Canada having moved him to the top of the title standings.

With the championship battle starting to boil down to a straight fight between the leading teams, Hamilton says the fight is wide open – and no one can afford to relax yet.

"While it's always pleasing to be leading the championship, I'm only two points ahead of Fernando [Alonso] – which is nothing, particularly when there are a handful of really strong drivers all separated by a couple of points, so there's still everything to play for," he explained.

"Secondly, the intensity of this year's championship means there's so little breathing space – we may have won in Canada, but there's an enormous amount of pressure to keep racking up good results at every grand prix.

"I think that consistency, rather than individual strong results, will be the key to winning this world championship, so we need to back it up in Valencia with another strong result."

He added: "People are always asking me to predict what will happen at the next race and I always tell them it's really difficult to make an accurate prediction – but I'll be heading to Valencia feeling super-motivated to get another strong result and maintain my momentum before we head into Silverstone and the Santander British Grand Prix."

While Hamilton's focus is firmly on victory, team-mate Jenson Button just wants to get himself back in the title fight after recent troubles.

"Canada was just one of those weekends where things didn't come together – after some difficult races, I really needed the track time on Friday to find a clearer direction with the set-up, and, unfortunately, that didn't happen due to a number of technical issues," he said.

"And I think that set the tone for the rest of the weekend: we lacked the data we needed to tackle the race and we struggled. Still, there were important lessons to be learned from those issues, and we addressed everything back at MTC once we'd returned from Canada in a bid to get a clearer direction for Valencia next weekend. A day like that is enormously productive and I think we covered a lot of ground.

"The last few races haven't delivered the results I'd like, but there are still 13 races to go. We've had seven different winners and no clear championship leader has emerged, so I'll be looking to get a decent result under my belt next weekend in order to get my title bid back on track."

Lotus must improve its qualifying performances if it is going to grab its first win of the season, says technical director James Allison.

Although the E20 has shown very strong pace in several races this year, including Canada last weekend when Romain Grosjean charged to second place behind winner Lewis Hamilton, its victory chances have been hurt by its often poor grid positions.

And Allison believes that even a small improvement on its Saturday pace will be enough to allow it to achieve the breakthrough it is looking for.

"We've often been devastatingly fast on the harder of the tyres in qualifying but then come up a bit short on the softer option; that's an issue we're working on at the moment," he explained. "You can point to cars on the grid that are very quick in qualifying but not so competitive in the race and vice-versa.

"We seem to have a car that is not among the very quickest in qualifying at the moment but has very good race pace. It's not a bad combination, and we'd rather have it this way round than the other, but if we want to win races we are going to have to improve our qualifying performances.

"It's not going to take much, we just need that little bit extra if we want to challenge for higher honours."

Allison also revealed that Grosjean's tyres in Montreal had even more performance left in them at the end - despite having elected to run a one-stop.

"We could in fact have gone quite a lot further than we did," he said. "There was still plenty of rubber left on them at the end of the race. It really was an excellent performance from Romain, and the car looked very competitive on the soft compound tyres.

"If you look at the cars who made two stops, their middle stints were around the same pace that Romain was running and he managed to continue until the end of the race. Indeed, after Lewis [Hamilton] stopped for the second time he was only pulling away from Romain at around 0.4s per lap on tyres that were 37 laps younger."

Lotus is not far away from grabbing the victory that has eluded it so far this season, and it could come as early as the next race in Valencia.

That is the view of Romain Grosjean, who says that hopes are high at the team that its first win of 2012 could be just around the corner on the back of his strong second-placed finish in Canada last weekend.

On a low-grip track that is not ideal for the characteristics of the E20, Grosjean brilliantly executed a one-stop strategy to overhaul Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso in the closing stages and come home right behind Lewis Hamilton.

And although Montreal marked yet another occasion Lotus has had the potential to come out on top but not quite been able to get the victory, Grosjean thinks that it will not take that much to get the team to the front.

"The gap to the win is not that big," he said. "We need to qualify better. That is not our strength this season but we are working on it. I think Friday and Saturday were quite difficult for us in Canada but we have been learning a lot about the car so it's good that we now have that in our pocket for the next races.

"We have to go into every weekend aiming for a win; approaching a race in any other way is like putting yourself on the back foot from the start.

"I'm mainly hoping for an improvement in qualifying, a good start and then we'll see what happens from there. It's great to be fighting at the front and that's always what we want to do, but we're in a tight battle this season so of course the most important thing is to score some good points again for the team.

"If we have a strong weekend from the start then I think we are capable of fighting for a podium or even a win. We'll see after qualifying where we are; hopefully we can get another good result."

Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen is equally eager to find out how strong the team will be in Valencia - after his hopes in Canada were wrecked by a differential problem in qualifying.

"I was a bit frustrated overall as I think we could have achieved more from the weekend," he said. "Still, we gained more points for the championship which is the most important thing, especially with everything so close this season.

"I love winning and that's what I'm always trying for. I've never won in Valencia, so it's a good target. Last time I raced in Valencia I finished in third after starting from sixth on the grid which was not too bad."

Michael Schumacher says he and Mercedes are heading to the European Grand Prix in an optimistic mood, despite a disappointing outing in Canada last weekend.

The Brackley-based outfit had been singled out as one of the favourites for victory in Montreal, but it did not manage to unlock its full potential - and Schumacher's race ended with a rare DRS failure that left his wing flap open.

The team has worked hard since the event to get to the bottom of why Schumacher has suffered such horrendous reliability this season – and the seven-time champion is upbeat that progress has been made.

"Our entire focus is now on the race in Valencia, and I am sure that everybody's motivation is even stronger because the weekend in Canada didn't go as well as we had hoped," explained Schumacher.

"Our motto in the last few days has been to roll our sleeves up and focus on the job in hand; everybody in the team has taken that approach to heart, so we can travel to Valencia in an optimistic mood."

Team principal Ross Brawn said that achieving zero tolerance to reliability issues was a priority – and that he was upbeat about the potential of the team for Valencia.

"The performance of our car and our tyre management were generally good in Canada, however our competitiveness was compromised by reliability problems and mistakes," he said.

"This is a disappointment that is deeply felt by everyone in our team. We have been working hard to ensure we understand the reasons and deal with them. Achieving zero-defect reliability is our highest priority. The opportunities available if we can give both drivers a reliable car and a clean weekend are clear."

Pastor Maldonado believes Williams' form since its Spanish Grand Prix victory has not been as bad as its poor results suggest.

Williams has scored just a single point in the two races since Barcelona, with neither Maldonado nor Bruno Senna making it in to Q3 at either Monaco or Canada.

But although that form is a disappointment after the highs of Spain, Maldonado thinks that things are not as bad as they appear - and the poor results are more down to things just not clicking together rather than any inherent weakness with the car.

When asked by AUTOSPORT why he believed Williams was so strong in Barcelona but had not been that quick since, Maldonado said: "I think we've been good as well. We've been good in Monaco because we were always there, top five. In Canada as well; I just missed the qualifying but I think it was a consequence because I got traffic.

"I did my best in only one lap I had. I just try, and I just missed, which can happen. From our point of view I think we've been competitive; but we didn't get any luck. The car is there; my pace is there; I'm always quick. We just need to try to improve. We are not the quickest on the track but we are not that far away."

Maldonado thinks that if the team can get on top of the challenges of each venue as well as it did in Spain then there is little reason not to think that more success is possible.

"We need to work hard, especially with the car, to try to improve qualifying and the race," he said. "We need to try to get the balance, and the best compromise, between qualifying and race.

"I think we are not that far off, we just need to put everything together. The last couple of races, it was quite difficult to put everything together, but we are competitive. We need to just concentrate on our pace and everything."

[Lineker]

I have not been online all week! Catching up time!

Michael Schumacher should be considered as a serious candidate to become Formula 1's eighth winner in Valencia this weekend - judging by his performance on the streets of Monaco last month.

That is the view of Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery, who thinks that the tight confines of the European GP venue which puts a premium on grid position should play to the same strengths that helped Schumacher set the fastest time in qualifying in Monte Carlo.

"I think you have to look at someone like, maybe Michael getting the pole position," Hembery told AUTOSPORT.

"He probably would have won Monaco if he hadn't been penalised, so why not there? Michael for Valencia, that's where the money needs to go."

F1 is looking for its eighth different winner of the season in Valencia, and Hembery believes that the nature of the circuit means starting from the front is essential - because overtaking is so hard.

"We know Valencia is a tough track to create an exciting race," he said. "It's hard to overtake and it's got elements of Monaco from that point of view.

"There will be some high temperatures, of course, and we're going there with the soft and medium tyre, so we should have less degradation.

"There will not be the challenge that we had in Canada, with the super soft being pushed to its limit, so that is why track position is going to be fundamental. You've got to really get a good qualifying in Valencia."

Hembery believes teams are getting a better understanding of what they need to do to extract performance from the tyres for that crucial single lap pace - but still reckons they face a challenge in actually achieving their targets

"The teams themselves have got a pretty good idea of what they're aiming for, but it doesn't mean they can obtain what they want," he said.

Bruno Senna believes that the high-speed nature of the next few tracks on the calendar, allied to a major update package scheduled for Silverstone, can help Williams get back to fighting near the front of the field.

After two disappointing outings for the Grove-based team following Pastor Maldonado's victory in the Spanish Grand Prix, Senna thinks there is still every chance of a swift return to form.

Reflecting on its struggles in Canada, Senna told AUTOSPORT: "I think running on very fast straights is not really the best part of the car. In Bahrain we weren't particularly competitive; and in Canada we weren't particularly competitive.

"I think on these types of track we are still not right there, and hopefully for Monza [in September] we will have a good package.

"But when it is required with high speed cornering, the car is there. It's just a question of getting everything right. And now that's going to be really important, as other people are making strides forwards as well.

"We know that we have a fair upgrade coming for Silverstone, which is going to be very welcome, but it is a never ending battle to upgrade and improve. Hopefully we're going to just jump the other cars again, and have a few races before they catch us up."

Williams tried out an aggressive rear-wing design in Canada that was better suited to low-drag conditions, but Senna said he was unsure if the aerodynamic benefits outweighed the consequences of increased tyre wear.

"It's hard to say exactly what we should have done, but looking back at the race now, especially with the temperatures, maybe we should have raced with the other wing, and just had a bit more downforce to save the tyres a bit more.

"That would have meant we could have pushed, but it's obviously easier to say that in hindsight."

Lotus owner Gerard Lopez reckons that his team has a proper chance of beating either Ferrari or Mercedes to fourth place in the Constructors' Championship this year.

The Enstone-based outfit is currently third overall in the standings - 11 points clear of Ferrari - but is well aware of how competitive the fight for positions is going to be.

However, Lopez says his outfit's hopes are boosted by the fact that it has both drivers scoring decent points this year – something that Ferrari and Mercedes are not experiencing so far.

"Finishing top four is still the aim – and I think the target is realistic," Lopez told AUTOSPORT. "If we can get more we will take more, but the top four is the objective.

"And I think right now, we are one of the very good teams because of two drivers being able to score points."

Lopez is delighted with the way Lotus' season is panning out, and reckons only circumstance has prevented it taking a victory so far.

"Things have to come together differently," he said. "In Canada, Kimi's differential did not work so that is half a second, and he should have been second row. Romain made a mistake on his new set of tyres and that did not help.

"If you start 7th and 11th, you can take the podium. You could win the race but it is difficult. For us to win a race, the whole package has to work – and there are many people trying to do the same thing

"But as long as both drivers keep scoring points then I am happy with that."

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes the move to more environmentally-friendly engines from 2014 is a vital step for Formula 1 - despite the increased costs it means for those involved in the sport.

Engine manufacturers are currently locked into development programmes for the new 1.6-litre turbo-charged V6 power units, with its costs set to be passed on to its customer teams at the start of the new engine formula era.

Although that ramp up of expenses has been the cause of concern from some teams – who have questioned whether or not all outfits will be able to afford the estimated 20 million Euros per year power train bills – Whitmarsh thinks F1 is plotting the right path.

"We have to be respectful of the fact that, on the one hand, the sport is saying to the engine manufacturers; we want new technologies and we want an entirely new engine – as that means undoubtedly they are having to spend a lot of money to do that," Whitmarsh told AUTOSPORT. "But that is the challenge.

"If you introduce rule changes – all for good reasons to make the sport socially relevant and to make the technologies appropriate, there will inevitably be a cost of so doing. And that is something we have to be balanced about and very cautious about.

"If I was one of the teams further down the pit lane I would like my engines for free and I would like my tyres for free, but at the same time hopefully the sport benefits from evolution. No sport, and especially no technical sport such as ours, cannot change and not reflect what people perceive."

Whitmarsh believes that if F1 stuck long-term to the current V8 engines then it could leave itself open to criticisms about not having environmental concerns.

"If F1 is perceived as a gas-guzzling sport that has no regard to the technologies that are very relevant to automotive companies, then we really promote the wrong image," he said. "F1 should be about efficiency.

"One of the great things about the RRA (Resource Restriction Agreement) is that it creates a lot of challenge. And rather than just say we want more resource to make the car go quicker, we are now having to ask questions about how we get a bigger bang for the buck, and how we work more efficiently.

"People are talking about the efficient use of resources. No sport should be at liberty to spend almost unlimited amounts of money and resource with no focus on efficiency."

[Lineker]

Force India team boss Vijay Mallya has admitted his squad needs to urgently raise its game to avoid being left behind by its usual rivals.

Mallya had been adamant prior to the Canadian Grand Prix that there was no reason why Force India could not emulate the star underdog results being achieved by the likes of Sauber and Williams - teams that regularly occupy similar midfield positions to Force India, but that had taken podiums and, in Williams's case, even a win this year.

But with Sauber now 30 points and two positions clear of eighth-placed Force India following Sergio Perez's Montreal podium, and Williams 16 points in front of Mallya's squad, the Indian team chief admitted that it is time to deliver before the points gap grows any further.

"I think Canada showed once again that Formula 1 is hard to predict at the moment. It's seriously competitive with seven different winners in seven races, all of which is great for the sport - I would certainly go along with that," said Mallya.

"But while it's hard to predict, we still need to lift our game, especially if we want to target fifth or sixth in the constructors' championship.

"Yes, we've had one of our best starts to a season ever in terms of points scored, but the teams around us have also performed exceptionally well.

"The teams that we have been comparable with in the past few years like Sauber and Williams have been on the podium, and I'm sure our time will come, as long as we get things right.

"It's something we need to do sooner rather than later because we are quickly approaching the midway point of the season. I hope we can recapture our form in Valencia, return to the points and demonstrate our potential."

Paul di Resta was running fifth for Force India early in the Canadian race, before his pace faded and he dropped outside the points. Mallya acknowledged that the Montreal slump had been frustrating, but reckoned Force India had got to the bottom of its causes.

"We were disappointed with the overall outcome, but take the positives from knowing that we did have a quick car for most of the weekend," said Mallya.

"After a promising start to the race when Paul ran as high as fifth, everything dropped off and we underachieved. We have looked into the issues we had in the race and believe we understand why we lost out."

Caterham is optimistic that major updates planned for its car for the next two races can help it make the step forward it needs to start challenging the teams ahead of it.

The Hingham-based outfit has not made the progress it hoped to this season, and has found itself still unable to launch a regular challenge on the more established team just ahead.

A raft of aerodynamic developments and revisions to the floor of its car are scheduled for the Valencia and Silverstone races and technical director Mark Smith thinks that they should give Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov the possibility to get through to Q2 on merit.

"We expect to be much closer to the cars ahead than we were last year, giving us a chance perhaps to put one of our cars into Q2 and giving the drivers a real chance to race on Sunday," explained Smith.

"We have a couple of quite significant updates coming in Valencia and Silverstone - we will take a look at a number of new aerodynamic elements in Valencia as well as some minor modifications to the floor, and even though we will not know exactly what they will give us until we get out on track, we are cautiously optimistic they will help us keep edging ever closer to the midfield."

Team principal Tony Fernandes says he is keeping his expectations realistic, but still believes Caterham has the chance of scoring at least one point in 2012.

"While we are honest enough with ourselves to know that these upgrades alone will not be enough to force our way into the midfield pack, we do know it is a statement of our intent to join the group just ahead that we are updating the car at the same rate or even more quickly than our rivals," he said.

"We have the people and resources in place to achieve our goal of scoring a point this year, and we are edging ever closer to a group of cars that is now tantalisingly close."

Lotus boss Eric Boullier insists his team has no concerns about the performances of Kimi Raikkonen this season - even though the Finn has endured his fair share of frustrations on his return to Formula 1.

Raikkonen has faced particular difficulties in finding a power steering set-up that he likes – and that prompted questions about his attitude when he elected not to run in first practice in Monaco because he did not like the feel from the car.

With his inexperienced team-mate Romain Grosjean on a high after his strong second place in Canada, and now just two points behind Raikkonen in the drivers' championship, there is a renewed debate about whether or not the former world champion can rediscover his previous race-winning form.

But Boullier says the outfit is fully behind Raikkonen, and thinks it was only normal to expect the Finn to take time to fully get himself back up to speed in F1 – and for Lotus to understand how best to work with him.

"It is all part of the understanding between team and driver," Boullier told AUTOSPORT. "We had two new drivers in the team and each driver has his own driving style and characteristics.

"It is just part of the learning process – and teams like McLaren, Red Bull Racing and Ferrari, they have driver line-ups that they are used to working with.

"This year we had two new drivers – which included one nearly complete rookie. And with Kimi, we just had to take time to adjust. It has just been part of the process to understand his driving style and make adjustments to know how best to work together."

Lotus is still chasing its first victory of the year, and success for either Raikkonen or Grosjean in Valencia would make them the eighth different winner so far this season.

Although the team has been in with a shout of victory several times this season – including in Bahrain, Spain and Canada – Boullier says there is no mounting desperation to reach that target.

"There is certainly no frustration," he said. "I think we have to be proud of what we achieved so far, and I can only praise the efforts of factory and all the guys. There is no frustration to have – it is a new cycle, new drivers, and we knew we cannot have the perfect style from race one. You always have to improve yourself.

"Our car was coming from a little bit further back than the others, so it took time to get the package working. But it is nice to have some good expectations."

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn believes it is time for his outfit to start delivering to its full potential, after admitting it has 'dropped the ball' at a couple of events this year.

With Nico Rosberg still in contention for the world championship, thanks to being the joint highest-scoring driver for the past five races, Brawn is eager for the team to begin delivering its maximum in a bid to close the gap to the leaders.

"I would assess our season so far as having a lot more promise and potential than the previous two years, but we haven't quite fulfilled that potential yet," said Brawn in a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKsLxRoZPIs.

"We still have a lot of races left, but I am pleased with the performance of the car, because we have won a race, were second in Monaco, and the car is nearly always in the top four or six cars in qualifying. So I think the car is much more competitive this year.

"But we haven't quite put the whole programme together. We have dropped the ball in a couple of races, not made the most of it, and I intend for the rest of the season to make sure that we as a team fulfil our potential because I think the potential this year is much better than previous years."

Rosberg is just 21 points adrift of championship leader Lewis Hamilton and, based on his consistent points-scoring and the pace the W03 has shown, Brawn believes a full-on championship tilt remains on the cards.

"Nico is driving very well, the car is extremely competitive and Nico is one race win away from leading the world championship. We just have to fight with everything we have to achieve the best results we can, and see what evolves, but there is no reason why not."

Brawn also revealed that Mercedes has modified the design of its hydraulic couplings following the failure that caused Michael Schumacher's DRS to jam open in Montreal

"We've changed the design to make sure that there is less likelihood of it happening [again]," he said. "It was a very well proven part, [so it was] very frustrating something like that would cause a problem."

Mark Webber says his future with Red Bull Racing will be decided entirely by results - and the better he does the more likely he is to stay.

Despite the Australian being strongly linked with a seat at Ferrari for 2013 on the back of some strong race showings this season, Webber believes there is every chance he will not even talk to other teams outside his current employers if he keeps doing well.

"The situation depends on the results I get this year," he said in an interview with Autosprint. "They've been very inconsistent this year. Up to the Monaco GP I hadn't even been on the podium, then I won. But qualifying has so far gone very well for me.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'm driving very well, and I see no difference with last year's situation. Obviously there's plenty of people who would like to come to Red Bull, but the question we have to ask ourselves is: does the team really want to change?

"For sure that's a question for Christian [Horner] and Adrian [Newey]. And for Dietrich [Mateschitz] and Helmut [Marko]. Let's see what happens. I can only control what I do and so far I think I have done that very well."

He added: "At the moment I don't have a contract for next year, just like at this time last year and just like the year before that. My agreements are only valid from one season to the next one, and at each expiry we have never really gone on the market, in the sense that in the end we have always renewed with Red Bull.

"Let's see how it ends up, but it can be the same again this year. That's what I mean, we don't need to go on the market because results speak for themselves."

Webber has also insisted that he has not had any discussions with Ferrari about a deal for next year, despite ongoing rumours that he is in the frame.

"There's been nothing up to now," he said. "I have no offers from Ferrari. I know people were talking a lot about that, at least until Felipe [Massa] had a good weekend in Monte Carlo. But if it was all true, then Ferrari would need to field eight cars next year! That's not possible, as there are just two cars.

"They may keep Felipe, or they may change, that's the only true option. I suppose they do talk about that in the team, but they aren't talking about that with me."

Ferrari's chief designer Nikolas Tombazis says the team's recent improvement has given its crew the self-belief that they can still win the 2012 Formula 1 world championship.

Despite a fraught winter testing period that ended with the Ferrari F2012 a long way off the pace, Fernando Alonso was able to win the Malaysian Grand Prix and since the Spanish GP has been a legitimate victory threat in every race. The Spaniard is currently two points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

"Rightly or wrongly there is an expectation that, as Ferrari, we must be winning every race and always be competitive," said Tombazis. "At the start of the season we were in an uncompetitive situation, which was a big shock for me personally and for my colleagues.

"It has been a hard few months, but we put our heads down and tackled the problem calmly and I think the last few races have been a morale boost for all of us: it has made us believe we can get the job done."

A late decision to change an unsuccessful exhaust layout in winter testing was key to Ferrari's initial struggles, but Tombazis said introducing a revision of the original exhaust design for the Canadian GP was crucial to the team's latest step forward.

"The exhaust layout in Montreal was a cousin of the one we tested in Jerez at the launch," he said. "The former one was more complicated and created various problems for us which meant it did not contribute much in terms of lap time or making the driver feel it was a benefit. We therefore abandoned it, while addressing other weaknesses on the car, until we reached the first major change which came in time for the Spanish Grand Prix.

"That had a different, central exhaust configuration, at a point when we had effectively reviewed the entire car, from its front wing, the diffuser, the rear wing and turning vanes and brake ducts, producing what was in aero terms effectively a new car.

"However, we kept working on the exhausts to develop a more robust and simple system, but it still related to the original one and that is what we introduced in Canada."

Ferrari will bring further exhaust developments plus changes to the front wing and floor for this weekend's Valencia race, as Tombazis said the team would continue pushing for upgrades at the same rate even now it had caught the frontrunners.

"At the moment, we are reasonably satisfied with the point we are at now, given where we started from. However we cannot be totally happy, as we are not in a position to dominate races, or indeed to win all of them, which is always one's objective," he said.

Pirelli is hopeful of continuing as Formula 1's control tyre supplier when its current three-year contract finishes at the end of 2013.

The Italian tyre company's motorsport director Paul Hembery confirmed that Pirelli sees F1 as a "medium-to-long-term" project.

"Our current contract runs until the end of 2013, but we always intended to be in F1 for the medium-to-long term," Hembery told AUTOSPORT. "The deadline for the 2014 decision is next June.

"If the sport wants us to stay and we can convince the board to continue, in light of economic conditions, then our intention is to go forward."

Hembery downplayed fears that a Eurozone crisis could influence the decision.

He underlined that the global platform of F1 means that there are many other markets that will be considered.

"We're a global company, leveraged all over the world and depending on how a host of markets perform, not just Europe," he said.

"F1 is a unique brand, with reach in emerging markets that are important to us."

Hembery added that he would like to see the sport put more effort into building the profile of its star drivers in order to build interest in F1.

In recent weeks, there has been much discussion about the merits of the Pirelli rubber, but Hembery insists that the drivers must be the main focus of attention.

"We were asked to provide fun and entertainment with our F1 tyres, although it was not our intention to become the discussion point for the weekend," he said. "We still want the drivers to be the stars of the show.

"Attracting new people to follow our sport isn't easy, so I'd like us to build-up our drivers, and grow their profile as major international sporting stars, and have more visible personalities."

Felipe Massa has credited taking a different set-up direction to team-mate Fernando Alonso for the turnaround in his form this year.

The Brazilian endured a dismal start to the season, but finished a strong sixth in Monaco and salvaged a point in Canada after a spin.

He admits that he is now more comfortable with the Ferrari F2012.

"I think so, not totally but certainly we are working in a different way" he is quoted as saying on the Ferrari website in response to being asked if he is going in a different direction to Alonso.

"Every driver has his own style, the way he turns the steering wheel, or uses the throttle pedal and if you don't feel comfortable with something then it definitely doesn't help.

"When something is not working for you, you move away from the right direction and lose performance, as you are not operating at 100% yourself."

Massa added that improvements to the F2012, which have turned it from also-ran into a regular frontrunner, have also played their part in his turnaround.

He admits that the changes to the handling of the car have helped his driving.

"I'm much happier, because I can drive the F2012 much more in the way I like now. This means I am much more pleased with my driving, and with the balance of the car and the pace I can run at.

"When that happens, of course, you feel good and for sure, all the modifications and updates introduced on the car helped in this process. But also important was the way we worked on the set-up with my engineers.

"We changed many things in terms of the balance and found a good direction that suits me."

Two-time world champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel could coexist perfectly at Ferrari, according to team boss Stefano Domenicali.

In comments that are likely to fuel speculation about Vettel moving to the Italian squad in the future, Domenicali made it clear he believes both drivers are intelligent enough to be able to work together at the Italian squad.

"I think they are both intelligent guys and they could easily coexist together," Domenicali said in an interview with Sport Bild and Auto Bild, extracts of which were published on Ferrari's official site on Wednesday.

Both Vettel, who has been linked with a move to Ferrari when his contract with Red Bull expires at the end of 2013, and Alonso are fighting to become the youngest ever three-time champion this year.

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who also took part in the interview, agreed with Domenicali.

"That wouldn't be a problem: both are drivers who are always looking for a new challenge and to be in the same team would be a new and big challenge," he said.

"They would both think they can bear the other one, as they are sure of themselves and Stefano would do what was required to so that they were treated equally.

"It would be a case of doing what I did at Brabham in 1979 with Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet. I told them, 'guys it's simple: whichever one of you is quickest is the team number one.'"

Domenicali reckons, however, that Alonso is the quickest driver of the current field.

"Alonso is the fastest driver of all, I'm sure of that and it's been like that since testing at the start of the year, despite the fact our car was definitely not very quick," he added.

"Now we have improved it, even if we are not yet at the level we want to be. The cars are very close and we are witnessing a really incredible championship which for the fans is a real spectacle."

Alonso is second in the standings so far this year, with Vettel in third just one point behind.

McLaren thinks it could have found a solution to Jenson Button's recent struggles by identifying 'subtle' issues with his car's set-up that it reckons can be resolved for this weekend's European Grand Prix.

Button's form has waned since he finished second in China in April, and the nadir was reached in the last Formula 1 round in Montreal, where he finished only 16th on a day when his team-mate Lewis Hamilton won. Those troubles have dropped erstwhile championship leader Button to eighth in the standings, 43 points adrift of his series-leading stablemate.

But McLaren's operations director Simon Roberts said during a Vodafone phone-in on Wednesday that the fact things became so bad in Canada proved key to uncovering the nature of Button's problem.

"I think Canada was very interesting because fundamentally we run the same car for both drivers and they both have the same parts available. Although we allow them to adapt the set-up to their driving style, clearly we had something fundamentally different in terms of the tyre performance and car performance," said Roberts.

"We've been able to actually capitalise on that and there's been a huge amount of work back at the factory analysing the data and just checking that everything was as we thought it was.

"We're pretty sure at the moment that there was nothing untoward with Jenson's car and actually nothing fundamentally wrong with the set-up, but in the subtleties of these cars there are some differences, and I think going to Valencia we are optimistic that we've identified that.

"I think we can have a slightly different way of getting Jenson's car under him for both qualifying and the race."

Roberts underlined that the changes Button seemed to require to unlock his performance again were not dramatic.

"I'm not going to get into exactly what they were, but they were very, very subtle," he said. "It's not big fundamental stuff like running different aero balance or anything like that. This is absolutely down and buried in the detail.

"You've seen already this year how teams can get right in the sweet spot of the tyres or miss it, and I don't think we were far off. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with his set-up, but on the day it delivered a very different level of performance. So we think we're nearer to understanding it all.

"Whether we've got it cracked yet, only time will tell. It's a painful but interesting learning exercise for us."

[Katsuya]

Sauber could do well at Valencia. Kamui was quick in the 2010 Sauber which was nothing special when you look at the 2012 model.

Of course, since it's Valencia it will no doubt suck all the fun out of the season and have someone win who's already won, because that's just what Valencia does.

[Lineker]

Yeah, the lengths Davidson went through in order to miss the Valencia GP are astonishing

[Lineker]

Gerhard Gribkowsky, the banker at the centre of the corruption case relating to the sale of Formula 1, has admitted that he received bribes from the sport's commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone.

In a surprise development in the long-running case, Gribkowsky told a court in Munich that allegations he received $56 million (USD) in bribes from Ecclestone in 2006 and 2007 over the sale of F1 to current owners CVC were "essentially true".

At the time of the sale, Gribkowsky was the chief risk officer for German bank BayernLB, which had bought the rights to F1 in 2002.

Although both he and Ecclestone denied any suggestion of bribery, Gribkowsky has now said that as early as May 2005 Ecclestone had told him that "the practice in Formula 1 is that you scratch my back and I scratch yours".

Ecclestone has not faced any charges over the matter, and in testimony to the court he said he had paid the monies because he had been threatened with blackmail.

Speaking to the Telegraph about Gribkowsky's confession, Ecclestone said he was not surprised - because he thought it was simply a matter of the German banker trying to seek a lighter jail sentence.

"I suppose he would say that [about receiving bribes], so maybe he gets seven years instead of 14 years," said Ecclestone. "The poor guy has been banged up for 18 months. He would have said anything to save himself. He was going to be locked up whatever happens."

Lewis Hamilton is anticipating tough negotiations with McLaren over a new contract to run from the start of next year.

The 2008 world champion is out of contract at the end of the season and McLaren Group chairman Ron Dennis hinted in Canada that the economic situation will affect the pay it can offer Hamilton.

Both sides insist that there is no rush to conclude a deal, and Hamilton is optimistic that negotiations will go smoothly from now.

"Ron is a very tough negotiator," said Hamilton when asked about Dennis's comments.

"He was very tough when they negotiated the contract that they have now and I expect him to be the same when we go back in.

"But I don't see there being many problems, to be honest."

Hamilton has said several times that he does not want contract talks to distract him from his driving this season.

He leads the world championship off the back of his first win of the year in Canada two weeks ago. But despite wanting to add to his victory tally, he is willing to take a more calculating approach to ensure that he continues to score consistently.

"I still want to win every race," he said. "It is just that you have to be perhaps a little more strategic with your approach this year.

"We have seen seven different winners and both me and Fernando [Alonso] have scored in every race. But the championship is so close.

"I don't think there is too much of a different approach, but you have to be a little more sensible this year."

Sebastian Vettel says he is flattered by Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali's suggestion that he and Fernando Alonso could work well together.

Comments from Domenicali saying that the two world champions could "coexist" at Ferrari were published on the team's website after they appeared in German publications Sport Bild and Auto Bild.

That added fuel to rumours about Vettel moving to Ferrari in the future, and Alonso said he would have no problem with the German joining him at the team when he was quizzed about it in the Valencia paddock on Thursday.

When asked what he thought of the talk coming from Ferrari, Vettel told reporters: "It's very nice to hear that. I respect Ferrari a lot, I respect Fernando a lot. I see it as a compliment.

"I'm flattered, obviously. I've always said that Ferrari is a great team with a great history, a great tradition, in Formula 1 in particular. But as I've said before, I'm very happy with where I am at the moment."

Vettel added that he was not unsettled by rumours about the driver market, and he believes that none of his championship rivals can afford to get distracted by talk of the future.

"Does it unsettle me? No," he said. "If you want to have a word in this year's championship, you are much better off having all the focus on this year.

"As we have seen, it is extremely tight, a lot of races, a lot of winners. So I think I need all the focus on this year.

"Generally there is always something going round in the paddock. Just before Monaco, Mark [Webber] was linked to Ferrari. You [the media] will always find something to talk about."

Fernando Alonso says he is not wasting too much time thinking about potential future team-mates, as he downplayed speculation linking Sebastian Vettel with Ferrari.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali fuelled rumours about a possible move for the German when he said Alonso and Vettel would have no problems coexisting at the Italian squad.

Alonso said, however, the speculation was just that at the moment, although he claimed he will welcome anyone if the team decides to replace Felipe Massa.

"Rumours with Ferrari are always the same," Alonso said in Valencia on Thursday. "When I won the 2005 championship with Renault I was linked to Ferrari immediately and I arrived in 2010, so if Seb is linked now maybe he arrives in five years' time!

"Every time is the same with Ferrari: whatever team-mate comes in the future will be welcome, he will be part of the team and part of Ferrari. Whatever team-mate comes in the future it will not be a problem and we will try to work as we are doing now with Felipe."

Alonso, who has a contract with the team until the end of 2016, revealed he has a say over who his future team-mate is.

"In the past, never. Now in Ferrari, yes," he said. "I am in Italy every week when we are there. Sometimes I see the president, I see Stefano and we talk about development of the car.

"We talk about the future en F1, about Corse Clienti, owners who have old F1 cars that want us to be there in some circuits to teach some senior drivers, and also about future and team-mates, etc."

The Spaniard also made it clear he would have no issues with Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari as his team-mate.

"Not a problem," he said in response to questions about the prospect.

McLaren's operations director Simon Roberts thinks it is too soon to suggest that the top Formula 1 teams have now got a handle on the 2012 Pirelli tyres and will command the rest of the season - but reckons it is only a matter of time before that is the case.

After the Canadian Grand Prix, Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery argued that the tyre-influenced random results of the early rounds - which saw five different teams winning races - would fade as the regular frontrunners fully grasped the Pirellis' intricacies and pulled clear, although Red Bull chief Christian Horner suggested that the rubber could "be a factor for probably another 13 races" before it was fully understood.

Speaking in a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in, Roberts said that Hembery's assessment was probably premature, but acknowledged that the top teams' resources would probably eventually allow them to crack the puzzle - and suggested the tyres' behaviour in Montreal had been an important step in that regard.

"I saw his comments and thought 'maybe he knows something...'" said Roberts of Hembery's thoughts. "I think all the teams are learning, without a shadow of a doubt. Whether anybody has actually solved the conundrum, I don't know.

"I think with every race that goes by and all the data we get, certainly the big teams who have got enough analysis going on in the background will make those steps forward.

"I think we did learn a huge amount in Canada and that does stand us in good stead. Whether we've cracked it or not, I wouldn't like to say. If we get a one-two in Valencia then I'd say we've done a pretty good job... It is a challenge."

Although McLaren is still unsure whether it is fully on top of the tyres' behaviour, Roberts reckons its victory with Lewis Hamilton in Canada proved that changes it had made following earlier pitstop and strategic errors had begun to pay off.

"We're very conscious when we make changes to the way we do things that you can inadvertently increase the level of risk or just get people slightly out of position," he said. "The guys on the race team did a huge amount of work on trying to refine the pitstop strategy and even the way we approach qualifying.

"I think we were fairly pleased in Canada and hopefully we've turned a corner. We're not planning anything different going forward. We think it's now pretty stable, so no big changes and hopefully we'll just consolidate what we've been doing and keep it in the sweet spot."

Jenson Button thinks he will be able to hit the ground running at Valencia this weekend after abandoning a car set-up direction that McLaren believes contributed to his recent run of bad form.

The Briton has scored just two points from the last four races, and a particularly disastrous Canadian GP weekend prompted an in-depth investigation back at the factory to work out exactly what has gone wrong.

With the team believing that his set-up path was to blame, and electing to put Button and team-mate Lewis Hamilton on similar settings for this weekend, the man himself is confident that he can get his season back on track.

"Hopefully straight away we will have a good feeling," he said. "I did a lot of laps in the simulator with the set-up that we are going to start with, so I don't feel it is going to be a massive surprise to me, and to be fair a lot of it is quite similar to what we had at the start of the season. But I won't be shocked in any way with the set-up, so we should get on top of it fairly quickly."

Although Button is reluctant to talk in too much detail about why his set-up direction was problematic, he pinpoints changes he made after the Bahrain GP for what happened.

"You do things to the car that you think are correct, and in a normal world they would be," he said. "But after Bahrain, with the issues we had on the rear end with Bahrain, I tried something different and I thought it would help but I am not sure it was the right direction."

Button also believes that he and the team may actually have some positives come out of his recent troubles - because it has allowed McLaren to understand the performance differential between cars quite well.

"Probably having the last race helped us as a team because we had one car that was extremely quick and Lewis did a great job, but we had one driver and one car that wasn't quick," he said.

"When you look at the difference in lap time, there is a lot of useful information to go through. That is probably something Red Bull had in Bahrain, knowing Mark [Webber] finished a lot closer to Seb [Vettel], but their pace was different.

"It is the only way to learn I think at the moment in F1. With the tyres and situation we have, hopefully it will help us as a team to move forward."

Fernando Alonso says he is "extremely happy" with the progress made by his Ferrari team in the early part of the season.

The Maranello squad started the year with a car that failed to live up to the expectations the team had ahead of pre-season testing.

But Ferrari has bounced back thanks to a strong development programme and Alonso has been fighting near the top of the field in recent races.

The Spaniard is just two points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton after seven grands prix.

"I am extremely happy with the effort from the team," said Alonso. "It is true we did not start in the best positions so maybe in that aspect we had a little bit of an advantage because it's easier to improve a bad car than a good car.

"So maybe it's a bit easier to put everything right and start work, but it's true in the last four grands prix every new part we brought to the race normally correlates and works as I expect from the windtunnel.

"This is where we struggled in the past, particularly during the last two years, so there is more self confidence from the team in the new designs and the information from the windtunnel. This is good not just for now but also for the near future."

Alonso says he is not sure what to expect from this weekend's European Grand Prix, but the Ferrari driver acknowledged consistency will be key from the start of next month given the busy schedule.

"It's a difficult question," he said when asked if he would settle for second in Valencia. "Sure, getting some podiums in the next couple of races - in July with three races in four weeks - it is important to have consistency, but being Thursday we only think about victory because we want to win, especially here in Spain, in front of the fans.

"We will try our best but it's a difficult question because second in this type of championship is also good points."

Felipe Massa has no doubts that he has the potential to become the season's eighth winner following his improved form in recent races.

The Brazilian showed good pace in both Monaco, where he finished a strong sixth, and Canada, where he was 10th after a spin, and believes that he is a contender to take his first victory since his home grand prix in 2008.

His confidence has been boosted by a chance in set-up direction in recent races, as well as the improvement of the Ferrari F2012.

"Many drivers have possibilities of victory and I would put myself inside [that group]," said Massa when asked by AUTOSPORT about his chances of becoming the eighth winner of 2012.

"If you look at how the races are and how things change with the strategies and everything, there are many possibilities."

Massa admitted that he has been happy to hear positive comments from the likes of Bernie Ecclestone, Fernando Alonso and Stefano Domenicali.

The 31-year-old has been under fire for much of the season and hasn't finished on the podium since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix, but has no doubts that he can still deliver.

"It's always much better to receive positive things from people who understand more about driving," said Massa.

"People know what I am capable of doing and I 100 per cent know what I am capable of, so I do think this is positive. I have already seen some changes since two or three races ago."

Massa added that he plans to continue working on his own set-up direction rather than returning to team-mate Alonso's approach.

"It's much better to work in a direction that gets the better result, so we will carry on like that," said Massa when asked about whether this will continue.

Michael Schumacher believes talk of him being able to win this weekend's European Grand Prix is too optimistic.

The seven-time world champion was installed as one of the pre-race favourites in Valencia, partly due to the pace he showed in Monaco and the suggestion from Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery that he would be the man to beat.

But Schumacher believes that Mercedes' form in Canada, where it was also expected to shine but came up short, suggests that it will not be competing for victory this weekend.

"You have probably seen Montreal," Schumacher told reporters in the Valencia paddock. "We indicated that to be a good circuit for us and it turned out not to be accurate. So it is a question mark what this track [Valencia] will be like.

"This year, I don't think it is a very straightforward to predict and try to understand why things are going well. And therefore I'm a little bit reluctant to say we are in a very strong position here.

"We hope to be in a good position, but to call it a victory here, that would be too optimistic from my point of view of what we have seen in Canada."

Schumacher also believes that the Spanish street circuit can buck its trend of producing dull races.

"The nature of the circuit allows for good racing," he added. "We have long straights, we have DRS and KERS that should allow for overtaking.

"And that, combined with the uncertainty [in 2012] that we may like or not like... who knows what is going to happen?"

Kimi Raikkonen says he cannot help but feel disappointed with his results in recent races having been in a position to win earlier this season.

The Lotus driver admitted, however, that if he had been told ahead of the start of the year that he would have finished on the podium by now, he and the team would have been pleased.

"Of course when you get the good results and you get close then you get disappointed that you don't win," Raikkonen told reporters in Valencia on Thursday.

"But then if you had asked before the season if they had been happy with these results they would definitely have been.

"They probably wouldn't expect that they are so high up. But then when you are up there and you don't win then of course it is disappointing. But if you give yourself sometimes a chance to win then of course you are expecting more."

Raikkonen has finished on the podium twice this season and was in a close fight for victory in Bahrain.

In the last two races, however, the Finn has finished eighth and sixth.

The former world champion reckons his form is being hurt by low starting positions.

"In the race we have been quite strong," said Raikkonen. "Sometimes there are small things we haven't done exactly right, but it is always easy to say that."

Raikkonen was again cautious about his prospects for this weekend's European Grand Prix, where he will be hoping to be in the battle to be the eighth winner this year.

"We always try to win, but it's not easy. We don't know how well we are going to do. We will see tomorrow and bit and then Saturday. Hopefully we can be up there on Sunday."

Romain Grosjean believes Lotus has taken another step closer towards producing the weekend-long form it needs to take a breakthrough victory - and that this weekend's European Grand Prix in Valencia will be one of its best chances to win yet.

Despite Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen being frontrunners in many races this year, Lotus is not among the five teams that have already won in 2012.

But after his charge to second place in Canada, and with Valencia expected to produce the sort of hot conditions in which Lotus has thrived this year, Grosjean is very optimistic about his chances.

"It's always difficult to make predictions before you've done free practice or even qualifying," he said. "Things can change quite quickly but on paper we are looking good here. The car is good, it's hot and that's a good point for us.

"Hopefully we can keep this advantage and the other teams didn't find a way to make it work when it's too hot, and we can have a good chance."

Lotus has not always been able to qualify well this year, forcing Grosjean and Raikkonen to charge through the field on race day, but also leaving them hard-pressed to get right to the front from lowly starting positions.

Grosjean reckons the team is closing on a solution to its lack of one-lap pace.

"We have learned a few things from Bahrain especially and Canada as well about the different compounds, and hopefully we can try to get everything in place here to have the best possible qualifying and then another good race," he said.

He denied that improving the Lotus E20's single-lap performance risked damaging the tyre-kindness that is key to its Sunday form.

"It's possible to have a good car in qualy and then a good car in the race," Grosjean said. "I hope I'm not wrong and that on Saturday we can show that we are working towards getting a podium in the race. We need to still carry race pace and be better in qualifying."

Grosjean emphasised that despite not winning yet this year, Lotus was very pleased with its competitiveness and getting better and better.

"I'm happy and surprised about how the season is going. The team did a good car, which is mandatory to be able to achieve some good results. Then I did some good races," he said.

"It was Barcelona where I said we did a step forward, and maybe Canada was another one. With these small steps, when you put one with another, then you are more ready to do that perfect weekend and get the win."

Sergio Perez is anticipating a difficult European Grand Prix weekend for the Sauber team.

The Mexican, who finished third in the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago, believes that while Sauber will be competitive, he doesn't have a strong chance of becoming the season's eighth winner in Valencia.

"It will be a difficult weekend for us in terms of this track," said Perez. "It asks a lot of the rear axle because of the braking and lateral [load] combination.

"It's a tough circuit and I expect a tough weekend for us. But if we have everything in place, we can be competitive.

"If we can get sorted on Friday and have a good Saturday and the race, who knows? But I think it will be a tough weekend for us."

Despite being cautious ahead of this weekend's race, Perez remains optimistic that he can take his maiden grand prix victory this year.

He already has two podiums to his name in 2012, including a near-victory in Malaysia, and is confident that Sauber could be a contender on a high-speed track.

"There is definitely the chance that we can win a race this season," he said. "We already have a second and a third place, so the next target has to be to win a race and hopefully we will be able to make it.

"The team is close and working very hard at the factory. It's nice to see how hard they are pushing. There will be a track that will suit us very well and, if we get it right, we can win.

"I think tracks like Silverstone, for example, with high-speed corners could potentially be good."

Perez added that he could have been in contention to win in both Spain and Canada, where a first lap incident with Romain Grosjean and a qualifying crash respectively put him out of contention.

"Barcelona was a good chance," he said. "Monaco was a good chance, but then we had the problem with the steering and went into the wall.

"We've been very unlucky this season and hopefully we can turn around our luck and put together a perfect weekend."

Formula 1 fans are set to get the chance to quiz some of the sport's legends from the past at the next FOTA Fans' Forum, which takes place ahead of the British Grand Prix.

The Formula One Teams' Association has announced plans for the next fans' event to take place at the Williams factory in Grove on July 3 - which is the Tuesday before the British Grand Prix.

Although no details have been announced about who the guests will be, AUTOSPORT has learned that rather than apart from members of the paddock, plans are being put in place for an additional 'Legends of F1' panel to be quizzed by fans.

Further details about the event, including on how to apply to attend, can be found at http://www.fota.co/events/

Thursday's press conference:

DRIVERS - Heikki KOVALAINEN (Caterham), Daniel RICCIARDO (Toro Rosso), Kamui KOBAYASHI (Sauber), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), Pedro DE LA ROSA (HRT).

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Heikki, you made some comments in your preview that this isn't your favourite circuit: brake cooling so important here and the track evolves more than others. Perhaps you'd like to expand on those comments?

Heikki KOVALAINEN: Good afternoon everyone. Yes, I read that preview and I think our press officer Tom Webb had something to do with that. It doesn't mean I hate the place. I mean look at the weather, look at the circuit. Everything here is actually very, very good here. I've had pretty good races in the past here. I was on the front row with McLaren in 2009, so there's nothing negative for me to day about that. That's all I can say really. I look forward to a good race. It is a street circuit but not as hardcore as Monaco or Montreal. It's easier, the kerbs are easier. It's slightly smoother, we can run the car very low. It's very, very smooth. I think if you just find a good set-up on Friday and Saturday morning I think it's really good fun to drive. In terms of competitiveness, whether we'll be closer to the cars ahead of us or not, it's hard to say yet. We need to wait and see where we are. But I'll definitely look forward to a good weekend. I think everyone here will have a good weekend, the weather looks fantastic.

Q. Just looking overall at the performance so far, over the seven races we've had so far, how do you feel the team is progressing: definitely getting closer to the teams in front?

HK: I think it's fair to say that we were hoping to start the season closer to the cars in front of us. Obviously at the winter testing, we thought we were closer but then we arrived at the first few races we were not as close as we thought. But since then the team has made a lot of effort and in my opinion in all the right areas. I'm very happy to see that. I think we are making good progress. Obviously John Iley from McLaren has joined us very recently and I think in the next few races we'll see updates coming every race. For us they feel like quite significant updates but I think we need to wait and see how they translate onto circuits, actually on to the racetracks before really making too many predictions. The main point being that the team had grown a lot since last year and since the beginning of the year I think we have focused absolutely on the right areas to make that relative gain to the teams ahead of us. Whether we can do it or not, really on track, I think we need to wait and see. I think we can do it and I'm looking forward towards the end of the season more regularly beating the cars ahead of us.

Q. Dan, it's virtually a full year for you in Formula One now, are you pretty much where you want to be?

Daniel RICCIARDO: Good day everyone. It's gone very quick. Someone, probably my dad, told me very recently that it's nearly been a year that I've been here. I remember Silverstone like it was a week ago. Time goes very fast. You have to try and take advantage of every opportunity and make the most of everything so... I've had some good times in the first year and some times I wish were better but generally I'm enjoying it. It's a huge experience and a great learning curve for me but after a year it's time to kick on and get some solid results. As for this season we've been a bit up and down. We kicked it off pretty well in Melbourne and we probably would have liked that to continue, which it hasn't done as smoothly, but yeah, we still have a long season ahead of us. The experience is growing now and I think it's time now to try to get a few more points on the board and to turn a few heads would be nice.

Q. Of course you'll know all the circuits from now on – apart from American, which no one will know – so how important is that? You haven't raced here but you were here as a Friday driver last year.

DR: Yeah, I think it helps a bit. Once you get to this level you can pick up a new circuit fairly quickly but I guess if it's one you've driven on over and over you tend to know a few more secrets about it. But, having FP1 here last year will get me into the groove of things a bit quicker but you know come Saturday and qualifying I think everyone's pretty much into it whether it's a new circuit or one we've been to before. There are some special circuits on the calendar, maybe Monaco for example, where the more experience you have there the quicker you'll eventually be able to go, knowing a few more little secrets; knowing which lines to take. But generally I don't think it changes much now. Looking forward to a stronger second half of the season and hopefully that can start here. It's nice and warm, a bit like home – though I haven't really been living at home much in the past six years or something, so maybe it will take me a little bit of time to get used to the heat again, but yeah, looking forward to it.

Q. Kamui, first of all, the Sauber seems to be suited in certain areas and not in others, but what about this circuit?

Kamui KOBAYASHI: Here I think pretty OK. Only we have to focus on working the tyre with this track temperature because this is quite… extremely high. I think the car itself is OK for this track but difficult to say how it will perform on the track in this temperature.

Q. Is it still about tyre management. Your team-mate for example is always cited as someone who will make a one-stop, just as he did here last year. How does that affect you?

KK: I think in the last race Sergio did a really great job with the tyre management. But I think this season so far, it's very important to be [in] clear air. If we are in traffic we damage the tyre of course. It's not only the tyre management, we have to be clear. It's not only the driving, it's the situation as well. It's difficult to say that it's coming only from the tyre and the driving, it's all a mixture. Let's say Sergio last race had great driving but he also had quite a lot of time with not so much traffic and that's the key to managing the tyre. Also last race I think everybody expected in the race to do two-stop but actually one-stop is quicker. But at the same time it seems to be difficult to overtake again because everybody is like a train. So that was mis-predicted for the last race. For my situation I had to change strategy during the race, which is quite difficult. But I think the team did a great job for the performance and they gave us really great advice and we see a good step from the car and we try to understand more the tyre because with this track temperature it's difficult to see but with there experience I think we can sort it out.

Q. Fernando, we read that you team-mate, part of his resurgence is because of a different set-up and he's gone his own way on set-up. How does that affect you? Is it an advantage for you?

Fernando ALONSO: I'm not sure about the different set-up comments. I don't think that there is any big difference compared with the first races. It's not affecting my programme. For Felipe, he's getting some good confidence now in the car with the last changes and some tweaks maybe in the set-up but nothing dramatically changed. And now it seems we can both be competitive. This is the best news for the team. As we always repeat: the team, myself, he's having full support from everybody inside Ferrari and now we are convinced that in the second half of the season we will both be up at the front.

Q. How do you feel about the development of the car? Obviously it didn't start off as a very good car and you were pushing for development. Has it taken longer or shorter than you imagined and now are you nearly there?

FA: I'm extremely happy with the effort of the team. It's true that we didn't start in the best position so maybe in that aspect we were a little bit advantaged because it's easier to improve to a bad car than a good car normally because we had many things that didn't work at the beginning, so maybe it was a little bit easier to put everything right. Bit it's true that in the last four grands prix or something like that every new part we bring to the race it correlates and is working as we expect from the wind tunnel. This is something we struggled with in the past, in the last two years especially. Yeah, more self-confidence in the team now, in all the new designs, in all the information we get from the wind tunnel, this is good. Not just for now but for the near future.

Q. Lewis, championship leader, three times second at this race, pole in 2009 as well – but it's a very different championship this year, as we're all aware and it's very important to bank points, as you've pointed out in the past. How difficult is that for you – as we see you as an out and out racer who wants to win all the time – how difficult is it for you, is it a change of mindset?

Lewis HAMILTON: Good afternoon everyone. Not for me: I still want to win every race it's just you have to be perhaps a little more strategic with your approach this year. We've seen seven different winners, both me and Fernando have scored pretty much in every race yet the Championship is so close. I don't think there is too much of a different approach but you have to be a little bit more sensible this year.

Q. And, in terms of the Championship again, obviously consistency is hugely important. Is the development still coming all the time from the factory? We hear about it from various other teams, is it still coming from McLaren as well?

LH: The guys are working as hard as they can and pushing as hard as we can to improve. We've not had the same size of upgrades as others potentially have. We've not really had an upgrade since Barcelona but we hopefully will have something very soon.

Q. For here or for the British Grand Prix?

LH: Probably for the British Grand Prix, I would have thought.

Q. Pedro, first of all, problems with the brakes at the last grand prix, do you think you've pretty much sorted those out?

Pedro DE LA ROSA: We are not sure. We think we have and actually we've brought slightly more front brake pulley, which was our limiting factor in Canada, knowing that Valencia is also a little bit easier on the brakes. So, I think, all in all, we should be OK and be able to go flat out all the race and finish this race with the brakes.

Q. How much are you enjoying the development of the HRT team and the car itself? Especially when you get as close as you did in the last grand prix as well, where you were starting to make in-roads with the team in front.

PDLR: Well, we're having fun. We're having fun because in the team we are all pushing very hard and we are making progress, which is essential in this sport, especially when you make more progress than the people around you. However, we still have a long way to go and we are not where we want to be and there is still a lot to be gained. But we're having fun because each race we are more competitive, and especially in Canada it was such a shame to retire so early because I was having a lot of fun inside the car. We were able to fight, we were able to fight against people behind and in front and we were actually looking good on strategy. But anyway, let's see how it goes here. Valencia is a similar track to Canada in terms of car setup. Slightly more overall downforce but there are a lot of slow-speed corners and a lot of heavy braking which we seem to be quite good at.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Alex Popov – RTR) Question for Fernando and Lewis, first of all for Fernando. It seems to be already a silly season but not even for the next one but for 2014 and beyond. It seems to be a lot of rumours, even from your team, about you and Sebastian together. What do you think about the possibility of this cooperation? And for Lewis, about this point, you seem to be a lot more friendly with Fernando now than back to your cooperation. What do you think? Maybe in the future would you like to work together in the same team.

FA: Rumours, I think, with Ferrari are always the same: when I won the 2005 Championship with Renault, I was linked to Ferrari immediately – and I arrived in 2010. So, if Sebastian is linked now, maybe he'll arrive in five year's time. I don't know. Every summer it is the same with Ferrari, as I said, but at the moment we repeat the same thing. Extremely happy with Felipe, whatever team-mate comes in the future will be welcome, will be part of the team and part of Ferrari and, as I said, when I joined this team the most important thing in Ferrari is to help each other to make one red car win. It's something that President di Montezemolo is very clear on when you arrive on day one in Ferrari. So, whatever teammate is coming in the future, if it comes, will be no problem and we will try to work as we are doing now with Felipe.

Q. LH: I really don't know what else to say. It looks like they have a good team already and me and Jenson provide a strong line-up here at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. That's the thing I need to focus on; that's the most important thing for us at the moment. I don't really know what else I can say.

Q. (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Question for Fernando: Fernando, would you be happy repeating last year's second place, or do you want to win here, considering this is one of the very few circuits where you haven't won yet?

FA: Well, difficult question. Sure, getting some podiums now, in the next couple of races, especially in July when we have three races in four weeks, it will be important to have some consistency in this very important month, we think. But, being on Thursday, we only think about victory, because we want to win, especially here in Spain, in front of our fans and we will try our best. Difficult question because we know second in this type of Championship is also good points.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Fernando, what do you like on that track, what do you dislike and how to you rate the atmosphere of this venue?

FA: From the track, I like the heavy braking in the last sector especially, which is maybe the most challenging one. The first two sectors are more or less the same. So much straights but they are not really straights so you are always turning in and it's not so easy maybe for overtaking for this reason – but in the last sector you find some interesting combination of corners that I think you enjoy. The high-speed corners plus the last braking which is a little bit challenging. What I don't like from this circuit… nothing really. I think it's all fine. There is not any place or anything that is a big problem. The atmosphere is one of the best. It's one of my preferred grands prix of the year. I like the city, I like the atmosphere here, there are a lot of activities around the grand prix as well – like Singapore in a way, with a lot of music concerts around. There are some go-kart circuits outside for the fans and some other activities, so I think the weekend overall, with the beach 400m from the track etc., makes something nice for the people that come for the weekend. I think we also like it from a driver point of view.

Q. (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Lewis, Ron Dennis came out with an interesting comment after the Canadian Grand Prix when he was asked about you staying with the team. He mentioned that you were coming towards the end of a contract that was signed at a time when the economy was somewhat different. He said 'now there has to be a balance.' Can you understand Ron's comments, first of all, and do you appreciate that when it comes down to negotiations with McLaren and yourself and your management team, you might have to ease off on your financial demands because economic times are very different now?

LH: Ron is a very tough negotiator. He was very tough when they negotiated the contract that I have now and I expect him to be the same when we go back in (this time). I don't see there being many problems, to be honest.

Q. (Julien Febreau – L'Equipe) Fernando, you know Romain Grosjean pretty well from your experiences at Renault in 2009. In your opinion, what are his best qualities for this season and in which area could he still improve?

FA: Yeah, I know him. We were teammates first as a test driver for us and then racing with us as well. He's a very talented driver. He won GP2 easily and in 2009 in Formula One I think the car was not so easy to drive and he found it tough, but now he's showing his potential. He's young, talented, very quick. He can keep up a very good pace with few mistakes over a whole race. Things to improve? Experience for sure because this is something that you never stop learning and the more races you do, the more championships you do, you improve little things and little tricks at different circuits. A little bit of consistency will only come from experience. I'm happy with his performance, happy for him. I think he will have a very interesting season from now on, after the podium in Canada and the toughest time will only come on Saturday with the football, I think.

Q. (Ignacio Naya - DPA) Fernando, Pedro and Lewis, I know you are football fans. You are probably following the European Cup. I would like to know what you think about the Spanish team. Are you enjoying them, what do you expect from them, how are you going to follow the match on Saturday, and have you talked to Romain Grosjean?

PdelaR: Well, I'm enjoying it massively, because we are the best, it's simple, having a great time watching our team – a lot of Barcelona players in the Spanish national team which also helps. It's great to see us doing so well. Actually, I also quite liked what the Spanish coach said the other day, that we go from poor to rich too quickly. I think it's a great competition and we should never forget that all Spain is behind the team and we are all very proud. I don't know who is unhappy about it: no one. Not me.

FA: Yes, same thing. I enjoy it, I watch all of Euro. I will watch Saturday here in the motorhome with some friends. I haven't spoken yet with Grosjean at the moment but I will. Yeah, I'm enjoying it as well, like Pedro. I think we are very privileged to have this national team, this generation of players. Probably, as Pedro and the coach said, we will remember this generation in a few years' time, but now it's very easy to criticise, but we will regret this soon.

Q. (David Croft – Sky TV) I think you're sitting on the fence a bit with your football punditry here folks. What we want to know is who has got the best chance of winning this weekend, Spanish or the English football teams or Lewis or Fernando out on the track? Pedro, you get the casting vote on this one.

PdelaR: I don't know what you want.

HK: Pedro, you need to talk after this press conference and ask for some money and then you make the comment.

FA: I will not give you money. You can tell Lewis, no problem.

LH: I don't even know when the game is, if I'm honest. Hopefully I will be able to watch it then. They've been playing pretty well recently. I hope that we have a better shot this year than we have in the past, but there are other great teams out there. Spain, of course, is obviously one of the best teams there so it will be interesting. I'm not going to pay Pedro either.

Q. (David Croft – Sky TV) You'll be rooting for Italy, I suppose.

FA: Yes. Sorry but I prefer Italy in this game.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, you said in Canada after the race that you weren't able to make a one pit stop strategy. With these hot conditions, do you believe that your car can react well or will it be too hard on the tyres? And regarding your pit stops: you had a problem with your pit stops again in the last Grand Prix and you had to push a lot. Did you work on the pit stops in the last ten days?

LH: On the tyre side of things, I anticipate it could be another very very tough weekend, trying to look after them. I think it will be very interesting to see how the teams vary as they did in the last race. You have to expect teams like Lotus and Sauber doing very very well on their long runs and Ferrari are also very very good on their long runs. So I definitely don't anticipate even doing a one stop strategy this weekend, but I will obviously try to look after the tyres as best we can.

In terms of our pit stops, we are constantly altering and improving race by race, and the guys go back to the factory after every race with footage of the pit stop to understand and analyse exactly what went wrong, so that next time we go out we don't have those problems. I think this weekend we will have an even better set of pit stops again. I think at the last race the first pit stop – if we didn't have the problem with the pull away – I think it would have maybe been the fastest of the whole season so far. I think it was 2.8s or 2.9s. The stationary time was 2.9s, I think, or something like that, so quite quick, but I lost a second as I pulled away. We are just going to keep working on it.

Q. (Olaf Mol – RTL7) Fernando and Lewis, some countries are no longer in the European soccer championship like Holland; some of their soccer players are being criticised for not talking to their fans. Do you feel that Formula One and you as drivers are doing enough for your fans?

LH: Do we think we are doing enough for the fans? I don't know. If you look at the last race, for example, we had such a great event. There are definitely races where there aren't so many people who come to watch the race, but I think we're doing a pretty good job. I don't know what else… I'm sure we can always do better, but I don't see a problem, personally.

FA: Yes, I agree. Anyone can do more or less, depending on which one, but apart from NBA (National Basketball Association) I don't think there's any big sport that does a better job than Formula One.

HK: I think that FOTA has asked the fans many times… Martin Whitmarsh has been very open and the fans have had a word, and I think many times the fans have been happy. I don't see any problem there, no.

Q. (Patrick Grivaz – Radio France) We are here in Valencia, Spain and there is an economic crisis in Europe and in Spain particularly. I want to ask a question to Pedro and Fernando: what is your feeling about the economic crisis in Spain and what can you do about it?

FA: I think we obviously feel sad and worried about the situation in Spain which is not ideal at the moment. I think we are in a completely different matter which is sport and we are having a great event in one city which will be known worldwide on Sunday on millions and millions of televisions throughout the world, so it's very good publicity. At the same time, I think the economic crisis is not only in Spain, not only in Europe but worldwide and if we question races and sporting events, we will never finish, because then we have to question why, in Poland, they hold the European Championship, maybe the Olympic Games and so on and so on, because there are macro-sporting events over which there is always a question whether they are necessary or not.

PdelaR: I fully agree, it's terrible for Spain, it's terrible for Europe, the world. We are in crisis. We have friends in Barcelona who have lost their jobs and it's very bad. But as Fernando said, it's not only in Spain, it's everywhere, I would say. The only thing we can do is first of all concentrate on our job and try to make their lives better with a good entertainment show on Saturday and Sunday and then also, as a team, I think HRT is an example of what you can do in Spain: invest at a difficult moment, give opportunities to young mechanics, engineers, people, drivers and this is what we are doing. It's very bad, but as I've said, crises come and go. It's not the end of the world. We have to look ahead and we have to recover, we have to fight crises and wait for the long straights that will come.

Q. (Jonathan Legard – BBC Sport) Fernando, how much involvement do you have when teams come to select teammates, wherever you've been. Do they consult you, do they ask you what do you think of him, could you work with him?

FA: In the past, never. Now at Ferrari, yes. I'm in Italy every week so when we are there, sometimes I see the president, I see Stefano (Domenicali – team principal) and we talk about development of the car, we talk about GT, now there is some work on a new GT car that they are doing some test with at the end of year. We talk about the future of Formula One, about Corsa Clienti which is owners of old Formula One cars which they want us to take to some circuits to teach some senior drivers, and also about the future and teammates as well.

Q. (Jonathan Legard – BBC Sport) So if you said you didn't want A or B would you hope that they listened to you?

FA: I doubt it. It's an open chat, we talk, but in the end, it's their decision.

Q. (Jonathan Legard – BBC Sport) So would you welcome to chance to work with Lewis again, would that be on the agenda or is that..?

FA: No problem.

Q. (Jonathan Legard – BBC Sport) Not a problem, no one at all, even Sebastian Vettel?

FA: No problem. Why?

Q. (Jonathan Legard – BBC Sport) There should be no reason, absolutely, but you would welcome the challenge from whoever would be deemed good enough to be a Ferrari driver or whichever team you were in?

FA: Yeah. I do. I think I have a lot of respect for Felipe. I think the challenging moment, that even from the outside it's difficult to appreciate, what a challenging time he's given to me in the last three years. He's not bad, even if from the outside he looks…

Q. (Jonathan Legard – BBC Sport) So you wouldn't mind him staying on then? Do you think he could stay on? Has he got the potential to do that?

FA: I think so.

Q. (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, Lewis and Pedro: when I saw you in this row, I remembered McLaren in 2007. What were your best and worst memories of that season for you three guys when you were teammates?

PdelaR: From my point of view it was a pleasure to have two super drivers next to me and learn from them. It was really interesting. The worst bit, clearly, was to lose the championship at the last race in Brazil. I think that the three of us – more them than myself because I was unfortunately not driving – but we all woke up at one point at four or five am in a cold sweat around our heads, because it was a shame but they are the best, it was really a pleasure for me to be in the team with them. I learned. I'm a sponge.

LH: It was the same, losing the championship was definitely the… I had only just got to Formula One but just having it and then losing it and then having it was very very tough. I think the best moment was winning my first Grand Prix that year; firstly getting into Formula One and then having the great opportunity and privilege of working alongside Fernando and Pedro, and working for such a great team, and winning my first race in Montreal. That was part of my life that I could only have ever dreamed of.

FA: Yes, same. The worst moment was losing the championship, for sure, at the last race after being at the top of the table for the whole season, and then we lost it at the last race. Best thing for me was the technical approach that was very different compared to Renault and all the things that I learned on the technical side in that year… I think they were very very important for the rest of my career and I improved 200 percent as a driver that year.

[Katsuya]

Maldonado quickest in FP1, then Vettel in FP2...ahead of Hulkenburg and Kobayashi.

It's going to be one of those weekends again...

[MJB]

Lotus looked very good on the long runs. So did McLaren and Mercedes but I think this could be time for 8 from 8 with either Kimi or Roman.

[Lineker]

Pastor Maldonado put Williams on top of the times in the opening practice session for the European Grand Prix in Valencia.

The Williams driver, the winner of the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this year, posted a best time of 1m40.890s early in the session and that benchmark remained unbeaten until the end.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel got closest to the Venezuelan, finishing just 0.083 seconds behind, with team-mate Mark Webber only a hundredth of a second adrift.

Jenson Button seemed to have a much better start to the weekend than in Canada after posting the fourth fastest time in the quickest of the McLarens, team-mate Lewis Hamilton was down in eighth position.

Fernando Alonso completed the top five in the Ferrari in a session in which the top nine drivers were covered by less than three tenths of a second.

Toro Rosso drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo were the only men to set a time in the first 30 minutes of the session, as the majority of their rivals took it easy after completing their installation laps.

Raikkonen was the first of the frontrunners to complete a timed lap with 55 minutes to go, the Finn posting a 1m42.589s, which was bettered a few moments later by Lotus team-mate Grosjean. Raikkonen regained the top spot with a second flyer, however, going into the 1m41s.

With 50 minutes left, it was Rosberg who jumped to first place in the Mercedes, going over half a second quicker than Raikkonen.

Maldonado in the Williams was first to lap in the 1m40s around the 50-minute mark, with local hero Alonso moving to second when he began to complete timed laps after several installation rounds.

World champion Vettel moved to second place with less than 10 minutes to go, as Venezuelan Maldonado kept the top spot in a trouble-free session.

FP1


Pos  Driver                Team                  Time               Laps

 1.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m40.890s            22

 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m40.973s  + 0.083   21

 3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m40.984s  + 0.094   19

 4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.994s  + 0.104   19

 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m41.065s  + 0.175   26

 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m41.105s  + 0.215   15

 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m41.117s  + 0.227   22

 8.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.158s  + 0.268   18

 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m41.182s  + 0.292   21

10.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m41.620s  + 0.730   21

11.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m41.784s  + 0.894   15

12.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.838s  + 0.948   19

13.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.861s  + 0.971   16

14.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m42.109s  + 1.219   20

15.  Jules Bianchi         Force India-Mercedes  1m42.175s  + 1.285   21

16.  Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m42.299s  + 1.409   24

17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m42.442s  + 1.552   26

18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m42.758s  + 1.868   26

19.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m42.777s  + 1.887   28

20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m43.209s  + 2.319   19

21.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m44.173s  + 3.283   18

22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m44.996s  + 4.106   15

23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m45.120s  + 4.230   23

24.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m45.338s  + 4.448    7


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




World champion Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of the day in the second free practice session for the European Grand Prix in Valencia.



The Red Bull driver, running an upgraded rear-end package on the RB8 that featured re-sculpted sidepods and new rear wing endplates, made the most of the new additions to go quickest with a 1m39.335s, 0.131 seconds ahead of Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.



Session one pacesetter Pastor Maldonado (Williams) began the bidding six minutes into the session with a 1m41.133s, but that time was never likely to last long and within a minute Kobayashi had moved ahead in the Sauber.



Jenson Button's McLaren then went top with a 1m40.744s before improving that to a 1m40.522s just before the quarter hour mark. Lewis Hamilton quickly moved ahead with a 1m40.397s and that stood for nearly 10 minutes before the rapid-looking Mercedes of Michael Schumacher emerged from the pits and recorded a 1m40.169s.



Having set that time, Schumacher was straight on the radio complaining of 'drive' issues. It was not a big problem though, as he was back on track within 10 minutes.



As the session crept towards the halfway mark, Button slapped on a set of soft Pirellis and became the first man to dip below 1m40s with a 1m39.990s. That though was put into context when Nico Rosberg eclipsed the time on the eighth lap of his own prime medium tyre run.



Ferrari's Fernando Alonso had just moved to the top of the times (1m39.733s), again on softs, when Pedro de la Rosa hit the barriers hard. Having clattered the kerbs at Turn 13, the front-left of the HRT was significantly damaged as it went in front on into the tyres.



There was a brief lull as the circuit was cleared before Schumacher emerged from the pits and set a time of 1m39.601s. It was then, finally, that Vettel produced his 1m39.334s flyer, which settled the matter, as teams switched to long-run modes and gathered degradation data.



Behind Vettel, Hulkenberg and Kobayashi snuck ahead of Schumacher with two very impressive laps that hinted at the potential for another mixed up grid on Saturday.



Bruno Senna was fifth fastest, to further enhance the view that Williams is a contender in Valencia ahead of Hulkenberg's Force India team-mate Paul di Resta.



Romain Grosjean was the fastest Lotus driver in seventh ahead of Mark Webber and Rosberg.



That meant that both McLaren drivers, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa all loitered outside the top 10 and the top 15 runners were covered by 0.910s.



[code]FP2


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time               Laps

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m39.334             33

 2.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m39.465s  + 0.131   32

 3.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m39.595s  + 0.261   20

 4.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m39.601s  + 0.267   27

 5.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault       1m39.644s  + 0.310   34

 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m39.700s  + 0.366   32

 7.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m39.733s  + 0.399   34

 8.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m39.868s  + 0.534   33

 9.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m39.901s  + 0.567   30

10.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m39.926s  + 0.592   32

11.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m39.945s  + 0.611   34

12.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m39.990s  + 0.656   33

13.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m40.075s  + 0.741   29

14.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m40.147s  + 0.813   25

15.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m40.244s  + 0.910   35

16.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m40.511s  + 1.177   29

17.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m40.963s  + 1.629   20

18.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.121s  + 1.787   32

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m41.197s  + 1.863   38

20.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.263s  + 1.929   29

21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m42.424s  + 3.090   21

22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m42.958s  + 3.624   30

23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m44.201s  + 4.867   33

24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           1m44.260s  + 4.926   12


All Timing Unofficial

Mercedes has promised Michael Schumacher that it will adopt a 'calm and concentrated' approach to sorting out the reliability problems that have wrecked his season.

Schumacher has scored just two points so far this campaign - having crashed out of one race and suffered mechanical failures at four events.

That run of trouble, which is in contrast to Nico Rosberg's trouble-free campaign, has left Mercedes determined to get to the bottom of exactly what has gone wrong – and the German car manufacturer has admitted that it has not done a good enough job.

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug said: "We have been through every detail and this is not the standard of the team, but sometimes you have such a period and you need to be strong and concentrated and focused. I am sure it will change.

"There are no reasons; it is just something that should not happen. It is rare that one car does each and very race lap after seven races and the other car hits trouble. We know that and we have to and will fix it, but it is a calm and concentrated approach."

Haug said the team was not going to rush into making procedural changes just for the sake of it.

"People are doing their job and if you have a weaker period you need to systematically explore it and understand the reasons for it," he said. "There are not specific reasons, but it is the results that count. They are not as we want them to be but we have to have a constructive approach to it."

While Schumacher has scored two points so far this year, his team-mate Rosberg is currently fifth in the drivers' championship with 67 points.

Pastor Maldonado believes Williams has a quick enough car to recover from its recent slump in results.

The team has scored one point since it won the Spanish Grand Prix with Maldonado, and in Canada last time out both he and Bruno Senna struggled.

But the Venezuelan, who topped the first free practice session in Valencia on Friday, believes that the FW34 is still capable of fighting at the front.

"The car is competitive," said Maldonado. "We just need to put everything together. The last two races, for whatever reasons, we didn't. But the good thing is that we can always be competitive.

"Maybe we cannot always be at the front, but we are close. That means that the car is good, and we didn't lose our pace."

Maldonado believes that the Valencia layout offers Williams an ideal opportunity to get back among the frontrunners, as the nature of the circuit should play to the car's strengths.

"This is a stop and go track," he added. "It's a big braking and traction track, with lots of second gear corners. We have been good in slow parts, we have worked hard on these kinds of corners and we found a good balance.

"I think here is going to be a good chance for us to become strong again."

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is open to the idea of customer cars returning to the sport next year in a bid to help smaller teams.

While there has some talk of bigger outfits being allowed to run three cars in the future, Ecclestone remains sceptical about that idea moving forward.

However, he does suggest that an alternative proposal would be to allow smaller teams to buy year-old cars.

This would not only help them financially - because they would not need the expense of designing and building their own challenger - but would also make the grid more competitive.

When asked by Gazzetta dello Sport about the possibility of third cars in F1, Ecclestone said: "I don't think it will happen. But I would like to see some of the smaller teams with a single car sold by a top team, which had been used the previous year. Perhaps it could be driven by a rookie."

Ecclestone believes the plan could be put in place as early as 2013.

"I would like that," he said. "Some teams would certainly get better results compared to now and spend less, immediately."

F1 teams are currently involved in negotiations with the FIA about framing new cost-cutting regulations, with their latest meeting taking place in the Valencia paddock ahead of this weekend's European Grand Prix.

Ecclestone believes that F1 costs are not in line with helping deliver the best show for the sport - which is why a cost cap to limit expenditure of the teams could be a way forward.

"Today Alonso and Vettel in GP2 cars would give the same show with a much smaller expenditure figure," he added.

Paul di Resta believes that Force India does not need to fear a repeat of the problems which cost him a points finish in the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Scot was running fifth in the first stint of the race, but he slumped to an 11th place finish.

Speaking in the Valencia paddock ahead of the European Grand Prix, di Resta told reporters that the team had learned from the problems in Canada.

"I think we have identified some of the parameters that we probably misjudged [in Canada]," he said. "Our tyre management has been pretty good this year, and we excelled in Bahrain. But obviously we were off in Montreal.

"It took us by surprise. But if we went back to that race it would be a different story for us. We don't need a knee-jerk reaction.

"At the end of the day if the car's not under you it's not under you. We put ourselves in a strong position in Canada and didn't take advantage of it."

Di Resta added that he expects the Canada performance to be a one-off "in terms of what went wrong", and he believes that the weather and track conditions in Valencia should be similar to those in Bahrain, where he finished sixth.

"The track is similar to Bahrain tyre wise and conditions wise, so I think we should be quite optimistic," he said. "We've got stable conditions, and that gives you a clear direction for the weekend.

"We've not had stable weather at many weekends this year, so this is probably a bit more like Bahrain. We learned a lot from this race last year, too, so it will be interesting."

McLaren is confident that Jenson Button has made progress in getting over his recent troubles, on the back of the set-up changes made to his car for the European Grand Prix.

Button has moved to a more similar set-up to team-mate Lewis Hamilton this weekend, after his team suspected that a direction he had taken in the last few races was contributing to his problems.

Having set the fourth fastest time in opening practice in Valencia, McLaren's sporting director Sam Michael said he was encouraged by Button's early progress.

"Jenson has been really good actually," explained Michael. "A lot of cars struggled with front locking, which was about getting the front tyres working properly, and he struggled with that as well, but we made some good set-up changes in the session and he made some really good steps.

"He didn't get his sectors together and if he had done that, he would have been quickest at various points of the session. So we are quite happy with his pace, and that of Lewis as well."

Michael believes that the key for Button to get himself back in the hunt for decent results is to unlock pace from the tyres in qualifying.

"He needs to keep focused and concentrate on getting the best out of himself in qualifying, because if he has a better qualifying session he will race strongly. I think these days, with the grids so tight, gone are the days when you could have a poor qualifying session and come steaming through the field. It happens occasionally when you get a massive tyre benefit but otherwise it is fairly tricky.

"I think it is about getting the tyres to work properly on that lap. Sometimes he can get it right in the window and sometimes not, it is the same with all the drivers. They have been a bit up and down this year but Jenson has had a particularly bad run in the last three races. So I think if he gets that right then he will be there again."

Button has reverted to using his preferred Brembo brakes for this weekend's race in Valencia, having temporarily used Carbon Industrie in Montreal because of the demands of the circuit.

Michael Schumacher says that he is not getting down about his poor run of reliability so far this season.

The seven-time world champion has retired from five races so far this season, and he suffered his latest mechanical problem in Canada when a hydraulic issue left his Mercedes' DRS stuck open.

While Schumacher has only two points so far this year, team-mate Nico Rosberg has 67 and has finished every race. But Schumacher told reporters in Valencia that he was relaxed about his run of bad luck.

"I have been around long enough to understand that these are prototype cars, and no matter how good a job you do, you can have problems like we have experienced," he said. "It is what it is. It's part of Formula 1.

"It's just coincidence it seems to happen on my car. I know it is the nature of Formula 1, and I trust my guys 100 per cent. If something fails, then it is fate."

Schumacher added that the fact he is not fighting for the world championship makes it easier to deal with setbacks.

"If you are not in a championship situation, you are still trying your best, but if you have retirements and problems like I have had to experience, you don't actually feel too bad about that," he said.

"From the beginning of the year I wasn't thinking that we would be in a championship fight. I could be wrong, because looking at Nico's points, and the points I could have accounted, it could have been different."

Michael Schumacher says he remains pessimistic about his chances of fighting for victory in Valencia despite a good start to the weekend in practice.

The German has been tipped as a potential candidate for victory by Pirelli's Paul Hembery, but he has downplayed his chances following a difficult Canadian Grand Prix for Mercedes.

Schumacher was fourth fastest in second practice on Friday, less than three tenths of a second off the pace set by Sebastian Vettel.

But the seven-time champion insists Mercedes will not have the pace to fight for victory this weekend.

"I think we are in a reasonable position but not a good enough position to win here," said Schumacher.

"I obviously appreciate the compliments I have been given by some people in the pitlane here, and I hope they are right, but at the moment I am a little bit pessimistic. We had a reasonable day though."

The Mercedes driver also believes it would be too optimistic to expect his team to be fighting for pole position.

"After the problem I just had this final run. We didn't make any adjustments to the car, so I guess we have a little bit more we can work on," he said.

"I guess we can be reasonably close to the frontrunners, but I think it would be too optimistic to put us on pole position."

Team-mate Nico Rosberg finished second practice in 10th position.

Valencia Formula 1 practice pacesetter Sebastian Vettel said it was too soon to draw any conclusions about Red Bull Racing's update package after the Friday sessions ahead of this weekend's European Grand Prix.

The reigning champion team has brought a substantial package of revisions to Spain, featuring upgrades to the RB8's front wing, floor, sidepods, front suspension and diffuser.

But despite going quickest, Vettel felt conditions were not conducive to a proper assessment of the new parts.

"We have some new bits, but lap times are not allowing us to have a fair conclusion yet," he said. "For us it was important to have a clean practice, a clean day today with no trouble and no problems.

"I am quite happy with what we did. I think conditions might change quite a bit until Sunday - again it was surprisingly cool today. Sunday will be quite a bit hotter which could make a difference, but now we collecting some good data and we'll see now whether we made a step or not."

Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber was ninth quickest, and reckoned he had not had chance to show his ultimate pace.

"You get one lap or two laps on the softer tyre so we didn't do a good job on the soft at all," he said. "So a frustrating finish to the session and plenty to go here tonight."

The Australian was also pessimistic about his race chances, but felt Red Bull knew how to solve his issues.

"[Race pace is] not very good, but we know where we can improve," Webber said. "Seb did a reasonable long run, but we know what we need to do to improve the long run pace.

"We need to improve, the option tyre wasn't great for me, but we will work on it tonight."

McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are optimistic that their team will be back on the pace for Saturday in Valencia after a difficult free practice day for the European Grand Prix.

Neither McLaren made it into the top 10 in second practice, with Button 12th and Hamilton 14th. Both drivers were troubled by front brake locking and set-up problems.

"I haven't been happy with the car at all today, but you can't always get it right," said Hamilton.

"I think this year we've been pretty good at getting the balance right throughout practice on Friday and having nice smooth days. Today's just not been one of those days.

"I think we know what the problem is, so I've just made all the changes and I'm quite confident that overnight we'll rectify the issues that I had today and tomorrow will be better."

Button said he was more concerned about race pace than qualifying potential, and suspected that changes made to try and alleviate the brake locking had caused problems elsewhere.

"I think on one lap we're not too bad. We're not great, but we're not too bad," said Button. "But the long run is the strange area for us because the car doesn't feel too bad, but the time just isn't there. We've got to look at the reasons for that.

"We did do a lot of work through the day to improve the front locking, and sometimes when you do that, the balance can become a little bit lazy, so we think that's probably the issue.

"We're going to go back on a few things that we've changed through the session, to a car set-up that we know felt comfortable, but it's difficult to be consistent because of that front locking.

"We know there are a couple of other things that we're thinking about doing for tomorrow morning that are quite interesting."

Paul di Resta believes that Force India's pace in practice for the European Grand Prix was genuine after a strong start to the weekend for the team.

The British driver was sixth quickest in the afternoon session, with his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg second fastest behind pacesetter Sebastian Vettel.

Di Resta said the team had done nothing different to previous practice sessions, and claimed that Force India had simply been very strong from the outset.

"We are not doing anything different to a normal Friday, we are not running 10 kilos [of fuel]," said di Resta. "Since we have hit the track we've been competitive and right near the top.

"Straight from the first run this morning to the last run we have been where we had to be, and probably could have been the quickest car at the beginning of the session and went straight out on the medium compound. Hopefully it carries on until tomorrow."

He added: "I think you can see it has been a reasonable day. We are happy. We purpled the middle sector on both laps, but on both laps I found myself coming across Jenson [button] in the last sector and never improved in the last sector so if you put a couple of tenths on we look very competitive.

"Had we put it all together, it was looking fairly positive, but it could all change tomorrow. I think that given where we have been all day we should be pretty happy."

Di Resta's comments were backed up by McLaren's drivers Button and Lewis Hamilton, who think the Force India VJM05 is surprisingly fast around the Valencia street circuit.

"Force India is extremely quick, and really we haven't seen that all year, so it seems like somebody else is having their opportunity this weekend," said Button.

"They're a little bit of a surprise. They've been the team that's been almost competitive but not quite there, and here they seem to be very competitive."

Hamilton added: "The Force India is unbelievably quick today. I don't know where they found their time."

Di Resta said his team had learned important lessons from the previous race in Canada, where the team had a difficult time.

"I think Canada has taught us a lot. Our approach here, whether it will compromise us more than other people we don't know. We have not been quite selfish, but gone down exactly where we think we will be for the whole weekend, not just today. This is a direction we are going to go. We haven't changed our thought process."

Romain Grosjean says the focus for his Lotus team in final practice in Valencia is to unlock much-needed qualifying pace from its car - after his long-run form on Friday left rivals in no doubt about how strong his team will be in the race.

Lotus had headed into the Valencia event as favourite to deliver an eighth different winner this weekend – with the team well aware that it needs to get Grosjean or team-mate Kimi Raikkonen near the front of the grid if it is to deliver just that.

And after an impressive performance in practice on Friday showing just how good the E20 will be around Valencia over the race distance, Grosjean says the key now will be working out how to extract more speed on Saturday without it compromising its chances for Sunday.

"The car looks good on the long run, on high fuel, so that is good for the race and now we need to get that extra bit for qualifying," he explained.

When asked about the feeling on the single-lap potential, Grosjean said: "In P2 it is always difficult to go from prime tyres to option tyres and get the best straightaway. There is more to come from the driving, and maybe from the car a little bit tomorrow. We have a few ideas we want to work on, and let's see if it is going to work tomorrow afternoon.

"If you work more on qualifying, then you work less on the race. But we have seen that from seventh [on the grid] we can finish second or third. So it is not the end of the world if we don't qualify very well, but for sure tomorrow morning we are going to work a little bit more on that."

Although making set-up changes to specifically improve qualifying performance would likely be at the detriment of race form, Grosjean thinks his team can find a way of improving its potential in the battle for pole position.

"Hopefully we can not disturb our race pace and get a good qualifying pace, and that is what we are trying to do," he said. "Let's see if we can do that here."

Heikki Kovalainen is willing to give Caterham time to prove that it can make the progress he wants to see, after enduring a frustrating start to his 2012 campaign.

The Finn had hoped for Caterham to be challenging the established teams in the midfield this season, but the team's CT01 has fallen short of expectations and is still lacking pace.

With high hopes that updates scheduled for the next two races can give the team the step up it needs, however, Kovalainen says he is not yet at the stage of being frustrated.

"I've kept pushing and I can be happy about that," he said. "I've kept at 110 per cent effort all of the time, and I haven't let it distract me too much. I push the team hard all of the time to make the right steps. But apart from that, I just have to make sure that I keep myself at the level I need to be and the performance has been as good as last year.

"It is what it is and I know that the team is working on it in the right areas, which is good. I just need to wait for the results of that work to come through. In the meantime, all I can do is work on the other things and the set-up."

Looking towards the longer term future, Kovalainen said that he would be happy to stay at Caterham if the outfit can prove to him that it is moving forwards.

"The updates that we are bringing towards the end of the season will be crucial," he said. "The team is making the right moves and, in theory, should be able to make progress. It's fair to say that I'm very hungry for success.

"I'm performing very well myself, but it's hard to judge how well because we are in our own land at the moment. I can't challenge properly the other guys to show how good I could be. That's a question that at some point we need to sit down and think about.

"I haven't thought about it and I haven't made any effort to look at it seriously. I haven't looked anywhere else yet or spoken about it with the team. I will wait and see how things are coming along. It's fair to say that I do want to keep making progress. I don't want to be in this kind of position next year and I don't think the team wants to be there either."

Friday's press conference:

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES - Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Riad ASMAT (Caterham), Norbert HAUG (Mercedes), Luis PEREZ SALA (HRT), Eric BOULLIER (Lotus).

Q. Franz, as it's your first time in the press conference this year, can you give us an assessment of your two new drivers? They've had time to settle down. Two drivers for whom there are a lot of new circuit too.

Franz TOST: Yes. Daniel Ricciardo, our driver from Australia, he is a little bit more experienced, he did already 11 races last year. So far he is doing a good job. He is a highly skilled driver. He is committed, with a positive attitude and so far I must say he is really doing a good job. Jean-Eric Vergne, his new, a French driver. Last year he did Formula Renault 3.5 litre and of course all the tracks are new for him. It's not so easy, Friday morning, in the first session is to learn the tracks. But also he is a highly-skilled driver. I rate him very high. He is doing a good job and improving from race to race and if we provide the drivers with a good car they show a good performance.

Q. The car itself: Is the team able to ensure that the car is maintaining a good position, even catching the teams in front?

FT: We started the season quite successfully with ninth place in Melbourne for Daniel Ricciardo and then eighth place in Sepang with Jean-Eric Vergne. Then afterward, I don't know, we struggled a little bit. Our direct competitors improved their performance, Williams as well as Force India. They are clear in front of us. We brought some new parts here. We have to analyse the data and everything and hopefully set-up the car in a good way tomorrow for the qualifying and then for Sunday for the race. But there is a lot of work in front of us because currently the gap increased instead of decreasing.

Q. Riad, first of all, I think you've got some developments here, but how much more can you do. How much closer can you get to the teams in front this year?

Riad ASMAT: I think what we've done is obviously going to be a progression but there is a huge push back home obviously with the team we have currently. We have some parts here, hopefully again we evaluated them today and if we get the set-up right for tomorrow then maybe we will pull a lucky one. But I'm more looking forward towards to Silverstone and onwards where more developments are being done for the car and hopefully by year's end we'll be able to prove our worth, where we actually aim to be this year.

Q. And you've got changes to the team. The team is moving and you have John Iley now as well.

RA: Yes, it's been positive. We had a real look over the past three years in terms of what we've done in terms of investment and in terms of people. More importantly people – the latest being John. He's been with us a couple of months now and he's actually very influential now with the performance levels we're aiming for. Again, we'll be moving to Leafield in August. I think that's a definite plus for us. It's a bit tight for us now in Hingham but with the ambitions we have currently I think Leafield is the right place for us.

Q. Norbert, a certain amount has been made of the fact that you've had four mechanical failures on one car and the other one has done every single racing lap. How easy is it to explain that?

Norbert HAUG: Well, things like that happen. This is not our plan and we are not satisfied with these results for sure. I really feel sorry for Michael. This should not be the case, these are not our standards; the team can do a better job. But we need to have a calm and concentrated approach and I think all my colleagues here have been through phases like that. That happens in Formula One if you're pushing and on the limit. But still, it is not our plan to be like that for sure. We will fix that. A lot of people are working in a concentrated and focused manner. Michael is a perfect team player and I would have every understanding if he would be critical but he never is outside the team, so he fully supports the team and we support him. I think he is an example for each and every driver. His behaviour is just first class and so authentic. I rate that very, very highly. Going through thick and thin he could complain and say 'I should have as many points as Nico' or stuff like that, but you never hear that. He's a professional and he deserves good results. I hope they will come sooner rather than later. And again, he deserves that. We need to give him a fully competitive and fully reliable car and we're working hard to achieve that.

Q. We're only a third of the way through the season, do you think Nico can win the world championship. Do you think Mercedes can be a world championship-winning team?

NH: Well, I think that whatever we did in the past, we have had at the last race the 300th race together with our partner McLaren-Mercedes and they won 73 grands prix. So we have been here for quite a while but what I think we never did is make any predictions or announcement saying 'we are going to win the next race or fight for this or that'. We do our best job and we are doing it in a focused and concentrated manner. I think if you see that we have had two difficult at the beginning, Nico being on the last lap in Australia eighth and then he had a coming together with another car and lost points eight points and was 35 points down to the leader and now he's 21 points down, so this is certainly the right direction. But we need to score points on a regular basis, we need to hopefully win more races and we are working, again... very focused on the direction. I think if you look at today, Nico did the fastest time on the prime tyre and then he was on the option. But he had this handicap of a yellow flag. Whatever Friday times mean, he would have been in a position to probably post the quickest time. And then the long runs look quite good. I don not know what that means compared to the others because you obviously do not know the fuel loads but our lap times were consistent. I think they have been in Canada. We have been very competitive in Monaco and we won in China. So the last five races I think we had three times good and convincing speed to be at the top or to mix with the top guys. Hopefully we can continue that trend. I would never go so far as to say we are definitely fighting for the world championship but of course it has to be the ultimate target. If we can achieve it, it would be fantastic and it would our ultimate goal for sure.

Q. Luis, first of all, brake problems in Canada. Have you got them beat here, do you feel – as this is quite a tough circuit on brakes as well.

Luis PÉREZ-SALA: Yes, we knew from the beginning, from Melbourne, that our brake ducts were not perfect. We knew that Montreal was the biggest, maybe most difficult track for the brakes and here is one as well, one of the tracks were you can have problems with the brakes. But the data that we have this morning suggests we are going to be close to the limit but inside the limit.

Q. Yesterday Pedro [de la Rosa] said how much he was enjoying bringing the team up, advancing the team. How much are you enjoying it?

LPS: Ha-ha! Really, I'm struggling a lot! But what is for me the worst thing of Formula One is that you have to travel a lot and be abroad from your house and far from the family. But this is a world that I like and I'm happy to be here and I try to push, to keep pushing, to try to get the team better and better each day. Eric, many times we've been told that Lotus is ready to win. The question is which driver? Who would you put your money on?

Eric BOULLIER: I never put money on anything or anybody. I just wish one of my two drivers is going to be the eighth man, maybe this weekend. But rather than focussing on who will be the eighth man winning, I think it's in our philosophy just to improve ourselves, to work hard, to clearly look at ourselves, to be better, to improve our weaknesses to make sure that we keep this consistency first – and if we can score podiums as well it is very important for the championship. And if we can have a win obviously I will be the most delighted guy.

Q. Are you able to keep on top of development? Are you happy with the rate of development?

EB: Yeah, definitely. In 2010 we had a very strong rate of development, last year we had a strong rate but not as successful as we would have expected. This year is still good development: we have some good parts and good improvement in performance package that we bring not every race but nearly.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Wei An Mao – la Vie Creative) To all the gentlemen. As for the economic situation in Europe, do you think it will influence Formula One? Especially to all tracks in Europe in the future?

LPS: We have economic problems in my house – in my team! I think it is for everybody, economic problems, I think not only in Europe. Europe now is focussing on the situation but it's something that we have and of course it's going to touch us in some way. But this is still… I think this is not from this year: it's come in from the last three or four years.

Q. And is it going to affect Formula One?

LPS: Of course it's touching us in some way. We are getting less money from sponsors; you have less money to spend on the cars, on the team.

Q. Do you see the effect as well Norbert?

NH: Well, I mean the general issue is that we have to have this – however you call it – resource restrictions, limits, whatever – who does not see that? Who does not see what's going on? We have to have limits, you know the figures of the medium and high class teams as good as I do. There should be limits of how to achieve it: that needs to be discussed but I think there are quite constructive and good ideas but we need to make sure that this comes through. This is an important step coming to the economic situation. I think that is part of the challenge. We have had bigger challenges in the past and I'm sure we will have even bigger ones in the future. You have some ups and downs and I think these times are very good for learning. You will always learn. You will learn how to be more efficient – so there are also positives. We just need to deal with the facts.

Q. Franz?

FT: For sure it's not good, the economic crisis in Europe and we are also working in Formula One to come down with the costs but thanks to Bernie we are not only racing in Europe, we are racing in areas where there is some money and no economic crisis: like India, like Australia, like Canada, like Brazil and like Saudi Arabia, with Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. We go to Russia, we are in China and I think that's very, very important for Formula One, especially for the sponsors to be present all over the world. And this also prevents a major influence from the economic side on Formula One. Because all over the world, hopefully there is no crisis.

Q. Riad, perhaps a comment from you?

RA: I think, I mean it's a given, the economic crisis is not just this year, I have to agree, it's been around for the last two years. But the fact is that it affects everyone around the world and business-wise obviously Formula One. As a team commercially you will be affected because the companies that want to be part of it will have to reduce their marketing budgets, so on and so forth. That being said, I agree with Norbert: we do need to look at what we're doing internally and be more precise and be more resource restricted to a degree. It's a matter of the business that we're running at the end of the day: I have to make it as efficient as possible in the hope that we can sustain our being here. But it's a given, we can't avoid it, it's there. We just have to be smarter – and one of the areas is to manage our own resources, and hopefully with us working together maybe we'll find a solution.

Q. Eric?

EB: I will do a résumé, I guess, of what has been said. We have to be sensitive to this economic crisis especially in Europe. And we have to monitor also us being based in Europe. We have the chance, as Franz says, that Bernie's business model for Formula One is global. Our sport is the only global sport in the world, so thanks to this global platform, we, as a team, for example, have been able to bring some big names and new sponsors, like Microsoft, who were never in the Championship in Formula One. Obviously we don't have to hide behind this, we have to be very careful about the impact of the economy in Europe but we are lucky that our sport is global.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) To all five of you: a lot has been made recently about the cost-cutting, cost-saving measures in Formula One. Enshrining them in the regulations was discussed after Monaco on the Monday, it was discussed last week on Friday in the WMSC meeting. I believe you people had a follow-up meeting yesterday. Has anybody got any reservations about enshrining the cost-saving measures or cost-cutting measures, budget caps – whatever you want to call it – in the Formula One regulations?

EB: It's true that actually it's a good follow-up after the previous question. If you monitor the economical situation in some parts of the world, you obviously have to consider yourself and think not only that you're plus one, you're plus two but also you're plus five. And it's true that there are some very constructive discussions between the FIA, Bernie and teams today, to try to take conscience and to try to clearly understand what is Formula One and what will Formula One be in the future and what we want to do with Formula One. Formula One has already downsized its costs a lot but we believe there is some more work to be done and this is why there are all these discussions, but the more people around the table, the less easy it is to take radical decisions.

FT: We are discussing the resource restriction agreement. Currently we are mainly only discussing about the resource restriction agreement regarding the chassis. In my opinion, the chassis resource restriction agreement is one point but the costs – especially from 2014 onwards, which will come up and which will increase dramatically – is the powertrain, and therefore the resource restriction agreement for the powertrain would be for me or let me say for Toro Rosso even more important than for the chassis. It must be a complete package. I am really worried that we are discussing on one side the costs decrease, but from 2014 onwards, with this new powertrain and the new engine, with the new ERS system, pick-up batteries, the cost will dramatically increase and this is what we also have to discuss, which is quite important, the development and the research costs which will rise to develop this package.

NH: You need to deal with the facts. The engine lease years ago was twice as much as it is right now, that's due to manufacturers bringing that down. I think that was a big help for all the teams. It's very clear that if you develop a new engine that it costs money and I think Formula One has never had an engine formula like today, where basically everybody gets a competitive engine, ten teams at least. That needs to be mentioned. Then there was a process in the past deciding that a new engine has to be developed and of course that costs money. We worked very hard, together with the FIA, and we have the same opinion with the other manufacturers to bring costs down but this is over a period of five years, so the target has to be minus twenty, minus thirty percent over five years and I'm sure the engine lease will, over five years, be comparable to what we have right now, but we need to see that we will have a new engine, an engine that you can market in a very good way, if it comes to sustainable ??? and so on. We just need to have changes. I hear some voices saying ' delay the engine.' One thing is for sure; if you delay the engine, you run two programmes in parallel one year longer and your customers will pay for that. We cannot have fully subsidised engines, this is not possible. I think the engine manufacturers especially have been very very fair and I would be pleased to hear that at one stage as well, because the engine lease was in excess of 25/30 million years ago and we brought it down, and I think that fact has to be mentioned. We can discuss aerodynamics and so on and so on. There are lots of areas where we can save money, but deciding and building and developing a new engine costs money – much less money than the last one, the V8, but we need to see where we are. I'm the first guy to support restrictions but then we need to do it in a coherent way: chassis, engine, whatever. Mercedes has always been one of the driving forces. I'm sure the Renault guys do not see it differently, the Ferrari guys do not see it differently. If we all work together we will achieve our targets but one thing is for sure: just listening to voices saying the engine is more expensive than it used to be. Let's deal with the facts and then we know where it's coming from.

RA: We've had numerous meetings on this matter but one thing is for sure is that everyone agrees that we need to reduce costs. I've been in this for two and a half years and I can see the level of exorbitant areas that could be managed better. The points are taken, we have discussed it. There are some ideas bandied around. The groups that are related to those areas will be talking to each other and hopefully soon enough we do come to a conclusion, but we have a position, obviously, and we will support anything with regard to resource restriction, we will support that all the while. I think there has been some improvement over the last two years from previous times, but there is a lot more we can do, I think, going forward. From our side, we will support anything that's positive.

LPS: It's clear that for the biggest teams there are going to be clear rules. They are going to reduce their budgets but I'm a bit worried about the small teams like us. To reduce our budget is not easy but even to stay with the same budget, I would say, will be difficult, because maybe next year it will be at the same level but we will need to understand how the situation will be in 2014, as Norbert says, what will be the cost of the KERS, the engine, to have a clear view of the future for us, maybe in five years' time. I'm quite happy with Norbert that the engines have reduced a lot. I was not involved in Formula One as I am now but I remember the cost was large, maybe four or five times what it is now but I would like to maintain this level of costs for the future. It seems that it is going to be difficult, or we have to understand what the situation will be.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Sorry, the question was – thanks for all the detail – but the question was does anybody have any reservations about including the cost-saving measures in the Formula One regulations?

LPS: I don't think so. Does anybody? (General shaking of heads and 'No')

Q. (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) Autosport today is reporting that customer cars are back on the table – second hand cars from the previous year. Is that something that's right for Formula One which is supposed to be the technological pinnacle of motorsport? And is it something that any of your teams would be looking at either supplying or purchasing?

NH: I think that's very easy to answer. If you ran this year with last year's car then just guess what happens.

LPS: Maybe for a small team it's going to be at the beginning this year, some years, like in 2014. There are a lot of changes, it's not easy because they're changing the engines, it's not an easy thing to do.

EB: The question is easy but the debate is more complex. Today's Formula One is based on constructor regulations. If we have to go to customer cars to serve Formula One and be the Formula One of the future, why not? I think the discussion is open now. I know some teams would like to stay as constructors, some teams would maybe need to be customers to save their budget or their company, but it's a more complex debate and actually together with the previous question about costsaving, it's obviously crucial in this discussion.

FT: It depends how much money a team has. The customer teams can buy the car and can run the car. We at Toro Rosso have started to build up the infrastructure and will build the car by ourselves. Page 6 of 7

RA: From our point of view, again, we're a constructor. We came in with that particular objective and we've been doing it for the past two and a half years. But again, an idea is an idea. We're always open to ideas and obviously we will have to review things if it does come to fruition then go from there. But we are proud of where we are, what we've built. We came in as a constructor, as Eric mentioned, and we hope to stay that way for now.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) We are talking about cutting costs, reducing costs and so on, and there is the rumour that the number of Grand Prix could increase. The number on the calendar could be larger. I can understand that more Grand Prix means more money for everybody but in your opinion, what is the ideal calendar for the future: twenty, 24? How many Grand Prix in Europe, because the crisis is deeper here in Europe?

FT: The year has 52 weeks. We should have 26 Grand Prix! Some in Europe, yeah!

EB: I think you have two philosophies. Is it going to be like NASCAR with 38 weekends, if I'm not wrong, or staying around twenty. The true question is over 20 Grand Prix we have to reconsider our structure, because we obviously have a team personnel issue, travelling and logistical issue. As you say, we can speak about cost-saving but more Grand Prix means more revenue for Formula One and the more countries we can visit is the more countries we can bring Formula One to fans. There is no exact number, no magic number I guess, but I'm rather like Franz - more races, why not?

[LUKIE]

Give Kovaleinen Mark Webber's Red Bull.

[MJB]

SSN reporting that Lewis Hamilton is under investigation after an incident with Nico Rosberg.

Anyone see what happened?

[Katsuya]

From the BBC Live Qualifying thing:

"Could we have a post-qualifying penalty on our hands? It seems Nico Rosberg is unhappy with Lewis Hamilton's antics in qualifying. Rosberg says "it was possible to do better" and added: "Lewis was slowing down at the last corner and I arrived with full speed and all of a sudden he was there. There's a rule in place for that. You're not allowed to do that. That ruined it a bit for me. But I think it is possible to overtake and the strategy will be interesting.""

I'm guessing the Hulkenburg/Kobayashi one will have been brushed aside since they both comfortably made it through to Q3, it'll probably be a warning to Kobayashi if anything. They only seem to care if it's a matter of a car being eliminated or it's in Q3.

Everyone seems to be saying it's going to be Vettel or Lotus, but Maldonado jumping up to fight for the win wouldn't shock me either. Grosjean is going to have to get a clean start if he's going to have any chance. Kobayashi and Perez will do alright since apparently the tyre wear is something awful and the Sauber is the only car that's probably going to be able to take it.

[MJB]

Just been reading more about it on Sky's F1 page and it doesn't read well for Lewis. I suspect he'll probably be dropped five places down to seventh. if that does happen, I can see Grosjean winning tomorrow.

[Sam]

He'll be dropped to the back of the grid and forced to wear a dunce's cap going by some of the previous punishments they've handed to him.

[Lineker]

Jenson Button showed that his recent qualifying struggles could be behind him by topping Saturday morning practice for the European Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver knocked Lotus's Romain Grosjean off the top spot by just under a tenth of a second during the flurry of soft tyre qualifying simulations in the final minutes of the session.

This suggests that he will be in the mix for pole position, although Sebastian Vettel, who ended the morning an unobtrusive 13th, justified his status as the man to beat by setting the fastest times of all in the first and second sectors before aborting his only flyer on softs late on.

After a quiet opening 10 minutes of the session, first Grosjean and then team-mate Kimi Raikkonen topped the timesheets, although it was Red Bull driver Vettel who set the best time of the medium-shod runs, posting a 1m38.434s just after the halfway point of the one-hour session.

During the medium runs, there were few incidents, although Pedro de la Rosa did spin his HRT after losing it under braking for the final corner.

Grosjean was the first to bolt on the soft tyres after half an hour, jumping to the top of the times. His lap was good enough for second overall, with Raikkonen, who took advantage of an uncongested circuit to complete his qualifying simulation with 10 minutes to go, proving that Lotus will be strong this afternoon by lapping just a tenth slower.

Force India pairing Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta carried their impressive Friday form over by setting the fourth and fifth fastest times ahead of Sauber driver Sergio Perez.

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher was seventh fastest ahead of Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Felipe Massa (Ferrari), while Pastor Maldonado, who showed strong pace relative to the rest on mediums, completed the top 10 for Williams.

Several big names were in unfamiliar territory in the bottom half of the timesheets. Fernando Alonso's Ferrari ended up 12th after a big lock up at Turn 12 during his soft tyre run that forced him to take to the run-off area, with Vettel one place behind him with a time set on mediums.

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) was down in 15th, but it was Red Bull driver Mark Webber who endured the worst session. He completed just four laps before a technical problem brought his morning to a close, meaning that he didn't get the chance to run on soft tyres in preparation for qualifying.

FP3


Pos  Driver                Team                  Time              Laps

 1.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m38.562            17

 2.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m38.655s  + 0.093  18

 3.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m38.759s  + 0.197  18

 4.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m38.819s  + 0.257  17

 5.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m38.892s  + 0.330  17

 6.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m39.084s  + 0.522  20

 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m39.141s  + 0.579  15

 8.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m39.178s  + 0.616  17

 9.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m39.318s  + 0.756  15

10.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m39.357s  + 0.795  18

11.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m39.358s  + 0.796  19

12.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m39.395s  + 0.833  15

13.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m39.434s  + 0.872  13

14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m39.543s  + 0.981  13

15.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m39.946s  + 1.384  20

16.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m40.037s  + 1.475  17

17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m40.134s  + 1.572  20

18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m40.681s  + 2.119  15

19.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m41.282s  + 2.720  4

20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m41.931s  + 3.369  15

21.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m42.758s  + 4.196  14

22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m42.815s  + 4.253  16

23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m42.943s  + 4.381  14

24.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m43.124s  + 4.562  16


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Sebastian Vettel beat Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado to pole position in a spectacular qualifying battle ahead of the European Grand Prix in Valencia.



Williams driver Maldonado looked set to start first for the second time this season - having inherited Barcelona pole after Hamilton was penalised - as he surged to the top with a 1m38.475s lap in the closing moments of qualifying.



But Vettel was putting in a spectacular lap in the revised Red Bull, coming through to depose Maldonado by nearly four tenths of a second with a 1m38.086s.



Hamilton's McLaren then slipped ahead of Maldonado by 0.065s with the Briton's final lap.



Lotus could not quite produce the pole challenge that many had predicted, but still qualified better than has often been the case this year, with Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen lining up fourth and fifth.



The astonishingly close initial stages of the session claimed several early victims - including both Ferraris, Michael Schumacher's Mercedes and Mark Webber's Red Bull, none of which made it into the top 10.



That was in part because a host of underdogs proceeded to Q3, with both Force Indias and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi reaching the top 10.



The Force Indias both made appearances inside the top four during Q3 before being edged back to eighth (Nico Hulkenberg) and 10th (Paul di Resta), split by Jenson Button's McLaren.



Kobayashi took seventh, just behind Nico Rosberg's Mercedes.



Less than three tenths of a second covered the top 13 cars in Q2, and several top teams were squeezed out.



Most significantly for the title battle and most disappointing for the Spanish crowd was that Alonso missed out on Q3 by 0.004s, as lapping just 0.218s off pacesetter Grosjean left him 11th. Schumacher squeezed in between the two Ferraris in 12th, with all three less than 0.08s from the Q3 cut-off.



The other early shock was that Webber only managed 19th, hampered by hydraulic issues and a lack of DRS on his Red Bull.



The session gave Heikki Kovalainen and Caterham another chance to star, and the Finn outpaced both Toro Rossos to take 16th on the grid, behind Bruno Senna (Williams) and Sergio Perez (Sauber), both of whom were some way off their team-mates' pace in Q2.



It was a tough session for Marussia. While Timo Glock was sidelined by illness, his team-mate Charles Pic was unable to beat either HRT.



[code]Qualifying


Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap   

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m38.086s

 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m38.410s  + 0.324

 3.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m38.475s  + 0.389

 4.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m38.505s  + 0.419

 5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m38.513s  + 0.427

 6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m38.623s  + 0.537

 7.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.741s  + 0.655

 8.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m38.752s  + 0.666

 9.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m38.801s  + 0.715

10.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m38.992s  + 0.906

Q2 cut-off time: 1m38.703s                                   Gap **

11.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m38.707s  + 0.218

12.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m38.770s  + 0.281

13.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m38.780s  + 0.291

14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m39.207s  + 0.718

15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m39.358s  + 0.869

16.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m40.295s  + 1.806

17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m40.358s  + 1.869

Q1 cut-off time: 1m40.087s                                   Gap *

18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m40.203s  + 1.378

19.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m40.395s  + 1.570

20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m40.457s  + 1.632

21.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m42.171s  + 3.346

22.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m42.527s  + 3.702

23.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m42.675s  + 3.850


107% time: 1m45.742s


* Gap to quickest in Q1


** Gap to quickest in Q2

Timo Glock will not take part in qualifying for the European Grand Prix after feeling unwell due to a stomach bug.

The Marussia driver had been ill since Thursday but felt well enough to take part in the practice sessions.

After Saturday morning's final practice, however, the German fell unwell again and it has been decided he will not qualify.

"Timo has been fighting a stomach bug since Thursday," said the team in a statement. "He felt well enough to take part in yesterday's free practice sessions and had seemed to be improving.

"This morning, after free practice three, he started to feel unwell again. It is clear that at this time, he is not sufficiently well to take part in a demanding qualifying session and needs to recuperate further."

Marussia said no decision has been made about Sunday's race.

"Timo and the team will now seek further medical guidance this afternoon. Until such time as this guidance has been received, no decisions will be reached regarding tomorrow's race. A further statement will be issued on Sunday morning."

The team has Maria de Villota as test driver, but she has not driven the car yet.

Timo Glock will be allowed to start the European Grand Prix if he is passed fit by Formula 1 medical delegate on Sunday morning, despite not taking part in qualifying.

The Marussia driver has suffered from a stomach bug over the Valencia weekend but, after appearing to be on the road to recovery, he suffered relapse on Saturday that forced him to abandon efforts to take part in Q1.

Although his absence meant that Glock was unable to set a time within the mandatory 107 per cent of pole position, the stewards will allow him to start because he set an acceptable time during free practice, and has also shown himself to be quick enough over the season so far.

The stewards made it clear however that "the permission is subject to the driver being cleared to race by the FIA Medical Delegate."

Nico Rosberg reckons he could have qualified higher than sixth on the grid if he had not encountered Lewis Hamilton's McLaren in the final sector of his out-lap.

The Mercedes driver had been quick throughout practice and the team believed he could challenge for a front row start, but decided to abort his flying lap in Q3 after beginning it behind the Briton.

"We had a lot of potential going into qualifying, but unfortunately I can't be happy with the outcome today," said the German. "We were quick throughout but when I was just about to start my final lap, Lewis was slowing down in the last corner. I had to start my quick lap behind him which made it impossible to improve my time.

"We know it's tricky in the last sector here and there is an agreement in place to stop things like this happening so it's frustrating. It will be an interesting race tomorrow from a strategy perspective, and I hope there will be the opportunity to make up some places."

Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug said he was disappointed by the missed opportunity: "While Nico's first run in Q3 put him P1, his second ended in traffic as he caught a car in the final sector where you are not allowed to slow down. As his times in Q2 and Q3 proved, it is clear that Nico would have had a shot at the front row of the grid without this handicap."

Rosberg's team-mate Michael Schumacher will start 12th having failed to make Q3 for the second time this year.

"Of course, I'm not particularly happy about not making it through Q2 but that was clearly down to me - I didn't get my lap together," said the 43-year-old. "On my first run, I was too aggressive in turn 12 on my first timed lap, then had to abort the second lap and pit because the tyres were no longer in good enough condition to improve.

"After that, I was a bit too conservative on the second run and that cost us, because the times were so close today."

Lewis Hamilton has been called to see the stewards at the European Grand Prix after rival Nico Rosberg was left fuming that he had been blocked on his final run in qualifying.

Rosberg found his last run of Q3 compromised when he was held up behind Hamilton - who had been driving slowly in the final sector of the lap to try and build himself a good buffer to the cars ahead of him.

Hamilton managed to deliver a lap that secured him second on the grid, while Rosberg was left ruing what might have been - as he was left down in P6 with the time from his first run.

Speaking about how much Hamilton's situation had cost him, Rosberg said: "It had a big impact. But that's beside the point really. The point is that there is a rule, stating very clearly that you are not allowed to slow down in those last couple of corners unnecessarily. That is the rule, it is very clear, because it is dangerous.

"In this case, me and [Pastor] Maldonado were arriving flat out, and Lewis was driving extremely slowly all of a sudden. It's just a very dangerous situation, and that's what the rule is there for.

"At the same time, as a side point, it did ruin my lap because I started the lap stuck behind him."

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn believes that Rosberg had had the potential to be fighting for a front row start if he had got a clean run on that final lap.

"Nico had a good balance and was looking as if he could challenge for the front row," he said. "And he got caught up with Lewis.

"He had Maldonado behind him so he was conscious of making sure he gave Maldonado clearance to finish his lap, and Lewis backed him up into Maldonado. So that was the end of our qualifying."

McLaren confirmed on Saturday evening that Hamilton had been summoned to see the stewards to discuss the matter.

Lewis Hamilton was found to have done nothing wrong in driving slowly before his final qualifying lap for the European Grand Prix - despite rival Nico Rosberg's claims that he was held up.

Hamilton was trying to build a buffer zone to get some clear air ahead of his final Q3 effort but, in slowing down at the final sector, that put him within range of the pursuing Pastor Maldonado and Rosberg behind him.

Rosberg in particular was furious about the situation - especially because drivers had been warned ahead of the weekend that they should not drive slowly in the final sector of the lap.

After both drivers were summoned to see the stewards on Saturday evening to explain the situation, it was decided that Hamilton had not driven excessively slowly – so there was no need for any punishment.

The stewards said that there was no evidence that Hamilton had driven 'unnecessarily slowly'.

In a statement issued on Saturday they said: "The sector time for Car 4 (Hamilton) was actually faster than a time set previously in that same sector by Car 8 Nico Rosberg, which is an indication that Car 4 was not being driven unnecessarily slowly between turns 21 and 25."

It added: "The smallest gap between Car 4 and Car 8 was 18 metres and 1.1 seconds."

That means he will keep his second spot on the grid for the race in Valencia, with Rosberg ending up sixth overall.

Lewis Hamilton says he is very surprised to have managed to qualify on the front row for the European Grand Prix in Valencia.

The McLaren driver will start from second position behind Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull after recovering from a series of difficult practice sessions.

Hamilton admitted he never expected to be so high up on the grid given his problems.

"I expected to be a lot further back," said Hamilton. "We struggled all weekend and into qualifying I had to make some guesses as to what set-up I wanted, and it seems to work.

"I'm really, really surprised. The guys did a great job to get me a good lap and the car felt pretty good. The gap is still quite big so it will be quite a tough race tomorrow as always."

The Briton is still expecting a difficult race, and he reckons Lotus drivers Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen - fourth and fifth in qualifying - will be the ones to watch in order to stay in the podium positions.

"The Lotuses look massively competitive," Hamilton said. "I think they are going to be the ones to watch out tomorrow.

"Sure Ferrari will be quick on long runs tomorrow. We need to look after our tyres in these tricky conditions."

Sebastian Vettel believes that pole position is no guarantee of victory despite three out of the four previous winners at the Valencia Street Circuit starting from the front.

Vettel earned his third consecutive European Grand Prix pole position after a spectacular last-gasp lap, but is anticipating a difficult race.

"It will be a difficult race and difficult to predict," said Vettel. "We have seen too much this year to sit here on Saturday afternoon and predict what is going to happen. It is easier to predict football than the ranking for the race!

"It will be hotter tomorrow and there will be a lot of cars to look out for. Ferrari is very competitive, Williams is quick, Lotus proved [its speed] in Bahrain.

"This year, grid position is obviously important, but perhaps not as important."

Vettel admitted that he struggled in both Q1 and Q2 and was surprised at being able to take pole position by over three-tenths of a second.

"Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking and we were struggling to find the balance that we had early on this weekend during practice. But we made a good recovery.

"I had to use a second set of options in Q2 as it was very tight and my [first] time was not good enough, but with the second set it was good to go again.

"I knew that in qualifying, if I go at the end and the track comes in a bit more, then it should be good enough for pole. But in the end it was a surprising gap.

"The guys have worked really hard this weekend in the garage to make sure that we brought a couple of new parts to the car. They seem to work and I am looking forward to the race tomorrow."

Vettel is chasing a third consecutive win at Valencia after winning there in 2010 and 2011.

Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado reckons he has enough life in his tyres to be able to fight for a second F1 win in 2012, after the Williams driver qualified third for the European Grand Prix on the Valencia Street Circuit.

The Venezuelan admitted that he had spent much of the weekend struggling to find a balance on Pirelli's option tyres but that Williams had managed to switch on the Williams FW34 for qualifying.

Nevertheless he used all seven sets available to him in order to access the second row.

"The car has been quite quick since yesterday, [but] we were struggling a bit with the option tyres. We were a bit confused because I didn't feel the same feeling with the prime tyres," explained Maldonado.

"But then we have been working so hard, trying to understand what has been happening this morning, [and we were] still struggling, especially with the option tyres.

"For qualifying we understood them a little bit more and here we are. I think we did a pretty good job.

"Williams is getting better and better every time so I am pretty happy for the team and pretty happy for my country and it's going to be a great opportunity again to get on the podium and fight for a good result."

Maldonado added that the race, which is expected to be run in intense heat, would be all about strategy.

"I think for the long run, for us the prime tyres were a bit better," he said. "We had more range and we were even quicker after a couple of laps, so we have tyres enough to race and be very competitive, so I don't worry about that.

"Looking forward to tomorrow, what happens with the strategy is very important and will be essential for tomorrow. These conditions are very hot and difficult for everybody so I am looking forward to it. Let's see."

Mark Webber described the DRS problem that wrecked his European Grand Prix qualifying session as a "big hit" for his championship chances.

The Red Bull driver will start only 19th in Valencia due to the issue. Webber had earlier run into technical problems in free practice as well.

"We had no DRS. That's worth 1.3 seconds, so it makes it very difficult when you have no DRS," he said.

"The car's put up a big fight today. We've only managed four laps all day, and three of those were in qualifying.

"We had one lap on primes at the start and then went to the pits because the gearbox hydraulics were playing up.

"The guys did the right thing by putting me onto the options because we were in a desperate situation there to try and get through because it's very tight.

"The laptime wasn't too bad given the DRS was out, but it doesn't do anything to help our situation. So now we have to do what we can tomorrow."

Webber admitted that the Valencia qualifying result could prove costly.

"It's a big hit for us," he said. "With this one and Barcelona, that's two difficult qualifyings through no fault of my own, but that's the way it can go over 20 races."

McLaren believes it can confirm its position as Formula 1's fastest pitstop team in this weekend's European Grand Prix, on the back of changes it has made over the course of this season.

After intense analysis of its pitstop procedures following various troubles it has encountered throughout this year's campaign, the team's sporting director Sam Michael reckons the team has the potential to become the benchmark in this area.

"What we have done is work on a lot on equipment and also the people," said Michael, with the outfit having delivered the quickest single stop in the Canadian GP a fortnight ago. "We brought in retained wheel nuts, quick release swivel jacks and traffic light systems, so in terms of equipment we've been on a good upward curve.

"We have changed a lot of the people around as well, and we have been fixed now for the last three races. We are now averaging 2.5 seconds per pit stop in practice, and we think we can average here less than three seconds, which is better than any other team in the pitlane. The pace that we showed in Montreal supports that."

McLaren's pitstop advantage in Montreal was not as obvious because clutch issues meant its drivers were sometimes slow away - but Michael thinks Valencia should deliver a clearer picture.

"We had a few issues with the clutch release getting away but, even with all the issues we had, our fastest [average] pit stop times were only two tenths off the quickest - and we think if everything had gone right in Montreal then we would have averaged seven tenths quicker than everybody.

"So there is no doubt that the guys have improved significantly - and they are just on that corner: their confidence is building and hopefully this is the race where they will get that average."

Jenson Button says his experience of Formula 1's highs and lows through his 12-year career has helped him to prevent despondency creep in during his recent struggles.

The McLaren driver has scored just two points in the last four races, and knows must turn around his situation if he is to keep himself in the world championship fight.

But although Button's difficulties stretched for four races, he says the numerous ups and downs he has experienced in the past meant he never let the troubles get blown out of proportion.

When asked if he ever let himself get down about what has happened, Button said: "I probably would have five or six years ago, but I am at the point of my career now where I am with a great team; I've won a championship and many races.

"You realise it can't be all good - and you have to go through difficult times. It cannot all be great, as long as you learn in those difficult times and improve yourself, which I think you can.

"I don't think it is a bad thing. It hurts my championship, but maybe it is not a bad thing; maybe it is going to be a massive comeback this year and we will win it easy. Who knows? But I don't come into this race negative.

"I am still very confident obviously in myself but also in the car and my chances of fighting for the world championship."

Button has reverted to a similar set-up to team-mate Lewis Hamilton for this weekend's race in Valencia after the team's analysis of his problems suggested that a direction he had taken with his settings were contributing to his difficulties.

Jenson Button reckons he has very little chance of making progress up the order from ninth on the European Grand Prix grid after his McLaren lost performance at the end of Valencia Q3.

After a run of difficult weekends, Button was optimistic that he would be in better shape in Valencia - and that seemed to be the case as he led the way in final practice.

But on his final run in Q3, the front brake locking issues that had troubled him in Friday practice returned, leaving him only ninth on the grid and pessimistic about his race chances.

"We're in Valencia, not a lot happens here in the race," Button said. "You can't overtake round here. I think if you get it right on the strategy, maybe, but the way the tyres seem to hold on for most people, it's not going to be the most exciting race, I don't think.

"The only people I would say can maybe move up will be the Lotuses."

He added: "It's going to be difficult. It's not a place that's famous for its fantastic overtaking manoeuvres. There's only one DRS zone as well this year. I think we're pretty much stuck with what we've got at the moment."

Button said his McLaren had seemed to be in good shape until its behaviour changed on new tyres in Q3.

"All day it's been good. All weekend the car's felt good in terms of the feeling," he said. "The car was very different at the end of Q3, with massive amounts of front locking.

"It's something I've worked on so much overnight and this morning, and the car's been great. I've had a lot of confidence under braking. I get to Q3 and touch the brakes, and every time I do, I'm locking fronts."

Fernando Alonso says there was nothing wrong with Ferrari in qualifying for the European Grand Prix, and the team just paid the price for the field being so close in Q2.

Both Alonso and Felipe Massa missed out on making the top 10 on the grid, despite both being within 0.3 seconds of the fastest lap in that segment.

When asked what made the difference between Ferrari's strong qualifying performance in Canada and this weekend, Alonso said: "I think how close the times were. From a handling point of view, driving the car, everything was good.

"In Montreal we were four tenths from the quickest in Q2, and here we were two tenths from the quickest in Q2.

"Performance wise it is one of the best performances for us this year. Position wise, it is one of the worst."

Alonso added that while Ferrari was so close to the pace, that was not to suggest that the team deserved to qualify any higher.

"We were not quick enough," he said. "Normally if you get into Q3 it is because you deserve it and because you do the job. We will try to recover tomorrow and try to gain some positions."

Fernando Alonso believes that the type of racing in Formula 1 caused by this year's Pirelli tyres is good for the sport.

The importance of tyre management and the fluctuating fortunes of teams as they struggle to understand this year's rubber has been a big topic for debate in 2012. But Alonso has no problem with the direction the sport has headed in, as he believes it is the teams that do the best job that succeed.

"I think no one knows 100 per cent at the moment how the tyres work," Alonso told reporters in the Valencia paddock. "But it's good like this.

"It's good for the clever people and the teams that do the better job. At the moment we are watching a great show, having exciting races, and it is quite challenging for us to get the maximum from the tyres."

Alonso added that the fact that the tyre situation is the same for every team is another reason that it is not a problem for F1.

"Every race we learn something about the tyres," he said. "But at the same time, it's true that some races you think you learn something and the next race the answer from the tyres is the opposite. The good news is it is the same for everybody."

Michael Schumacher says he only has himself to blame for missing out on the top 10 in qualifying for the European Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion was just 0.281 seconds off the fastest time in Q2, but the competitive nature of the field meant that was only good enough for 12th on the grid.

Fernando Alonso, who qualified just ahead of Schumacher in 11th, said he could not be too disappointed with such a small gap to the pace, but Schumacher said that he was disappointed with himself because he did not put all of his best sectors together on the same lap.

"Naturally you have a slight disappointment," Schumacher said of missing out on Q3. "Clearly I could have easily been in the top 10 if you take my best sectors.

"I just didn't put them together, which for myself is a disappointment because I didn't perform as I'm used to performing.

"A realistic situation [for qualifying] was position five, sort of middle of the pack in Q3. That would have been possible. Everything is so close it's just unfortunate to be where we are."

Schumacher added that he took heart from the fact that Sergio Perez finished on the podium from as low as 15th on the grid in Canada.

"If you took the last race, where Perez started from and where he finished, let's hope I can do something similar," he said.

"[being eliminated in Q2] offers the chance to make a different strategy, and we will see tomorrow if that makes sense or doesn't make sense. Having fresh tyres can help a slight bit, but not a big deal."

Romain Grosjean reckons he got the most from his Lotus E20 after taking fourth position on the grid for the European Grand Prix at Valencia.

The Frenchman and his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen are widely tipped as a dark horses for race victory because of the Lotus's performance in hot weather and race conditions.

"Today we got pretty much the most out of the car that we could have," said Grosjean. "P4 is a good position for the start of the race but of course you want always more and to do better.

"Sebastian did an unbelievable lap and today we could not have matched it. We have improved our qualifying performance but there is still room to do better. Tyre degradation will be more important than what we saw at the last race.

"There will be 57 laps in hot conditions on Sunday; we will see what we can do for a good race tomorrow."

Raikkonen too was satisfied with his fifth position though he felt he may have been able to make it on to the second row of the grid.

"It was very close in qualifying, especially in Q2, so it's good to be fifth on the grid," said the Finn. "The car felt good. If we could have improved just a little bit on my last lap then we could have gained a couple of places, but it is an improvement on last time out so I'm very happy with that.

"We found a few good things with the setup this morning to make the car easier to drive. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Paul di Resta believes that he missed an opportunity for a strong qualifying performance at Valencia despite making it into the top 10.

The Force India driver was third fastest in Q2 and was on a lap that had the potential to put him in the top five when he made a mistake.

"It's going to take a few hours to reflect on it," he said. "It was a bit of a missed opportunity.

"On the last lap, I tried as much as I could and unfortunately locked the rears and an inside wheel as well at Turn 17. The lap was identical to Q2 at that point and it would have been the same probably."

Di Resta's Q2 time would have been good enough to earn him sixth on the grid, and the Scot suspects that he could have improved on that lap in the final sector without his mistake.

"Looking at it realistically P4 [was possible]," said di Resta. "If I'd improve in the last sector then possibly P3. It was in there.

"The positive side is we've showed we're very competitive, but I don't have to tell, if you look at the sector times, what happened.

"It cost us a lot of positions, but that's the difference from an exceptional lap to the one I had."

Heikki Kovalainen is confident he will be able to fight with the Toro Rossos in Sunday's European Grand Prix after outqualifying them on Saturday.

The Caterham driver will start from 16th position after outpacing both Daniel Ricciardo - 17th - and Toro Rosso team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne, who was 18th after being knocked out in Q1 in Valencia.

Kovalainen praised his team for the performance and is now hopeful of being able to keep the Toro Rossos at bay in the race.

"Today's performance was the result of a great effort by the whole team," said Kovalainen. "This morning we weren't sure if we could do it or not but both runs in Q1 were really good.

"In Q2 we opted to wait until the end of the session and see if we could improve on the Q1 time and while that wasn't quite possible we achieved the target of beating both Toro Rosso cars and that obviously is a great feeling.

"I think tomorrow could now be really interesting for us - it looks like we have the chance to race them and that's a significant step forward for our team.

"We've been getting closer to them in the last couple of races, but this track, the conditions here and the upgrades we've brought give us the chance to make good on our goal of joining the midfield, so now we need to translate today's result into more good news tomorrow and keep moving forwards."

Technical director Mark Smith believes the performance shows Caterham has taken a step forward with the latest updates introduced.

"I am delighted with today's performance, as is everyone in the team," said Smith. "We were reasonably optimistic that the updates we have brought here and will have in Silverstone would give us a chance to take another small step forwards and the proof of that is seeing Heikki put his car into Q2.

"Now we turn our attention to tomorrow's race and the goal is the same as it has been all season - make sure we bring both cars home, take the fight to the cars just ahead of us and be there to take advantage of whatever opportunities arrive in the race."

Kovalainen's team-mate Vitaly Petrov will start from 20th position.

Formula 1 teams are considering a ban on tyre warmers from as early as next year as part of a package of cost-saving measures.

With the FIA and teams currently involved in a consultation period to frame new regulations aimed at keeping finances in check, sources have revealed that one proposal being given serious thought is to outlaw tyre blankets.

Such a move, which was also considered a few years ago before being dropped because of safety concerns, would save teams money in both equipment expenditure and in freight costs.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery told AUTOSPORT that his company would be happy to produce tyres that would work well without pre-heating, but said it would need some advance warning.

"It needs planning and you have to do it well, so it is something that if they want to do they have to do it very quickly," he explained.

"What we have found in the past, when we have tried to discuss it, is that the drivers have tended to be worried about such a move, as they feel that it can create a safety issue. From our point of view, yes we can do it but we need time to do it - because it changes completely the compounds that you use."

Hembery believes that because of the time constraints - as well as the limitations imposed by it not having access to a 2012 car for private testing – it could be better for F1 if such a ban was imposed over two seasons.

For 2013, he suggests, it could be possible to ban tyre warmers on wet tyres before a full-on ban on heating slicks for the following campaign.

"There might be some midway of being able to get rid of them on the wet tyres because, by the time you get down the pit straight and it is raining, you have lost your temperature anyway. So possibly we could get halfway there quickly and progress to something different for 2014."

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says the Grand Prix of America in New Jersey is highly unlikely to take place next year.

When asked by the BBC if the race would happen in 2013, Ecclestone replied: "No. Definitely, no."

The city secured a 10-year deal to host the grand prix from next year, and construction of the circuit has already begun in selected areas.

"We'll have to see, I need to go and have another look," added Ecclestone. "What I've seen up to now, and what's been going on, I'm not quite as sure as they are. If they can get it completed, and confirm to us it will be done, for sure they'll be on the calendar."

When asked if he was worried that the event will be ready in time, he said: "Yeah. Exactly."

He added: "I think everybody wants us to be there, it seems that all the politicians are happy, I don't think from that point of view there is any problem. If they get the place finished the way we want it, then I'm sure there'll be a big difference, but I don't think they will."

World champion Sebastian Vettel sampled the planned route of the circuit after the Canadian Grand Prix and the Red Bull driver said in Valencia on Thursday that organisers had not made much progress with the track.

"The circuit is not anywhere near close to being ready, but as I said it would be great," he said. "I think you can do a lot in one year. It was exactly one year since I last went to New York. They are building the Freedom Tower in Manhattan, and it's nearly done.

"If they can do that in one year, it shouldn't be a big problem to lay some Tarmac and put some fences up."

Ecclestone also denied speculation that the 2013 calendar will have 23 races, saying the plan is to keep 20 like this season.

"Not at the moment, no," he said of rumours about plans to have 23 races from next year.

Post-qualifying press conference:

TV UNILATERAL

Q. Congratulations Sebastian, a third pole in a row at this race and only one flying lap in Q3 to try to do it.

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, one shot there in the end, which turned out to turned out to be a very good lap. Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking. We were struggling to find the balance we did have early on this weekend, yesterday and this morning during practice. Yeah, good recovery throughout qualifying. Unfortunately, we had to put a second set of options in Q2. It was the right call because it was very tight. I think my time would not have been good enough, I set with the first set. So it was good to go again. But then in the last qualifying I knew that going at the end if the track comes in a little bit more and tying the lap together it should be good enough maybe to look at pole. In the end it was a surprising gap but all in all I felt very well this weekend. The boys have been working incredibly hard in the garage, all the people in the factory as well to make sure that we bring a couple of new parts to the car. They seem to work and I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow.

Q. Lewis, a front row for you. Sebastian says it was a surprising gap at the end. Did you expect it to be much closer in Q3?

Lewis HAMILTON: To be honest, I expected to be a lot further back. We've struggled all weekend, just with set-up and you know going from P3 to qualifying we had to make some guesses as to what kind of set-up we wanted to change. It seemed to work OK and I'm really, really surprised. The guys obviously did a great job, as always, to get me a good gap and while the car still felt pretty good, I think the gap is still pretty big here and it will be a tough race tomorrow for sure, as always.

Q. Is that just the way it is in 2012 then? You go from winning one race weekend and on the next one you struggle and you're not quite sure where you are?

LH: I think so. At least it appeared so when we first started practicing here yesterday. But generally, I think, you look at the grid, because it's so hot, the Lotus cars look massively competitive. I think they're going to be the ones to watch out for tomorrow. I'm sure the Ferraris will be very quick on their long runs as well. Who knows what's going to happen tomorrow, we just have to look after our tyres in these tricky conditions.

Q. Yes, 2012 is unpredictable, but Pastor, one is for certain, you quite like Spain don't you?

Pastor MALDONADO: I think we've been working so hard. The car has been quite quick from yesterday. We were struggling a bit with the option tyres. We were confused because I didn't feel the same feeling with the prime tyres but then we've working so hard trying to understand what was happening with the car this morning, still struggling, especially with the option tyres. But for quali we understand a little bit the way, and here we are. I think we did a pretty good job. Williams is getting better and better every time. I'm pretty happy for the team, pretty happy for my country and it's going to be a great opportunity to get on the podium and fight for a good result.

Q. You did, though, use seven sets of tyres during the course of that qualifying hour. How much of a disadvantage does that put you at for tomorrow's race?

PM: I think for the long run, for us, the prime tyres were a bit better. We had more range and they were even quicker after a couple of laps. We have tyres enough to race and get very competitive. I'm not worried about that. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We'll see from the start what happens with the strategy, that will be very important, essential for tomorrow. These conditions are very hot and very difficult for everybody. So looking forward, let's see.

Q. Finally, back to you Sebastian. Lewis has outlined some of the potential battles for tomorrow's race. Where do you see the big threat coming from, or have you, by saving a set of tyres, ensured that you'll make it a hat-trick of victories as well?

SV: Well, it would be nice, no doubt. I think it's going to be a difficult race. Difficult to predict. We have seen too much this year to be honest to sit here on Saturday afternoon and predict what's going to happen. I think it's probably easier to guess the result tonight in football than tomorrow. It's less hard than predicting the ranking tomorrow. I think it's going to be tough, as Pastor touched on. It's going to be hot tomorrow - a bit hotter than today even. So yeah, there will be obviously a lot of cars to look out for tomorrow. I think Ferrari has been very competitive. Williams have been quick yesterday on their long runs. Lotus, I think they've proven in Bahrain, the first time we had hot conditions, that they're up there. So, I think this year obviously grid position is important but maybe not a

Q. Sebastian, well done, your third consecutive pole, does that mean it's going to be followed by your third consecutive win? Or does that not mean anything any longer in 2012?

SV: Well it does, so it would be nice, I think... I'm very happy to be here now because, to be honest, we had a very good weekend. Yesterday was very good, I felt comfortable in the car, this morning I felt very good, even though we didn't get to finish the run on the soft tyre but this afternoon we started and I think we were a little bit off, compared to where we were the whole weekend. And we played a little bit of catch-up through Q1 and Q2: you don't have that many runs. And we had to go out again in Q2. It was very tight. We saw I think Fernando was just not quick enough for Q3 and I think I was a little bit slower than that, so if we could have stayed in the garage then, yeah, we would not be here now – so it was a good call from the guys on the pitwall, and yeah, obviously we knew then we only had one set of options left, and tried to give it the best shot in the end. I knew that if I get the lap together, plus whatever we tried in qualifying with the car… I mean you can't really do much, you can't really change the setup but you can play a little bit with the settings you have inside the car: differential, front wing, and yeah, I think we caught up. And I had a good feeling in the last lap and managed to put everything together in the three sectors – which was good enough for pole. So, I'm very happy, especially after the effort that has gone in, as I touched on, from the guys here but also from the guys in the factory. We've got a couple of new bits here, they seem to be a step forward, which is very good.

Q. I'm told it's more than a couple of new bits. I'm told it's quite a large number of bit…

SV: Well it depends. We've tried a lot, we've been pushing very hard, to be honest. I think it's difficult this year. I think we see everyone is very close to each other and everyone is pushing. If you at McLaren, if you look at Ferrari, if you look at Mercedes. The big teams have more resources, probably, to bring new parts than other teams and they have been bringing more than a couple. A couple is two, so maybe we have also bought more than two – but nevertheless, other teams are up there. Force India was incredibly quick all weekend: yesterday I thought it was just a surprise but even on very low fuel it would have been a very competitive lap time and they confirmed it today. I think in the end they ran out of tyres but in terms of lap times, they weren't far off in Q2. It's tight, it's difficult to make the right step and that's why I'm quite happy to be honest.

Q. I'm not sure what your team-mate's problems were but presumably you had no similar problems.

SV: It's a bit of a shame, because the potential is there. I think Mark would have had a solid qualifying, no doubt and we would have qualified in the same area with a normal qualifying for him. But he had a problem, with the brakes I think this morning and I'm not sure what happened this afternoon – so it's really a shame because you always hope for the team as well to get the best possible result – but nevertheless, yeah, I think the race is long tomorrow, the pace was there on Friday for him as well, so confident he will come back.

Q. But you've had no similar problems.

SV: No, as I said, the only problem he had was the brakes this morning and this afternoon I don't know. But I didn't have any problems fortunately.

Q. Lewis, on pole here in 2009 and three second places over the years. Given the problems you had yesterday, you sound as though you're pretty happy about today's performance.

LH: Yeah. As I was saying, I've really struggled all weekend with setup. During the year I've not really struggled too much to get the right balance but particularly today, and yesterday was a real struggle. But you have those weekends sometimes. You can't always get it perfect. Made some changes going into qualifying that I was just praying would work. And they seemed to have worked, so I was quite happy with the balance that I had. And I was able to… and to be able to get out the lap when you need it, just like Sebastian did. But obviously not as quick as his. But to be able to go out and do those single laps and make sure you maximise the potential of what you have – that really does satisfy me, so I'm happy with where we are.

Q. It's just been so close at this circuit. Even though it's a long lap it's been so close and literally thousandths of a second have made a big difference.

LH: Absolutely. It's very, very surprising. Well, not surprising but it's very interesting to see so many of the teams improving and continuing to bring updates and to see the pack close up. I think it's great to see all the teams so competitive. It makes it even more challenging for us as individuals and also for the teams to up their game. And also for us drivers to make sure we're on top of our game when we're out there.

Q. How much of a different is it going to be with one DRS zone here? I think there were two last year and this year one.

LH: To be honest I have no recollection of what happened last year. But, I don't know, Overtaking here is always difficult. It's always difficult to follow as it is in Monaco. Particularly going through Turn 10 maybe, is it? Going onto the back straight. It's not that easy to follow through out there. But the DRS, I guess, will definitely come into play throughout the race. Hopefully I'll have some chance. Who knows, we'll see what.

Q. We've seen a number of drivers going off at the end of the straight Pastor, and today we saw you go off as well. Is this going to be a major problem during the race, do you think?

PM: I don't' think so. I was just not ready for the lap. It was so difficult. As you saw, many drivers were struggling on braking, especially with the front. But I think today was a really good day for the team. We did pretty good, especially because this morning it was very difficult for us – but we understand a bit the way how to make quite well the tyres. And here we are.

Q. Was it a little bit of guesswork, do you think? Lewis touched on guesswork. Normally it's pure theory.

PM: Right now, everything is too tight. Everything is too tight and it's very difficult to make the difference. I saw Q2, and just off one-tenth I was in P7. You can imagine everything counts now. It's very difficult. Even for tomorrow, it's going to be a difficult race. We need to be… we need to stay on the safe side, trying to stay competitive and to stay with the same pace we saw yesterday. We need to stay with the same pace we saw yesterday and then we'll see.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Pastor, would you be happy to finish on the podium tomorrow, or are you hoping for more?

PM: For sure, the points are very important for the team. It will be good to be on the podium but for sure if we can go for more, I will try my best like always, then we will see. Tomorrow the strategy is going to be very important. The team is ready, so looking forward to that.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Lewis and Sebastian: you are the best of those going for pole. Is there any secret to the last lap that you do, and what are your thoughts before going out for that final lap?

LH to SV: What is your secret?

SV: Can't tell you. I'm not sure whether there is a secret. Qualifying, we know, is all about one lap and to be honest, today it was very difficult, very tricky because the wind plays a huge role here, sometimes blowing more than at other times, with gusts and generally it seems to be very slippery. Obviously the grip is lower than last year because the cars have less downforce and it makes it quite tricky, as we touched on. A lot of drivers lock up easily under braking, especially in qualifying when you want to brake as late as you can, but knowing that if you lock up you miss the apex and then you lose time. It's quite difficult but ideally you just try to go through the lap before it happens - at least I had a little bit of time in Q3 - and try to focus on the key points, go through what I have to do and what I have to look out for and then it seems that I did so in the last run. So happy that I got everything together, just on the limit, and got the best out of the car, so I was very happy with the last run.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado deSao Paulo) Sebastian, you have a lot of new parts on your car and the first time you're going to use them in race conditions will be tomorrow, in these very hard conditions. Are you worried about the reliability of your car, considering there are so many new things?

SV: No. You're right, obviously it's the first time because the first time they were on the car was on Friday and since Friday there was no Grand Prix. It makes it difficult but there's always a first time for everything. Obviously we try to build the parts so that they are reliable so as I said, I'm not worried. I think it will be tough, it will be hot but it's not the worst race of the year for the car in terms of the ambient conditions, so I'm quite confident.

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian and Lewis: do you realise that you have a big opportunity tomorrow to keep a huge advantage to the third guy who we suppose is a contender in the championship, Fernando Alonso. Are you working on a strategy to save points?

LH: No. I anticipate that they will come through very strongly throughout the race, so whilst qualifying for some cars is not important, you look at the Lotuses and you look at… even Mark will be very competitive tomorrow. They have great long run pace and they can look after the tyres better than others, due to low speed downforce. I also know that Ferrari had upgrades this week - at least so Fernando told me - so I anticipate that they are going to be very competitive. Again, as I said, I'm very surprised for us because we didn't have any upgrades this weekend and so to be where we are is a big bonus for us.

Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) From what you have learned about the tyres here, can it be another race like Montreal where people in the race come out of nowhere with different strategies or different tyre management?

SV: I think Montreal was different; the tyre choice was different in Montreal. We had the supersoft and soft and I think we already saw on Friday in Montreal that the tyres last pretty well. On Sunday then, some people were able to prove that doing a one stop and obviously when it's close between one and two stops then there can be a difference and people come out of nowhere. Lewis did the right thing, two weeks ago, by going with two stops. We did the wrong thing but I think it should be different here. The race is not so many laps and the tyres are a little bit different. It's going to be hot again but I think it's a different race, different track, different conditions.

Q. (Panayiotis Seitandis – Alpha TV) I would like to ask all three drivers: given the fact that this is a street circuit, next year we have New Jersey, we now have an effort in Greece to have a similar race in Athens. What do you think is the perfect mixture between street circuits and proper (permanent) circuits and of course what's your opinion about coming to race in Formula One in Greece?

LH:I don't know how many street circuits compared to other circuits we should have, but I love street circuits. They always provide entertaining races, perhaps not always the tracks that enable you to overtake as often as other places like Spa but still, as a driver, they are the most fun because on street circuits you have less room for error. I've only ever been to Greece once. I went years and year and years ago with Nico Rosberg. We went on holiday there, when I was about 13 and I've been dying to go back ever since. I was going to go earlier on this year but the weather wasn't as good as I had hoped. I imagine at some stage in the future, once the world and Greece is past the stage they're in now, I think we would welcome a race – at least I would.

SV: As Lewis touched on, I think street circuits are always good fun. It's a different challenge because you haven't got room for error, but one thing you can't have on a street circuit is fast corners, really, because there's no run-off and no space. I think the street circuits that we have are pretty quick but it's maybe the exception. If you would build a new track again or look for a new layout you probably wouldn't go that close to the limit, knowing what could happen, so therefore we need to make sure it's not going to be all street circuits in the future but surely, it's very good fun, a lot of bumps and that makes it very technical, very difficult, challenging for us and if we could have a race in Athens it would be great. It's a beautiful country, I was there last year so yeah, obviously there's a lot going on right now and it's not looking too good but being German, we are doing our best to help – not yesterday, that's sport! As I say, it would be great and a great opportunity for Formula One as well, but I don't know if there are any plans so we'll have to wait.

PM: I agree with Lewis and Seb. I think it's not only fun for us as drivers, I think it's fun for the fans and I think we need both conditions just to try to put Formula One in the top position. Spain, here, is a great one, especially because of the city and a lot of facilities but the future is like that. We follow the future and for sure we enjoy these kind of tracks.

Q. (Sylvia Renée Arias – Revista Parabrisas Argentina) Pastor, I would like to know if there is extra power for you to have all these people coming from Venezuela, more than 100 people? Do you feel it's nearly like a home Grand Prix?

PM: It's not a proper home race but here in Spain we have a big community of Venezuelans and as well, it's quite easy (to get here) from Venezuela, we have many flights. It's a really good feeling to see them, especially in the stands, full of flags. It's good. I hope to give them back some good news tomorrow, so we will see.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) We had 0.291 from Grosjean first to Massa in Q2. Does this tiny difference make you drive accurately; does it change your approach with the team's set-up? What does it change in your regular work?

SV: I think it makes it extremely difficult. I know exactly what happened to Fernando because I had the same in China. There were three tenths; Mark was first in Q2 and I was eleventh. It's not nice, because you probably always know that if you're looking for five hundredths which would be enough, a little bit here and there, but that's the risk you have to take to set the time in the first place, but it's tight and there's very little room for error, especially like here where it's very slippery, very easy to lose a little bit, lock up the wheel towards the apex, don't get it perfectly right, maybe the exit is not 100 percent either, so it's tricky but you have to attack otherwise you're not there in the first place.

LH: No, it doesn't really change the approach in qualifying, you're always attacking and if anything it just means you need to be more precise.

PM: I think now, with these gaps, you just need to put everything together just to be there. It's difficult for everybody, especially for the tyres, to get the maximum out of the tyres is not easy and when you get it, you are here.

[Lineker]

Timo Glock will not take part in the European Grand Prix, after doctors advised him that he should rest further to help him recover from his illness.

The German has suffered from an intestinal infection over the Valencia weekend, and that forced him to skip qualifying on Saturday so he could try and get his fitness back for the race.

However, following further medical examinations the Marussia driver has been told that he needs to rest more - which means he will not take up his final slot on the grid.

A statement issued by his team said: "Further to the medical problem which prevented Timo Glock from participating in yesterday's qualifying session for the European Grand Prix in Valencia, the Marussia F1 Team can confirm that Timo is unable to compete in today's race.

"Timo received medical guidance yesterday afternoon and his symptoms suggest that he is suffering from an intestinal infection. He has been advised that it would be unwise for him to race given the severity of the complaint and that he should focus instead on recuperating.

"Timo spent the evening resting at his hotel in Valencia and is in good spirits. He will return home later today."

Lewis Hamilton says his focus will be on trying to finish second in the European Grand Prix - after admitting he is doubtful about being able to fight for victory.

Although the world championship leader is starting from the front row, he thinks the balance issues that have dogged his weekend make it unlikely he has what it takes to move himself to the front of the field.

When asked, in light of the tight title battle, if he would be happy to finish second, he said: "No, but that would be a big plus for me.

"Coming in to this weekend, and definitely as it started, I didn't expect to be as high up as I am now. That is through struggling with the set-up of the car, and knowing that it is a tough circuit for the tyres – and it will be in the race.

"The target is to finish where I am starting, and after that anything above that is a positive."

Team-mate Jenson Button, who starts ninth, thinks that the long run pace of the McLaren is not too bad though – although expects a tough time in the hot conditions when it comes to looking after the tyres.

"I have to be positive about the race," he said. "I think the pace of the car here has been very good and hopefully on the long runs it is also.

"The consistency of the run on Friday was not too bad. The offset in pace was quite big, but some of the teams run a lot less fuel when they do a long run, and hopefully the race will be a good day in terms of consistency and tyre degradation.

"It is very tough around here because there is a lot of traction in first and second gear, which puts a lot of temperature in the tyre and it is tough around here.

"It is the same for everyone; so it will be about who copes best. I think most of the strategy will be quite similar, with one or two stops, and most people will go for a two stop. It will not be about running a different strategy to get a good result; it will be about looking after your tyres and stopping at the right moment."

Williams is bullish that Pastor Maldonado can take the fight to Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in the European Grand Prix, following his impressive third place on the grid.

On the back of difficult races in Monaco and Canada, Williams is hopeful that Maldonado can rediscover the strong race form that helped him secure a maiden triumph in Spain last month.

When asked if he felt Maldonado could take the fight to the two cars ahead of him on the grid, Williams' chief operations engineer Mark Gillan said: "Yes. In our long run pace, certainly we have been pretty good. The issue you have got is if you don't qualify up there, it's difficult to progress in the races. But certainly we have no concerns."

Gillan said he was not too surprised that Maldonado had got himself back near the front of the grid, because he felt the full potential of the car had not been realised at the last two grands prix.

"We were frustrated the last couple of events," he said. "With the car, we had seen through the running that we had been quick, but we never actually got to demonstrate it.

"On Friday we saw that we were quick on the prime tyre. We struggled on the option. And on Saturday, looking at the balance on the car, we realised that we had to get the lap time on the options, so we adjusted the balance.

"Pastor did a really good job, he was very quick on the option and maybe struggled a bit more than he did on the prime previously, but qualifying performance is critical around here."

Gillan says that Valencia weekend has highlighted once again just how critical it is to get the most out of the tyres

"It's understanding the window that you are operating," he said. "We are building up a knowledge, as all of the teams are, of how to set the car up and this weekend more than any has shown that it's difficult.

"If any team had got it cracked then they would be consistently up there but that has not been the case and that's what makes it so interesting."

Mark Webber is doubtful about his chances of making a charging recovery drive up the field following the mechanical problems that have left him down in 19th in the grid.

Although the Red Bull Racing driver has history of bouncing back from lowly grid positions - having most famously finished third after starting 18th in China last year – he does not think such an outcome is likely in Valencia.

"It's a completely different track," he said, when asked about the prospects of another China-type result. "There's one line. Shanghai has the long back straight: you can pass in Turn 4, you can pass in many places.

"Here, it's very tricky to pass. Obviously, we know the top speed is not our forte and we have to have a clean track to do the lap times."

The other factor that Webber thinks works against being able to charge through the field is the strategy element – because Valencia does not lend itself to a three-stop option.

"One more pit stop doesn't work because that means you need to clear people on track," he said. "So it has to be one less. We might give it a try."

Webber also suspects that the early-season characteristic of the RB8 – where it was much better in race-trim than qualifying – may also now have switched around.

"Seb has done a good job in qualifying in the last two events but ultimately wasn't quick enough to win in Canada," he said. "Second or third was his best there with a normal clean grand prix.

"On Saturdays, the form card has been a bit stronger for us. At Barcelona, I could have achieved the front row; not beating Lewis, but I could have got close to Pastor. So yes, we have been very consistent on Saturdays and come Sunday, also not bad, but no huge advantage on Sundays.

"But our gap is less now. It has changed a bit because in the first part of the championship we were very weak on Saturdays and very strong on Sundays.

"Now, we have taken a bit out of Sundays and put more into Saturdays. It's not through design, it's just the way other people have done what they've done and things like that."

Romain Grosjean believes that it is possible for him to fight for victory in the European Grand Prix.

The Franco-Swiss driver admitted that circumstances will play a big part in whether he can do so and that the priority will be for the Lotus team to score heavily to improve its championship position whatever happens.

"It might be the one, or the next one might be the one, or the next one again," he said of his chances of winning at Valencia. "It depends on circumstances and a lot of things.

"If I was starting the race without thinking of winning, it wouldn't be right, but I'm not focused on only winning the race.

"If I can, I will do it but if we cannot I will take the points, the podium or whatever we can get. Every point is important for the championship. There is a chance to score good points and that's the main objective."

Grosjean is upbeat about his race pace. He was pleased with qualifying fourth despite having topped Q2 and being tipped by some for a run at pole position.

But the Lotus has often been strong on race day, particularly in the hot conditions expected for Sunday's grand prix, and Grosjean emphasised that the car's race setup is strong.

"When you go for pole position in Q2, you think you are going to be one of the guys to beat in Q3," said Grosjean. "But [sebastian] Vettel managed to find the extra pace, and [Pastor] Maldonado as well. We did more or less what we did in Q2 and that was our limit.

"The race pace looks good from Friday, which is interesting for the race. We have to discuss some of the strategy, but with our race setup we were able to get a good qualifying lap."

Kimi Raikkonen believes that it will be more difficult for teams to gain a strategic advantage during the European Grand Prix than it was in Canada.

The 2007 world champion, who starts the race fifth on the grid, one place behind Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean, is confident of his race pace. But he expects the lack of overtaking opportunities at the Valencia Street Circuit to make it more difficult to make up ground with tyre strategy.

However, he expects two stops to be possible and that there is potential for some variation.

"I don't know," he said when asked if it will be possible for Lotus to find a strategic advantage. "It will probably be more normal here than it was in Canada.

"We probably will be close to the edge on stops. Maybe people will try to do one or three? But in Canada there were more chances to do things. Here, there is no long back straight to pass on.

"I'm not sure it's going to be easy to overtake, but if someone runs out of tyres a bit then we can have a good chance."

Raikkonen is confident heading into the race, both because of the long-run pace and the tyre management of the Lotus E20.

However, he is cautious about his chances given the potential for certain of his rivals to come into their own in the race.

"We hope that we are in good shape, but you never know," he said. "We have seen in many races that some people suddenly get much faster.

"But I have a good feeling with the car and I think we should be good. Usually, our car is quite good over a race distance."

Michael Schumacher has spoken out against a potential ban on tyre warmers in Formula 1.

It emerged earlier in the European Grand Prix weekend that teams have considered banning tyre warmers on cost saving grounds. But Schumacher believes that such a move would be a mistake.

"I think cold tyres are for categories that have low power, maybe Formula Ford, Formula 3," Schumacher said in the Valencia paddock.

"But, quite honestly, Formula 1, being the pinnacle of motorsport, with the power that we have, with the speed that we have... no, I wouldn't like that idea at all, and I don't see a need or reason to do so."

Schumacher's Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn said that he felt it was a difficult situation to judge.

"I think it is a close call whether or not we should use them," said Brawn. "I don't think on cost grounds they are incredibly expensive.

"On a sporting point that's a different matter. Cars going out after a pitstop with tyres still cold, and perhaps not being able to bang in a quick lap to defend their position, trying to build the tyres up, that could be a different issue."

[Katsuya]

God Valemcia is so shit. Kamui is 4th and I'm barely even bothered. Nobody is going to pass at the front unless there's a pit thing.

[Lineker]

Grosjean!

[Adam]

Grosjan's just overtaken Hamilton, so maybe not.

But yeah, it's hardly a thriller. I laughed at Button's interview after Q3 yesterday where he basically said Valencia was crap.