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Drivers: Alonso insists 'more to come'

All the reaction from qualifying for the Spanish GP, with Fernando Alonso buoyant after his best qualifying run of the season so far.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) - 1st (later stripped to back of grid by stewards after ruling that his car was under-fueled): "It was a fantastic qualifying session for me, very very happy with it - one of the best I ever had. Amazing job by the guys in the garage and thanks to guys in factory who have brought upgrades. The car feels great. It is a great day for the team I think. I really feel fantastic. I feel very, very happy. You can normally be happy with a position but for some reason this feels better than other pole positions because you are looking for a perfect position. It is an incredible feeling you have."

Pastor Maldonado (Williams) - 2nd: "[On Friday] we thought the top ten was possible, and this morning I was quite surprised by our performance, because our car was so quick lower fuel. So this morning we thought it was possible. We have been working so hard all year to understand these tyres and with the updates we have brought to this race we have made a very good step forward. The car is very consistent and its race pace is good so I am really looking forward to the race tomorrow. There has been a really positive atmosphere in the team all season and this is a great result for them and Venezuela."

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) - 3rd: "Thanks to the updates we took a step forward in right direction. Now we arrive to Q3 in a more comfortable way, and in Q3 the level is good. If I had 100 more tyres I would do same time, so [there is no] more time left. For us it was impossible even to dream about being in the top three in the first four races. We were arriving in Q3 with no new sets [of tyres] left, so that is a step forward. I think P3 is over performing what we can do at the moment, but I am happy. There is much more to come."

Romain Grosjean (Lotus) - 4th: "It was a good performance from the team, especially as I didn't run in FP3 because of a fuel pressure problem. For the set-up we went from what we'd found out yesterday and it worked pretty well. Everyone did a good job to get the car ready for qualifying after the problems of the morning. We can be happy with what we have achieved - of course you always want more but this is the result for today. I think that I could have been a little bit quicker, not too much more. Tomorrow is going to be long; our race pace did not look too bad but, of course, we'll have to manage tyre degradation."

Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) - 5th: "I think we had a chance to be in the top three but we've been fighting with the set-up quite a bit today. We changed the car for qualifying and actually it was the correct call in the end; it was just a few small mistakes which cost me some time on my Q3 lap. We'll see how it goes tomorrow in the race; the car has usually been better on Sunday than it has been on Saturday, so if that's the case tomorrow we'll be pretty happy. A lot of small details will decide the race and the tyres are one aspect of course. Our long runs were promising yesterday, so we're not looking too bad. Hopefully we get a reasonable start and we can be up at the right end and go for it. I think we've got a good car and that's the main thing."

Sergio Perez (Sauber) - 6th: "After the free practice sessions hadn't been so easy for me, in qualifying the car really felt good. I think the result is what we were hoping for and perhaps a little bit better than expected. The competition is so close that a tenth of a second can really make a big difference, and you always think you could go a bit faster. In this regard it is almost frustrating having finished sixth, because a slightly better position was within reach. However, I think we can have a strong race performance. A lot will be down to tyre degradation tomorrow, which is quite high here. I want to do a perfect race and get the maximum possible points, or even come home with a nice surprise."

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) - 7th: "That was a tricky Qualifying session this afternoon, and seventh position was about the most that we could have achieved. It was a challenge to find the right set-up for the tyres and some of the others did that better than we did today. However with a good strategy tomorrow, we can hopefully gain some places. This has been a mixed up season so far and it's interesting to see that there are some new guys on the front row tomorrow."

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) - 8th: "A pretty different session today; it was extremely tight. From Q1 onwards we decided to go on the soft tyres. The first run in Q2 wasn't good enough, so I had to go again and it was clear then that if we made it to Q3, we wouldn't have any new soft tyres left. I think we got the maximum at the end there in Q3, we saved some sets of tyres, which we thought going in to qualifying would be crucial, but we didn't have the pace of the top five cars today. Tyres will be important tomorrow, so let's see what we can do."

Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) - 9th: "We wanted to save tyres this afternoon, which dictated how we managed Q3. I did not complete a timed lap, and now I still have the choice of what tyres to start on tomorrow. Equally, I thought it was better to start from ninth on the grid than eighth, and be on the clean side. It's clear that some teams have taken a step forward after the three-week break. And I would also say that the field is now even closer together. It's going to be a tight race tomorrow, although the forecast says it should be cooler, and it will be interesting to see if our choices today pay off at the end of the race."

Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) - 10th: "We really had a good performance in qualifying, and I could feel I had not extracted the maximum potential out of the car yet. In Q1 I had a bit of traffic and also on my fastest lap in Q2 there was still room for improvement from me. I believe I could have been fighting for a top five position, and this was what I was looking forward to. But then, after the chequered flag at the end of Q2, I was told on the radio that I had to stop the car because of an hydraulic problem. Nevertheless the team did a great job here to get both of us in Q3, and I am very positive for tomorrow's race."

Jenson Button (McLaren) - 11th: "To be out in Q2, not by a mistake but by not being quick enough is really surprising. It is going to be a tough afternoon tomorrow. I didn't get anywhere near the balance I had yesterday in practice. I had a very loose rear end for most of qualifying and then we added more front wing at the end because we had some understeer in the high speed, we did that and that added to my problems."

Mark Webber (Red Bull) - 12th: "I'm pretty surprised by that; the guys did a good job with the car and were pushing hard all weekend. We were quick, but the track kept getting faster and we got caught out. My first timed lap in Q2 wasn't fast enough. I was P2 after the first lap and we thought we had done enough, but in the end it wasn't. I didn't use two sets of tyres in Q2, which it turns out wasn't the right thing to do. I was told not to go out again, but the way that the track improved was a surprise to all of us. We were very strong in the first part of Q2 and I was happy with how I drove my lap. It's the way it goes sometimes."

Paul di Resta (Force India) - 13th: "It has been quite a difficult weekend so far trying to get the car dialled into the circuit. In fact, it was only during the my final qualifying run that we made a change to the aero balance and I felt that the car was really hooked up. It's close throughout the field once again, but we've been fairly aggressive on set-up and our pace over longs runs has looked quite competitive so far this weekend, which gives us a reason to be optimistic for the race. The goal will be to make up ground tomorrow and I think it will be a big achievement if we can pick up some points."

Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) - 14th: "I'm pretty satisfied with my final lap in Q2 because I don't think we could have achieved much more from the session today. That's just where we are at the moment in terms of qualifying pace. We are still getting to understand the upgrades we have on the car, but it's also clear that everyone else has made a step forward here and so the midfield remains extremely tight. The races so far this year have shown that grid position is not as crucial as it used to be with a lot of movement in the races, so I think we can still have a good race."

Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) - 15th: "I have mixed feelings about this qualifying, because from a personal point of view, I feel I did a better job than I have done in the other sessions this year and for the first time this year, I have out-qualified my team-mate. On the other hand, I think we were lacking something from the car side. Everyone in the team has worked hard to bring updates for this race, but the others have done the same and apparently a bit more than us. We still have some work do to, but on the positive side, we improved the car from yesterday and I feel that our pace over a long run is pretty good, so we will have to see what happens tomorrow. I don't feel it is too unrealistic to try and aim for some points."

Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) - 16th: "This was not an ideal session for me. From yesterday I felt we were trying to chase a better balance front and rear on the car and although we made a substantial change overnight, it did not have as much of an effect as we had hoped for in terms of lap time or feeling in the car. In Bahrain I had a great Saturday and a poor Sunday, so Iet's hope it's the other way round this time. I'm not going to dwell on today's performance and now I'm just focussed on having as good a race as possible."

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) - 17th: "When qualifying is as close as this, it is vital to manage to have everything fall into place on a clean lap and I never got that chance. On my second run in Q2, I came across at least seven or eight cars that were preparing their tyres for their timed lap and the time I lost definitely cost me dear. It's a real shame to start seventeenth in a race in which our car has shown it has made a step forward in terms of performance, as could be seen from Fernando's result. The new aerodynamic parts which we introduced on the F2012 seem to have worked well – we have a bit more aerodynamic downforce and a bit less drag – but we are well aware that there is still a lot to do. Tomorrow, on a track as hard as this one on the tyres, strategy will be crucial: let's hope I can make it into the points."

Bruno Senna (Williams) - 18th: "It was a disappointing qualifying for me and I had back luck with traffic when on the soft tyre. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow if I want to score any points but I have had good races from the back before and our car is looking competitive this weekend."

Vitaly Petrov (Caterham) - 19th: "I am very happy with today's performance. It feels great to have it all come together in qualifying today and I want to thank the team for doing a great job and helping me put together a final lap like that. There was even more time to come as I made a small mistake in sector two that maybe cost me two or three tenths, but between FP3 and qualifying we found a good balance on the softs and a KERS map that I could really get everything out of, so it's great to see it pay off with that sort of performance."

Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham) - 20th: "I'm not unhappy with today's performance but we could have definitely got more out of the car this afternoon. I made a mistake in turn three that cost me some time but overall I've not really been able to find a setup I'm happy with all weekend. We've tried a few different things to find a decent balance but for some reason we just couldn't find a compromise for qualifying today. We'll put that behind us now and move on to tomorrow where we'll aim to maintain the sort of race pace we've shown in the first four Grands Prix this season. If we can look after the tyres I think we'll be ok."

Charles Pic (Marussia) - 21st: "I am quite happy to be honest. I think for me all round it is quite a good qualifying. We managed to improve the package for this weekend, but the gap to the cars in front today did not reflect that. I don't think we really know where we are yet because the car was not 100%. I feel there is more to come for sure. We always seem to be better in the race versus our competitors and I hope that will be true for tomorrow. For now though I am happy with my position and I look forward to the race."

Timo Glock (Marussia) - 22nd: "A much better day today than yesterday. I think we got on top of the problems a little bit and in Free Practice 3 this morning I had a good feeling. Unfortunately qualifying wasn't great for me. I made a mistake on my first flying lap, which was then not quick enough, and on the second flying lap on the first set of tyres I ran into yellow flags at turn 3 where one of the HRTs spun, so I couldn't do much on first set of tyres. On the second set of tyres I just couldn't get the lap together. The first sector was good; in the second sector I got a bit of traffic; and for some reason I dropped tyre performance in the last sector. It just didn't come together today and I will have to sit and analyse it and hope for better things in the race tomorrow."

Pedro de la Rosa (HRT) - 23rd: "The day went very well, especially this afternoon, so I'm very happy with what we achieved. We completed two very good laps in qualifying, getting under the 1.28 mark which we hadn't achieved neither yesterday nor this morning. I know that our position seems the same as always but, in terms of performance, we have progressed and that's what I'll take away with me. As I always say, we've still got a lot of room for improvement but we're on the right path and that's what matters. Tomorrow's race won't be easy because it's a tough track and the rear tyres wear out a lot. We have to get off to a good start, give the Marussias a good fight and finish the race in front of all our fans."

Narain Karthikeyan (HRT) - 24th: "It's been a very unlucky weekend for me so far. In the morning everything went smoothly but in the afternoon, with the first set of tyres I was pushing really hard and spun on turn 3 and, as a result, I flat-spotted a tyre so I had to come back in to the garage. We were going to go on the second set of tyres but we discovered some problems and due to safety concerns, not only for myself but the others, we decided that the best thing was to not go back out. It seems like my bad luck continues to follow me this weekend and, although I'm disappointed about that, there's nothing else I can do but keep giving it my best shot."