Difficult and disappointing qualifying for Toyota
It was a difficult and disappointing Chinese qualifying session for Toyota at the Shanghai International Circuit. Timo Glock didn't make it to Q3 and will start the Chinese GP from 12th position on the grid. Team mate Jarno Trulli did better and managed to place his TF108 8th on tomorrow's starting grid.
Jarno Trulli (Car 11, Chassis TF108-05)
Summary: Made it into Q3 and the fourth row PROVISIONAL GRID: 8th
FP3 5th Best Lap Time: 1m 36.396s (+0.335s) Laps: 22
Q1 8th Best Lap Time: 1m 36.104s (+0.538s) Laps: 7
Q2 10th Best Lap Time: 1m 35.715s (+0.768s) Laps: 6
Q3 9th Best Lap Time: 1m 37.934s (+1.631s) Laps: 6
"Today was a hard qualifying session. We expected a bit more but after our good performance from yesterday and today in practice. But this afternoon something must have changed with the track. The tyres were sliding more and the grip seemed to be missing so that was a bit strange. For tomorrow we will see. Our race pace has looked strong during practice here but the weather forecast is uncertain. As usual we will be hoping for warm conditions because of the way we handle the tyres. Needless to say we will push for as many points as we can."
Timo Glock (Car 12, Chassis TF108-07)
Summary: Missed out on Q3 after a struggle for balance PROVISIONAL GRID: 12th
FP3 17th Best Lap Time: 1m 37.053s (+0.992s) Laps: 22
Q1 9th Best Lap Time: 1m 36.210s (+0.644s) Laps: 10
Q2 13th Best Lap Time: 1m 35.937s (+0.990s) Laps: 6
"This has been a difficult weekend for me and this afternoon was a hard qualifying session. The whole weekend we have struggled to find the right balance in the car. The first two runs in qualifying felt okay so we made a step compared to yesterday. But I struggled to get anything out of the softer tyres and I couldn't get it right. The traffic was fine but the car felt different on every lap and it was difficult to get a good feeling. So it's been hard to get the set-up right all weekend but we will try to regain ground during the race tomorrow."
Pascal Vasselon, Senior General Manager Chassis: "That was obviously a very disappointing session compared to our expectations. The practice sessions went well, especially for Jarno. Timo had been struggling a bit more but he seemed to have recovered in Q1. But then things went wrong in Q2 and Q3. Putting all the sectors together it was possible for Timo to qualify in the top ten but it did not come together at the right moment. For Jarno we only marginally made it into Q3. It's hard to say a lot more, we have to look into what happened. At certain points we had some very bad sectors which are difficult to understand at the moment so we have work to do tonight. At least the tyre situation is relatively clear now. For qualifying the best tyre was obvious and for the race the choice is also clear."
