Virgin Racing not entirely happy with qualifying session
The Virgin Racing F1 Team drivers will start the European Grand Prix from 21st and 22nd position on the grid. At the urban circuit of Valencia, Lucas di Grassi outpaced not only the HRT drivers but his team mate Timo Glock as well.
Lucas di Grassi: "I'm very happy to be the fastest Virgin Racing driver today. This is my debut year in F1 and I've been learning a lot with each Grand Prix. I've been getting closer to Timo's lap times and to be able to keep pace with someone with his ability and experience is a good measure of the progress I feel I am making. Your team-mate is always your easiest comparison but we are not fighting each other - we are working together to make Virgin Racing the best of the new teams. We have a lot of work to do to improve the car and our pace, so while I'm very pleased with the result today, that is where our focus lies."
Timo Glock: "Unfortunately we made the wrong decision with the tyres today. We thought things would work out with the Option tyre with a small set-up change, but I had one run on Primes and they were definitely much quicker. Unfortunately I made a mistake out of the last corner and lost around 0.5 secs, otherwise I would have been quicker than Lucas and closer to the Lotus cars. Now we have to look at the opportunities for the Race tomorrow."
Nick Wirth, Technical Director: "Lucas and his engineers continued to have a smooth weekend and he did a good job in Qualifying. I think he's having a great rookie year so far. Timo wasn't happy with some overnight set-up changes on our new development parts, and that made the tyre comparison in FP3 harder to judge. We successfully went back to the Friday settings for Qualifying, but the choice of the Option tyre for his first run was incorrect and he didn't get the most out of his last run on Primes. As ever, we'll be chasing a two-car finish in the Race tomorrow."
