13th and 14th 'not so bad' for Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso drivers Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi qualified their cars in 13th and 14th positions. For Buemi especially this is a satisfying result after he had failed to set a timed lap in the morning due to a hydraulic leak on his car.
Jaime Alguersuari, STR6-02:
FP3: Best lap time 1:14.286, pos. 13th, 20 laps
Q: P13 (Q1)
“P13 and P14 on the grid is not so bad for the team. I am pleased to be ahead of Sauber on the grid, but the points are only given out tomorrow, when we can expect a chaotic race because it is meant to rain. The key in those conditions will be not to do anything stupid, nor take too many risks, stay calm and then finish the race. The track conditions have changed a lot even from this morning to this session, but if it rains that evolution won’t continue and it should be an interesting race.”
Sebastien Buemi, STR6-03:
FP3: no time, 3 laps
Q: Best lap: (Q1)
“I am not happy with the result, even if I feel I did the best I could this afternoon. However, we did not have a good preparation for qualifying, as I was unable to run in the morning. Added to the fact I did not drive in FP1, because Jean-Eric was in my car on Friday morning, I’ve really had very few laps so far this weekend. We must learn from these mistakes to ensure we don’t make them again. As for tomorrow’s race, anything is possible, because I think our car is quite competitive, so I am hopeful of having a good afternoon.”
Laurent Mekies:
“The day did not start well for us, as Sebastien was unable to complete a single timed lap in the morning, because of an hydraulic problem. It meant that, in qualifying, he had to adapt immediately to quite a different car to the one he drove yesterday, because of the choices we made since then from a set-up point of view. He tried to get into a rhythm as quickly as possible, but with the field being so tight, everything matters and clearly he paid the price for us not having done a better job this morning. Jaime’s position is a fairly accurate indication of our level of competitiveness, as he is three thousandths of a second away from twelfth place, which is where the car belongs here today. He also did a good job so far this weekend in adapting to the car, as we changed his set-up quite a few times. The threat of rain which was falling two kilometres from the track added to the sense of urgency in the session, making it quite exciting. I think we are in a decent enough position to do a good job tomorrow, when it will be up to us to make it happen.”
