Ricciardo 14th as Vergne will start last
Daniel Ricciardo qualifying in 14th position today for the British GP while his teammate at Toro Rosso, Jean-Eric Vergne qualified in 16th place. Jean-Eric will however have to start from the back of the grid after applying a 10-place grid penalty earned at Valencia two weeks ago.
Daniel Ricciardo, STR7-04:
FP3: Best lap 1:33.707, pos. 17th, 21 laps
Q:Best lap: (Q1) 1:47.266, (Q2) 1:57.132, pos. 14th
“It was a tricky session and a long one, with similar conditions to last year, when I made my F1 debut at this race. Unfortunately, after the restart I didn’t manage to get through to the top ten, where we had been before the red flag. I am sure I was affected by the yellow flag for Grosjean’s spin on the last lap, because without it I would have have been into Q3. Our pace is better than our position would have you believe, therefore, as I said on Friday, if we have a wet race, which seems likely, I think we can do well tomorrow, when I will be racing hard. The car seems to work well in the wet, but starting in the mid field there will be a lot of spray to contend with, so there are pros and cons to racing in the rain.”
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR7-03:
FP3: Best lap: 1:33.673, pos. 15th, 22 laps
Q: Best lap: (Q1) 1:47.705, (Q2) 1:57.719, pos. 16th
“It could have been a really good qualifying and it had been going well up until the red flag. I was fourth at the time, but I knew it would restart with better track conditions and I would have to do it all over again. The red flag was definitely the right decision as there was too much water for the tyres to clear. However, at the restart, we considered running Intermediates before making a quick decision to switch to the Extreme and I think maybe I could have been higher up the order except that I therefore missed the opportunity to do a second flying lap as the chequered flag came out. I am disappointed, as I feel I could have got into Q3 today. I hope we have a wet race tomorrow, because although I will be starting from the back, everything is possible in these conditions and I hope I can make the most of the fact our car is working well in the wet, to have a good race.”
Laurent Mekies, Chief Engineer:
“This morning we compressed our programme to include the usual FP2 work of doing runs in race trim on both types of tyre - one car on Option the other on Prime. This afternoon turned into a full wet qualifying. We had hoped for a bit better than what we eventually achieved, as I believe Daniel would have made the cut into Q3, if it had not been for the yellow flag on his final lap. Our performance was looking quite good up until the red flag in Q2, as both our cars were in the top ten at that point. At the restart, it was a tight call between Intermediates and Extremes and in the end, we elected to wait a short while after the restart to see what the other cars looked like and that decided us to go with the Extremes. Unfortunately, Jean-Eric missed the opportunity to start a second timed lap in this run by just a few seconds, which made his life difficult. Our performance has definitely looked better in the wet, therefore a wet race would suit us tomorrow. For Jean-Eric who has a ten place penalty, it will be more difficult, but we know that in the rain, anything can happen and grid positions can prove irrelevant.”
