Toro Rosso look at race strategy following difficult qualifying
Toro Rosso had a difficult qualifying session ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. Daniil Kvyat managed 13th place but for Jean-Eric Vergne things are more complicated as he will start from the back of the grid following a penalty.
Daniil Kvyat, STR9-03, 13th: “I think we got the maximum out of the package today, even though we might have been able to do a few things better. But the race is tomorrow and we’ve seen from the past that we can still bring home points having started from P13.”
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR9-04, 16th (to start from 24th): "It was part of the strategy not to run in Q2, save new tyres and prepare for an aggressive race tomorrow. I think it was a sensible decision to take. It's true that this is not the best track for overtaking but I will do my best to pass the cars in front of me from the left, from the right, from everywhere, taking every opportunity to gain positions. The car has been a bit difficult to drive for the whole weekend, except for the long runs, so I hope for a good race tomorrow.”
Phil Charles, Chief Race Engineer: “Qualifying was always going to be difficult with JEV’s ten place penalty - for an unsafe release during FP2 - so we were a little bit disadvantaged with one car today. Daniil did a brilliant job on the prime tyre, we just didn’t maximize the option tyre today. We will need to look into that and try to understand what we need to give him to optimize each of the tyre type. He will start the race from thirteenth place and there’s still a good chance to do well, so we will have a good look at the strategy tonight. Even though JEV has a ten place penalty, we know we can put some really good races together so we will all push hard for tomorrow.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “We knew coming into quali that it would be a hard task. Daniil’s pace was good enough for the top 10 but could not realize it in Q2. With JEV’s penalty the team decided not to run to save tyres for the race tomorrow. It’s going to be long but we’ll still keep pushing for the points.”
