Track improvement surprises Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso were fairly comfortably with their pace through practice and qualifying but in the end were surprised by the improved track conditions, ending up in 9th and 10th place on the grid for the British Grand Prix.
Daniil Kvyat, STR9-03, 9th: “We were fighting for really high positions today, but then towards the end we made the decision not to go out anymore. At that time it seemed to be the right decision because it was hard to imagine that anyone would have improved times because it had rained quite a lot and track conditions were tricky out there. But anyway, this is the way it is and in the end, P9 and P10 are good positions to start the race from. We will definitely fight hard tomorrow!”
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR9-01, 10th: "It was a good qualifying session today, at least until towards the end when we made a mistake in deciding not to go out again for one last run and improve our position. I don't really know why but it's a fact that all the others went out again and improved as expected. It's a shame as we had a good car to fight for a higher position in the ranking, and it's disappointing also considering that along the weekend we have consistently been quicker than some of the cars that will be in front of us on the grid tomorrow. Let's stay positive and think that P9 and P10 are anyway good enough to hope for a good race tomorrow."
James Key, Technical Director: “Slightly mixed feelings today because I think that from a general performance point of view everything went really well and according to plan until the last few minutes of Q3. It was a very tricky session, very unpredictable and I think that everyone on the pit wall and the drivers' feedback matched very well what was going on, with a great effort from everyone. It's disappointing to lose a higher position in the top ten. We were set to go out at the end, our indication was that it was too wet. In the end that final sector in the closing minutes was just dry enough to make the difference and that's why the ones who went out are now ahead of us. Despite our disappointment, P9 and P10 are reasonable positions anyway, our race pace was good on Friday so we just have to do our best tomorrow.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “A very animated qualifying session, which is just as we like them! The changing conditions made it extremely exciting but it was not at all easy to get everything working in harmony. Nevertheless we did manage to extract the maximum from the Power Unit and the car. Unfortunately the decision to stay in the garage until late on did not pay off, but two cars in the top ten is still a good result and puts us in a strong position for tomorrow.”
