Toro Rosso 'very pleased' with qualifying outcome
Toro Rosso's Chief Race Engineer Phil Charles said to be very pleased with today's qualifying outcome for his team, but in reality there were some mixed feelings as Jean-Eric Vergne only narrowly missed out on a place in Q3.
Daniil Kvyat, STR9-03, 8th: “I’m happy with how my Qualifying went today, even though conditions were quite particular and tricky. We had to stay alert and look after all the different factors carefully, including taking care of the tyres. The team did a great job in adjusting to the conditions out there and we managed to do a solid job, also considering where we qualified compared to some of our usual competitors. So I think we can be satisfied with today’s P8 result and definitely aim high in tomorrow’s race.”
Jean-Eric Vergne, STR9-01, 13th: “It was really tight today as we can see reading the times and one tenth has been enough to make it or not into Q3. Overall I think it was a good qualifying. I put on used tyres for the first run of Q2, while the others in front of me used a new set and this made the difference. Also considering the weather forecast, which announces possibilities of rain tomorrow and cooler temperatures, to have new tyres available for the race puts me in a favourable condition to achieve a good result tomorrow, even starting from P13."
Phil Charles, Chief Race Engineer: “Overall, we are very pleased with today. Yesterday we were not quite happy with the car of both drivers, but the engineers did a great job last night to fix the slightly different balance issues. They worked productively with both drivers on the set up and as a result we could achieve a decent step forward today. Daniil has done a brilliant job in Qualifying, Jean-Eric was just a bit unlucky. He was really close but he's not quite sneaked into Q3, whereas Daniil, who was just a tenth quicker, did. A bit of a scrappy session in one way, with different strategies for Qualifying with the tyres across the two drivers and Jev was so close in the mid group, where a tenth really makes a big difference. Both drivers did a very good job and it's a real testament to the fact that they have worked hard with their engineers, who sorted their cars for them. Hopefully Jev can have a good race tomorrow and, fingers crossed, Daniil can convert a decent qualifying result. We look forward to tomorrow."
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: "Today there are mixed feelings. Daniil did a great job to get to Q3 after starting his last lap of Q2 with just two seconds on the clock. JEV was however unfortunate not to go through for just one tenth. It does mean there is more to come tomorrow but we need to be on top of our game in all areas. From a Power Unit point of view everything was on the green side, despite the hot temperatures, which bodes well for tomorrow when the heat should come down."
