Hulkenberg laments on traffic in qualifying
Qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza saw Force India's Sergio Perez secure tenth place on the grid with Nico Hulkenberg ending the session in P14.
Sergio Perez, VJM07-02, 10th: “We can be happy about this result: P9 could have been possible, perhaps, but I feel we nearly maximised our potential and that's all we could have asked from this session. Looking at our performance yesterday, our race pace should be strong, but there are not that many options to choose from with the strategy. I feel we are in a good position to have a strong race tomorrow. Anything can happen on this track and I am confident we can pick up good points.”
Nico Hulkenberg, VJM07-04, 14th (start from 13th due to penalty for Kvyat): “My position today could have been better, but my final lap in Q2 was not on the pace. The main issue was the heavy traffic on my out lap going into the final corner, which really hurt my preparation. Everybody was backing up so I had to slow down and lost tyre temperature and pressure, and could not improve my time. Also, my first run in Q2 was not quite strong enough so we missed out on Q3. It was just a struggle today and the car has been feeling a bit loose. However, we can still race well. If I can make a good start and gain some positions on the first lap, we have every possibility of scoring some points.”
Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director: “Tenth place for Checo is about what we were expecting today. It was a good effort considering the hydraulic issue we had during final practice, which cost Checo half an hour of track time this morning. With Nico we expected a bit more, but he didn’t hook up a clean lap when it mattered and that puts him right in the middle of the pack. It’s always tough to overtake at Monza, so we have our work cut out tomorrow. On the other hand we were encouraged by our long-run pace during practice so I hope that we can show that tomorrow.”
