Ericsson outqualifies Kobayashi in Japan
For only the third time this season, Caterham's Marcus Ericsson has outqualified his team mate, this time at Suzuka. Kobayashi should blamed a lack of running, mostly due to a crash during Friday's FP2.
Marcus Ericsson, car #9, chassis CT05-#04, 19th: “This morning’s final practice session was another positive one, we definitely built on that strong performance we had yesterday so I felt really good going into qualifying. We decided to go for a bit of a different strategy compared to the others, so we only used two sets of tyres while others used three – it was a bit of a gamble but I felt very comfortable in the car and I was confident it could work out, and it did. I’d say I did two decent laps and the car was working very well, so I’m happy with the result, it was a good effort from me and the team. Of course, you always want to be a bit closer to the guys ahead, but I think we’ve closed that gap a bit more again this weekend, so it’s definitely positive progress. Now we just have to wait and see what the weather does tomorrow, but I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s race!”
Kamui Kobayashi, car #10, chassis CT05-#02, 21st: “It’s really not being the best of weekends for me, but I have to say that the team did a great job last night in order to get the car fixed and ready for me to drive today. Because of yesterday’s crash, I haven’t been able to complete as many laps as I would’ve liked and I hadn’t used the Option tyre before today’s qualifying session, so it hasn’t been the easiest of days. Considering this situation, I think my lap time was pretty good and we will see what happens tomorrow – I don’t really mind if it rains, it will make it more of an interesting race.”
Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: “Everything went well on the engine side in the session. Marcus continued the good job he has done all weekend to out qualifying the Marussias. Kamui suffered from his lack of mileage yesterday and this morning but we should be able to have a good battle in the race tomorrow, particularly if the rain arrives.”
