Team reaction after qualifying in Monza (part 2)

The Force India F1 Team’s Adrian Sutil will start tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix from 11th position following one of the tightest qualifying sessions so far this year. Adrian eased into Q2 but just missed out on a Q3 slot for the second consecutive race by only a couple of hundredths of a second. He will line up on the clean side of the grid alongside Michael Schumacher.

Tonio Liuzzi endured a frustrating qualifying, completing just three laps in Q1 when his VJM03 lost drive on his out lap. Unfortunately the problem proved too difficult to rectify within the qualifying session and Tonio was forced to end his session early without setting a competitive lap time. He will start 20th but should be able to rapidly make up positions given the pace demonstrated on longer runs yesterday.

Adrian Sutil: The times have been so close today that we knew qualifying would be tight as well. All the same we were very, very near to getting into Q3 - just a couple of hundredths of a second - so we can be happy with the performance. Starting P11 means we will get to start on a new set of tyres and the clean side of the grid, which can be an advantage. I think we’re still looking good for a points’ finish tomorrow.

Tonio Liuzzi: We had a problem in the morning’s session where the car seemed to lose drive and did just a few laps. We did some analysis between the sessions and tried to solve the problem but then in qualifying a similar issue occurred. On the first lap we lost power and then we had to stop completely once I got it back to the garage so I couldn’t get a real flying lap in. It’s a shame but tomorrow’s the most important - we’ve got a good car here and you never know what can happen so we won’t give up until the end.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: It’s been such a close day of action today that I think we can be pretty pleased to be P11 with Adrian, less than a tenth of a second from Q3. From that position anything’s possible as we’ve seen so many times this season. Tonio had a more difficult day with problems in FP3 and then qualifying, which is obviously frustrating on his home track. However he’s a fighter and more motivated than ever to move up the field. Given the pace yesterday I think that is very possible.

The qualifying results reflect quite clearly the drivers’ different thoughts about their car’s set-up and performance. While Kamui Kobayashi felt quite confident in his C29 and qualified 13th for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix in Monza, Pedro de la Rosa wasn’t satisfied at all with his car’s balance and had to make do with 17th. On tomorrow’s grid he will move up at least one position.

Kamui Kobayashi: “I had no problems in qualifying and I think with regards to my lap time and position this is what was possible today. Michael (Schumacher) is ahead of me in 12th, but he is three tenths of a second faster, which is quite a big gap. Compared to the first free practice session here, the car’s balance is better, the grip level has increased and I feel more confident. Of course I will try to score points in tomorrow’s race.“

Pedro de la Rosa: “It was a tough qualifying for me. Since this morning I haven’t felt comfortable in the car, and it just didn’t feel like it did yesterday. We put on more downforce, but we never managed to get a good compromise between rear end stability and top end speed. However, I think the car will perform better in the race and I will see what I can do.“

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “We expected the characteristics of this high speed track wouldn’t best suit our car, so under the circumstances Kamui’s 13th position is really good. Pedro struggled today, so we have to analyse everything to understand why.”

James Key, Technical Director: “We worked hard overnight looking at the problems we had on Friday. We found one on Kamui’s car with some aerodynamic components, which didn’t help, and also the brake system was a bit problematic for him. So we made the respective modifications on his car and some minor changes on Pedro’s. This morning Kamui was happy with the car and had more confidence. Pedro struggled a little bit with a lack of consistency, so we had to work on this before qualifying. In Q1 a Force India went out, so it was just a matter of putting in a decent lap time to make it to Q2 and save some tyres. In Q2 P13 for Kamui was okay, as the best we expected was P12, and he lost a couple of tenths on his last run. The race speed of the car and its top speed are competitive, so given his strong race performances we can look forward to a good day for him tomorrow. Pedro continued to struggle with his car. We added some downforce before qualifying, but things were looking a bit tricky, particularly under braking. We have to look into it to understand why it was more of an issue for him today than yesterday.”

Sebastien Buemi: “I am reasonably happy with my performance, because I think I got almost the maximum out of the car and I am quite confident that we can have a strong race tomorrow. The important thing is that generally this weekend, we seem to be a bit more competitive than we were at Spa and in previous races, which is a positive step. It proves the updates we brought here are having an effect and that the team is doing a good job. It’s a bit disappointing to be only three hundredths behind Kobayashi, as maybe I could have been thirteenth, but overall it’s not bad.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “I am quite satisfied with the way things went this afternoon, after having some problems yesterday. Today, we also made a few changes to the car and I think we ended up pretty much where we expected to be. I am not sure what we can do in the race, as yesterday I did not manage to do a long run on high fuel to see what the tyre degradation will be like. So, it will be a new experience, but I’m looking forward to it anyway.”

Giorgio Ascanelli: “With everyone so evenly matched in terms of lap time, it was very tight in Q2 this afternoon. We looked a bit better this morning and that was also the case up until our final run in qualifying. However, when the difference is down to just a couple of tenths, there is not much more to say. Maybe we could have done better, but not by a significant amount. As for the new developments we introduced here and have run through the weekend, I hope they perform reliably during the race.”

Best of the new boys and both cars ahead of Liuzzi’s Force India means the Italian Grand Prix qualifying session will go down as a good day’s work for the Lotus Racing team. Both Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen’s times kept coming down throughout the session and it ended with Jarno starting tomorrow’s race in 18th and Heikki 19th.

Jarno Trulli: “It was a great qualifying session for the whole team today because both cars are in front of a Force India and it’s looking good for tomorrow. The mechanics sorted out a little problem on the car just before the session, and they’ve been working really well all weekend so it’s good to repay that with the result. It’s always good to be able to perform like this at your home race and being best of the new guys means it’s been a good day.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “I’m very happy with the performance today. It’s been a really good qualifying for both me and Jarno and we’re both in a good position for the race tomorrow. I had a great long run in yesterday’s practice and I’m looking forward to the race, perhaps more than most of the races this season. We’ve had a few races this season where we haven’t got the most out of the Friday sessions, but we did so yesterday, and that, combined with the promise of a dry race tomorrow and a very good race car, means I think we’ll put in a strong performance.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “It was an excellent qualifying session. I think we managed to get the most out of both cars today so well done to both drivers and the whole team. Overall I’m happy that we have the right level of wing for the race and after a trouble free session today we’re now looking forward to a solid two car finish tomorrow, ahead of our closest rivals.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “What an awesome qualifying session! I’m so happy today – what a great way to bring up our first year anniversary! I always felt this would be Jarno’s day, but that’s taking nothing away from Heikki who also did an immense job out there. We are 1.1 seconds off Pedro’s Sauber, and on a power track like Monza that is incredible. I’m so proud of the whole team – they have worked brilliantly all weekend, and it has paid off today with a great performance from everyone. Tomorrow is going to be special, but the goal remains the same – get both cars home and make sure we stay ahead of the other new teams.”

Qualifying for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix took place in hot and sunny conditions in Monza today. This morning’s third Free Practice session went smoothly for Virgin Racing, with both cars completing the runs required by the engineers to determine a good race setup.

Overnight the team had reverted to a more standard low-downforce configuration, and were instantly quicker than yesterday, the drivers rapidly arriving at their preferred race setup to cover both Prime and Option tyres. The team opted to change the differential on Timo’s car before the start of qualifying, and consequently he will receive a five-place grid penalty.

In qualifying, Timo was the first car out on the track, but was unfortunately blocked on his first flying lap and could not set a representative time on that set of tyres. Lucas was planning to do one run less than Timo, and for the rest of the session the two drivers were very closely matched with only four hundredths of a second separating them at the flag. The battle to be fastest of the new teams was as close as ever, but as neither Lucas nor Timo managed to improve sufficiently on their last runs, both cars will be starting behind the Lotus pair. They are however confident of a strong race setup and are looking forward to a good race tomorrow.

Timo Glock: “I’m a little disappointed to end qualifying the way we did because we had good pace early on in the session. On the very first run my lap was penalised by Vitaly Petrov, who came out of the pits and pulled out on to the racing line into turn one. On the second run I had good pace and we were ahead of Lotus, but on the third set of tyres there was no grip on the rear. Everyone was able to improve but we didn’t. We have incurred a grid penalty for tomorrow as a result of taking the decision to change our differential, but it was the right thing to do. In general I am happy with the car so we will see what the race brings tomorrow.”

Lucas di Grassi: “A good Saturday overall. I’m satisfied with my lap time in qualifying and I extracted the maximum from the car today as our set-up is a compromise for the long race tomorrow. So far the whole team and car has run really smoothly this weekend so I can see a lot of progress in this area and I hope it continues for tomorrow.”

Mark Herd, Head of Performance and Race Engineering: “Today has been another relatively smooth day. The cars went in a slightly different direction in terms of aero setup. We weren’t happy with the differential on Timo’s car and chose to change it before qualifying, thus incurring a five-place grid penalty. Timo was unlucky to be blocked on his first run and then seemed to have an unexpected loss of grip on his final set. Lucas had some small gear-shift issues. It was disappointing that were unable to displace Lotus but the gap to them is small and we look forward to a very close race with them tomorrow.”

Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team completed qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix today after a difficult first day in Monza. The Spanish team’s cars performed reliably and both drivers, Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto, managed to run faster than in the morning session. The Brazilian clocked his best lap time of the weekend so far (1.26.847) and will start tomorrow’s race from 22nd position. Sakon Yamamoto was 23rd after a best lap time of 1.27.020. In the morning, both drivers were able to run at constant pace and continue gaining experience in Monza.

Dr Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “It was a positive day for us. We could fix the problems we had on both cars yesterday and therefore I want to thank the team for their great job. Bruno Senna showed a good development during practice three and was close to the other new teams in between. This is a good effort as he couldn’t do many laps yesterday. On Sakon Yamamoto’s car, a drive shaft boot was broken, which forced him to stop prematurely. In qualifying, both of our drivers performed well and are starting the race from positions 22 and 23. We have a good car balance and we found the right set-up for the race tomorrow.”

Sakon Yamamoto: “Yesterday, we couldn’t get enough mileage due to a mechanical problem. In the third practice this morning, we had a problem on the drive shaft and I had to stop before the end of the session. Because of this, I couldn’t use the option tyres in a session before qualifying. I want to thank the team, who managed to get the car ready and prepared it well. We will try to do our best tomorrow and are looking forward to the race.”

Bruno Senna: “I am happy that the problem we had yesterday has been fixed and I want to thank the team for the good job they did. In the third practice session, I had traffic on all of my best laps. That’s why I couldn’t manage to be further up. The qualifying was okay and we did the best we could. My teammate and I are close together and we hope to have a good race tomorrow.”