Team reaction after qualifying in Yeongam (part 2)

The first ever qualifying on the Korean International Circuit saw a solid performance from Kamui Kobayashi and Nick Heidfeld, who finished 12th and 13th respectively. As the track conditions on the brand new circuit are constantly improving, quick reactions from the teams and drivers were required in order to set-up the cars in the best way possible.

Kamui Kobayashi: “Overall, I think we achieved the best possible result. It wasn’t much that was missing to make it into Q3. This morning we found the track had changed a lot from yesterday. Therefore the set-up work we did before needed to be re-evaluated. In qualifying I found the car a little bit nervous, but generally okay. Our tyre strategy was good, and for me it was the right decision to go for only one but longer run in Q2. On my fastest lap I wasn’t lucky with traffic, but this can happen. I am looking forward to a good and challenging race tomorrow!”

Nick Heidfeld: “Qualifying here was a lot of fun. I had a clear lap with no traffic problems this time, and I also think my fastest lap was a good one, so I’m happy with it. In the morning we had some set-up difficulties, but this was solved before qualifying. It is not easy to get the tyres to work at their best. My third lap with the softer compound was my quickest. After the front tyres had been too cold I was hoping on the next lap the temperatures would go up and I would be able to improve, but instead they started graining. My grid position should be on the clean side of the track, and therefore I hope to make up positions at the start. Later it might become difficult to overtake because our top speed isn’t brilliant.”

James Key, Technical Director: “We made changes overnight, trying to address yesterday’s weakness in the first sector. We established the downforce level which we thought was right, and we made mechanical changes. In free practice three both drivers reported the car was more oversteery, so more difficult to drive. It seemed we took a step back, with some of this in sector one, but also, compared to Friday, in sector three. For some reason not everything we changed worked the way we hoped, although the track was much more slippery and cooler than yesterday afternoon, so this was possibly a factor. Everybody did a good job to rectify the problems we had this morning. In qualifying we decided to play it safe in Q1 and go for option tyres for the second run, because we didn’t know what the difference was between the prime and the option. We then decided to save a set of options in Q2 on the basis lap three was possibly the quickest. We had a little bit of traffic, but both drivers did well to get their quickest time on lap three. We were just a couple of tenths off breaking into Q3. It was strange that we lost quite a bit of time in the second sector, but sector one and three were much better. It’s a shame we didn’t make Q3, but everybody did a good job to get out of the difficult situation from this morning. We know our race pace is always much better than qualifying, so we are looking forward to a good race tomorrow. I’m sure we can fight for points from where we are.”

The Force India F1 Team will start tomorrow’s inaugural Korean Grand Prix with Adrian Sutil in P14 and Tonio Liuzzi in P17*. Adrian was just one tenth away from a top 12 starting slot and less than three tenths from Q3 during a fascinating first-ever qualifying session at the Yeongam circuit. Tonio was unfortunate to pick up heavy tyre graining on his last lap and, despite being on for a sure Q2 slot in the first two sectors, the effect was too high in the final sector.
* will start 17th after Petrov’s five place penalty is applied

Adrian Sutil: Although P14 isn’t exactly what we would have hoped for, we were still quite close to the top 12 and with a bit of luck could have been even closer to Q3. In Q2 I had some traffic on my first lap and then my second was good, but it was tough out there with the tyres. That said, it’s a great track they have built here. I really enjoyed driving on it - there’s a lot of challenges and kinks and it was really so grippy at the end of the session that it was a real pleasure to drive each lap. From where we are on the grid it’s going to be a great race.

Tonio Liuzzi: We suffered with a lot of graining on the soft tyres today. We missed out on the last run in the morning because of a puncture and didn’t try the option tyres, but we didn’t expect them to grain as badly as they did. The first two laps of the final run were good and the first two sectors of the third lap were looking really good - I was on for a 1:38.2 at that point - but then the tyres grained so badly I lost a lot of time through the last two corners as the car started to understeer a lot. Based on this wear rate it’s going to be an interesting race for sure.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: The Korean Grand Prix organisers have done a fantastic job with the circuit and the facilities here. The track seems to be a real modern classic that has got great feedback from the drivers and I think this bodes extremely well for a thrilling race tomorrow. It hasn’t been the kindest to us here today: we were competitive throughout the morning and weren’t so far from the top 12 in the afternoon, but we’ve been suffering a lot with the tyre graining and that’s what caught us out in qualifying. That said we’re still in a good position for the race tomorrow and I’m very hopeful of us doing well. I am sure the race will throw up a lot of unusual opportunities and we’ve got to be well poised to take any that come our way.

Jaime Alguersuari: “We can be reasonably satisfied with this result because it is so easy to gain or lose tenths here because the track has so many corners. As we come towards the final part of the season, I must say thanks to my race engineer, who has developed a very good understanding of what I need and his decisions are nearly always right. That meant I was very happy with the balance of the car and I think I got the most I could out of the soft tyres. We did a good job in improving the car from yesterday and I think we can therefore expect further improvement in the race.”

Sebastien Buemi: “I have to say I am not happy with my performance. In Q2 on my last run, we opted to go for just one flying lap, to run with less fuel in the car, but I did not get the best of laps, making a few small mistakes which, put together, cost me a lot of time. Jaime did a really strong lap so congratulations to him for that. We need to work hard now to prepare for tomorrow, when we can face a long race in which anything could be possible. Jaime’s performance shows we are not that far from those just in front of us in terms of pace so let’s wait and see. We were not expected to get into the points in Suzuka but we did and who knows, it might happen again here.”

Laurent Mekies (Chief Engineer): “Our overall performance compared to our main competitors was not too bad, as we are relatively close in terms of lap times to the best Force India, Sauber and also Williams. The truth is that you have six cars in two tenths and we were at the bottom of that group. Therefore today, two or three tenths have proved very expensive. Overall we have improved our performance since the start of the weekend and hopefully we can take another step forward for the race. We can expect the first Korean Grand Prix to be full of surprises with those walls and the decent overtaking opportunities so hopefully it will be a good show.”

Saturday at the Korean Grand Prix began with a trouble free third practice session for Lotus Racing with the good news continuing into the afternoon when Jarno Trulli finished at the head of the other new teams in 19th place, with team mate Heikki Kovalainen behind him in 21st.

Jarno Trulli: “I’m happy with how it has gone today and I think my final lap was pretty good. The track was very dusty again in both sessions today, and that obviously affects the tyres, but I think we did as well as we could have hoped for this afternoon. I want to say thank you to my mechanics again because they have been working really hard all weekend – it has been a bit of a tough couple of days so far, because the bad luck I had yesterday limited my track time, and it’s thanks to the guys in the garage that I’ve managed to get in enough running time to set me up for that quick lap today.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “I’m pretty disappointed with how it went today. We were looking ok this morning but I think the strategy this afternoon didn’t give me a great chance to go any quicker – the traffic obviously played its part, and when you’re trying to push on a dirty track it’s always going to be a struggle. But we’re here to fight tomorrow, and as the grip levels evolve I think our car will become stronger, so there’s all to play for in the race.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “I’m reasonably happy with the qualifying today, although it’s a little disappointing that the tactics in qualifying, and the traffic, played their part in denying Heikki a clear run at a quick time. Jarno produced a very good lap to finish the best of the new teams on his final run, and I think that these grid positions give us a good chance of having a strong race tomorrow.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “A pretty good day for us, and seeing Jarno put in such a good lap at the end of Q1 after a slightly difficult weekend on his side of the garage shows exactly what he and his pitcrew are made of. We made a mistake with Heikki’s strategy, and that prevented him from being able to get closer to Jarno, but a good job by both drivers, and the whole team, to keep us ahead of our nearest competitors.

“From a team perspective, it has been very pleasing to see what a great event the race organisers have put on here in Korea. We were never in any doubt that Korea would pull something special out of the bag for us, and from the moment the cars first went out on track yesterday, the welcome Lotus Racing and the whole F1™ fraternity has had here has been outstanding. It was particularly good to see a couple of very dedicated Lotus Racing fans waving our flag in the stands, and the Korean media have given us some excellent coverage, so I think we will leave here having gained another army of new fans. We will do our best to reward them with a strong performance in tomorrow’s race.”

Virgin Racing narrowly missed out on the new teams’ ‘pole’ in today’s qualifying for the inaugural Korean Grand Prix. Timo Glock enjoyed a reasonably strong Q1 session, which ended with him separated from Jarno Trulli by just 0.2secs. He was however pleased to displace Heikki Kovalainen and split the Lotus pair.

Lucas di Grassi experienced a more frustrating session. He encountered traffic on his first timed lap and made a small mistake on his second, so was unable to get the best from the Option tyre. The pair will start tomorrow’s 55 lap race from the 10th and 11th row of the grid and on the clean side of the track following a penalty for Renault’s Vitaly Petrov.

This morning the drivers once again had to contend with a dusty and therefore gripless track, which caused them to experience tyre graining issues, but as was the case yesterday it continued to clean up progressively with every lap.

Timo Glock: “Today was a pretty good qualifying session for me. We made the right change from this morning’s free practice to qualifying and I had a very good first run. The second one was good as well and I was able to get everything possible out of the car. I couldn’t do any more so I am happy with the result and due to Petrov’s penalty we move over to the clean side of the track, which will help us at the race start tomorrow. It should be an interesting race and I’m looking forward to it.”

Lucas di Grassi: “It was not a very good qualifying for me today. I did not manage to properly use my second set of qualifying Option tyres as in my two timed laps I got traffic and then I made a mistake, so for sure there is more to come. This is a track that improves all the time – and very quickly – and you need to be ‘on it’ the whole time. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and our first Korean Grand Prix. In the first few corners of the track there are a lot of overtaking opportunities, so it should be an interesting start. The race is also very long and a lot of things can happen, so we will see what happens as it unfolds.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “A strong qualifying session for Timo today, who was unlucky to be pipped at the very end of the session for the new teams’ pole, but at least he will start from the clean side of the track following Petrov’s penalty. Lucas wasn’t able to get the best out of the car but we are sure there is more to come from him in the race tomorrow. We are still experiencing quite a lot of graining on the tyres, which will make the choice for tomorrow interesting, and there is also the possibility of rain. The drivers report that the track modifications made overnight have been successful, so all credit to the circuit for their hard work and we are looking forward to the inaugural Korean Grand Prix tomorrow.”

The final countdown to the first ever race in Korea got underway this afternoon, as the qualifying session was completed. The Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team drivers, Sakon Yamamoto and Bruno Senna, will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix in Yeongam 23rd and 24th respectively and the Spanish team was able to close the gap to the other new teams. A difficult first day at the Korea International Circuit was redeemed by a positive Saturday, as both drivers were able to get more track time and continued improving their times during today’s sessions.

Dr Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “Both of our drivers showed a good improvement compared to yesterday. The track got more grip and consequently the lap times got quicker. We had to adapt ourselves to the changes of the circuit and we expect it to keep on improving tomorrow as well. Sakon did a very good qualifying and we could close the gap to the new teams. Unfortunately, he lost one position in the last seconds of the session, otherwise he would have been further up. The whole team was working hard again to get the best out of the cars and therefore, I want to say thank you very much. Tomorrow’s race is going to be exciting and we hope to fight for positions.”

Sakon Yamamoto: “I am very happy about our qualifying result at the first Korean Grand Prix. With the data we got yesterday and this morning, we could improve the car and I could do my best lap in qualifying. We were very close to the other competitors and I want to thank the team for preparing the car very well. Now we are looking forward to tomorrow, but we don’t know if it’s going to rain during the race. But, as always, we will try to do our best and bring both cars to the finish line again.”

Bruno Senna: “Today we managed to work on the car as we could run more laps than yesterday. The qualifying result wasn’t what we expected and maybe we could have done better with more experience on this new circuit. Tomorrow is going to be a long race and we will see what happens during the 55 laps.”