Vitaly Petrov plagued by KERS issue throughout Saturday

Heading into qualifying, and both the Caterham’s of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov were confident they would be able to progress to Q2. In the end, both drivers’ failed to progress and were subsequently eliminated after Q1. With Kovalainen’s flying lap slightly impeded by a Marussia, Petrov was plagued with KERs issues throughout the day.

It was during FP3 that the KERs woes struck Petrov’s car, and his mechanics were forced to disable the device ahead of qualifying. Even without the assistance of KERs, the Russian driver was still able to out-qualify both Marussia’s and HRT’s. The Caterham team are confident they can be competitive in tomorrow’s race, and with the attrition level normally high, a World Championship point could well be on offer to either Kovalainen or Petrov.

“We had an issue with KERS this morning so we had to shut that off for quali,” Explained Vitaly Petrov. “So that obviously cost me some time, but we worked around that and pushed as hard as we could in Q1 so it worked out as well as we could have hoped. Tomorrow will be exciting and I’m looking forward to it. We’ve already seen that people can make mistakes here so we want to make sure we’re there to take advantage of whatever happens on track and fight to the flag.”

With traffic being a big issue throughout qualifying today, the Caterham’s, Marussia’s and HRT’s will have their work cut out tomorrow, as they both try their best to adhere to the blue flags and fight for their respective positions.

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