Williams’ Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima on failing to make it through to Q2; Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica on their near simultaneous engine issues in the BMW Saubers; Giancarlo Fisichella on his 14th-place grid slot for his first race for Ferrari; and Lewis Hamilton on taking pole for McLaren. All 20 drivers and senior team personnel report back on the action...
Toyota
Jarno Trulli (11th, Q2 - 1m 23.611s):
"I am happy with my lap in second qualifying because that was the maximum we could get out of the car. Of course it is not satisfying to be 11th and it's extremely disappointing to miss out on the top 10 right at the end of the session like that. I would have been really happy to be in the top 10 considering the performance in practice, which suggested it would be a tough qualifying for us. It is going to be hard tomorrow but 11th is not far away from the top eight so we need to fight and try to bring home some points."
Timo Glock (16th, Q1 - 1m 24.036s):
“It's frustrating to miss out on second qualifying when I was only sixth tenths away from the fastest lap of the session. We looked quite promising this morning but we didn't transfer all of that speed to qualifying, and I wasn't helped by traffic. On my last lap on the soft tyres another car went straight on at the chicane and I had to follow him, which destroyed my lap. I had the potential to qualify higher but if you lose a little bit of time like that it is very costly. It will be tough in the race tomorrow but we will work on a strategy to make up some places and do our best as always."
Pascal Vasselon, Toyota senior general manager chassis:
"It was the kind of result we were expecting but not the result we wanted. Again the field has been extremely tight and in each session we have seen that several cars are covered by just one or two tenths. Nevertheless, our level of competitiveness was nowhere near the level we had in Spa when we qualified on the front row and we are not happy about that. For the race we will choose a strategy to give us the best chance of moving up the field. We have more freedom with our fuel load compared to the top 10 and we will make the most of the opportunities available; there are still good chances to finish in the points."
BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica (13th, Q2 - 1m 23.866s):
“This is a very difficult situation for me, not only for this Grand Prix but also for the next races. I do not have many engines left. It is also unfortunate for Nick who was very competitive here. Although I was struggling a bit I was quite confident of making it into the final qualifying session. I was struggling a little bit with the car in the first qualifying session, but it was better right from the start of the second one. I managed to do quite a good lap, but unfortunately had traffic for the next two laps. The engine problem makes my position for the final races of the season very complicated.”
Nick Heidfeld (15th, Q2 - 1m 24.275s):
“It is a real shame having an engine problem after it all looked so promising. We had a good qualifying in Spa where I was third, and in this morning’s free practice I was third again. I was certainly expecting a good qualifying result after the car was quite quick here. Reliability problems are very exceptional for our team and, of course, it is very strange that Robert and I both had problems with two new engines within a few minutes. We will find out what the reason was. Qualifying 15th will make it difficult, but I will not give up and make the most of it.”
Mario Theissen, BMW Motorsport director:
“Both drivers were stopped by engine failures in the second part of qualifying. As far as we can see from the data they both had the same problem. The two engines were new, therefore the reason cannot be too much mileage or too high stress. A thorough analysis will only be possible once we have dismantled the engines. Of course, this has a negative effect on our race prospects. We expected good grid positions on this track. Obviously the failures also influence our engine planning for the remaining races of the season.”
Willy Rampf, BMW Sauber head of engineering:
“Our lap times in qualifying were as we expected them to be after this morning’s free practice. Our goal was to get both cars into the top ten qualifying, which was realistic. However, the two engine failures upset our plans. From 13th and 15th in qualifying it will be difficult to score points tomorrow.”
Williams
Kazuki Nakajima (17th, Q1 - 1m 24.074s):
“It was a tough qualifying session for us - we knew it would be, but that doesn’t change the disappointment. The gap to making it into Q2 was very small and perhaps without hitting traffic on my last lap, something more might have been possible to give me a better start position for the race.”
Nico Rosberg (18th, Q1 - 1m 24.121s):
I started to find a bit more competitiveness during qualifying today and we made all the right decisions such as choosing the soft tyre, but I didn’t manage to put the ideal lap together as the car has not been at its best all weekend. Although we had a tough time with the car last race and we will struggle a lot here this weekend, I am convinced things will improve for Singapore and we will be back where we were in Valencia.
Patrick Head, Williams’ director of engineering:
“Obviously today’s performance is disappointing, but this was as much as our car can do here. Clearly we haven’t done a very good job with our low drag package for the car and we are suffering the consequences of that. Meanwhile, we are confident we can return to competitiveness for the next four races but here it is going to be very difficult to continue our run of points-scoring races. Nevertheless we will be doing our best.”
Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi (19th, Q1 - 1m 24.220s):
“I did the best I could, but the session did not go well for me. I was held up by Hamilton, who did not know I was there. Another lap for me might have made a bit of a difference, but not much. As for Glock saying I held him up, I don’t think I did, as I was just trying to rebuild a gap after being slowed by Hamilton. They say it might rain tomorrow, so now we need to work out the best strategy for whatever conditions we might encounter in the race.”
Jaime Alguersuari (20th, Q1 - 1m 24.951s):
“I was not expecting much from this session, after problems in the morning with my gearbox meant I only did ten laps in free practice. Because of that, I did not have the time to try much in terms of setting up the car. Therefore, we carried over some unknown factors into qualifying and I have to say, I am still getting used to driving the car in this low downforce configuration. I hope I can still have a good race tomorrow and to be honest, I hope it rains.”
Giorgio Ascanelli, Toro Rosso technical director:
“Today, we ended up where we deserved to be.”
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