Saturday: A little better than expected for Toro Rosso
After missing their qualifications in Turkey, the two Toro Rosso drivers wanted to show that they were still in the game. And they've done just that with the 11th and 13th position on the grid.
Sebastien Buemi – 11th
« I am very happy with the 11th place. We finished ahead of the Saubers and the Force India, and when you consider what’s planned, I would have new parts for the next race, which is also a good sign for Monaco. Besides that, we have kept a set of new soft tires for the race, as we chose not to do a second run in Q2, so for the moment, everything looks good. In a way, it’s better to be eleventh than tenth, because if I had been in Q3, we would probably have gone out and used another set of tires, but in these conditions, I’m on the right side of the track with a set of new tires. »
Jaime Alguersuari – 13th
« The car was working well in the fast section of the circuit, but in the slower ones, I didn’t have a good feeling with the car, so we need to look at the data to see what we can improve on the car in sector 3 before tomorrow’s race. Afterward, I’m happy for the team because we both got a good result, and I think we can have a good race. We can expect a 3-stop strategy since the new hard Pirelli tires are harder than before. I’m now looking forward to having a good race on my home circuit. »
Giorgio Ascanelli
« I think the eleventh place is a little better than what we were hoping for, given that at the end of the day Seb [Buemi] put in a magnificent lap. Jaime’s position reflects a bit better our place, although it’s not completely perfect for some reason. It was a difficult session because the temperatures were very high, and the car was losing grip at the rear, so Jaime couldn’t get the tires to work in the final sector, but as I said, Seb [Buemi] did a magnificent lap with our aggressive choice of doing only one lap on his last run. With Jaime, it wasn’t the right decision to give him another set of tires for Q2, but you don’t want to upset a driver who tells you he can go faster. We had some improvements here that gave us the expected results. It gave us a lot of work for a small step forward, and I think they will work even better in Monaco once we have a better understanding of them. »
