Saturday: HRT between satisfaction and disappointment
The two HRT drivers experienced very different outcomes in qualifying. Hampered by a suspension problem, Vitantonio Liuzzi couldn't compete in Q1, while his teammate, Australian Daniel Ricciardo, delivered a promising qualifying performance, narrowly missing out on overtaking the two Virgin drivers.
Daniel Ricciardo – 23rd and 21st:
« I am happy with today’s performance even though we were a bit uncertain about the qualifications. I did everything to stay positive and believe that I could perform as best as possible, but there were some doubts about my settings and the free practice sessions didn’t go well since yesterday. But we took the plunge and the car was good, I felt like I was driving well and I was able to achieve my best time on my last lap.
I had a really good first sector and, in the second, I lost a bit of time overtaking Glock, so I might have even finished ahead of him without that incident. But I pushed as hard as I could, as I always do, and I’m very happy to have achieved this result.
Vitantonio Liuzzi – 21st and 23rd:
The result of the qualifying is unfortunate because we had a good weekend until then. After my second stint, we suffered a broken suspension support, and the car was understeering heavily in left-hand turns, but I tried to keep going for a few laps so we could understand what the problem was exactly.
The car was not fast at all and the balance was no longer there, which is why we were so far behind. It’s a shame because this is a track where we could have achieved our best qualifying performance of the season, but we can still be competitive in the race if we fix this: tomorrow is another day.
Colin Kolles, Team Principal:
This morning we had a problem-free session that allowed us to complete the program and prepare for the qualifications. The latter started quite well, but Tonio encountered an issue with his front suspension that will need to be looked into and it prevented him from achieving the perfect lap at the end.
Daniel was ahead of the two Virgins, but he lost a few tenths in the second sector, which left him behind Glock. Nevertheless, the pace shown by our two cars in the various sessions is good, and there is virtually no difference with our direct rivals.
Tomorrow, if we all do our best and stay focused from start to finish, I am confident we can achieve a good result for the team, which would allow us to end the season on a positive note.
