Saturday: De la Rosa gave his all at HRT
Considering the gap that separated them from the best time in Q1, the men at HRT believe they achieved their best qualification in Formula One in terms of performance. Pedro de la Rosa, in particular, is quite satisfied with his lap even though he will no longer have new tires for the race.
Pedro de la Rosa – 21st and 21st (20th on the grid):
« It was the best qualifying session of the year and, without a doubt, the best lap I’ve ever done in Monaco. The car was good, and we decided to do three stints with three sets of new Super Soft tires because we already know that in Monaco, the most important thing is to do a good lap. That’s exactly what happened, and I’m thrilled about it because doing a 1:18.096 here is very good.
I am very satisfied because we managed the timing well, the team knew when it was the right time to go out to avoid traffic, and I did my part of the job, which was to make the best lap possible. I must admit that I took some risks; on certain laps, in the final sector, I almost closed my eyes, but I had to push, and that’s what I did. With a tenth more, we could have also overtaken Glock, but the truth is that we are very happy with how the day went.
Narain Karthikeyan – 23rd and 23rd (22nd on the grid):
« We adopted a different strategy than Pedro and went out for two stints, although doing three might have been better. The positive note is that we have an extra set of new Super Soft tires for tomorrow’s race and we will need to make the best use of them.
Pedro and I had been quite close all weekend, and I’m sure we’ll have a good pace in the race tomorrow. That being said, if it rains, it will be a bit of a lottery. Whatever happens, we must be ready to make the most of every opportunity that may arise.
