Saturday: The Marussia should be competitive in the race
While Timo Glock disregarded the inherent problems with his car's qualifying setup to post a decent time, Charles Pic encountered more difficulties that relegated him to the last position on the grid.
Timo Glock – 21st and 21st:
The free practice 3 sessions were fine but in qualifying, we encountered a more general problem with overall balance. Even though the track is dirty, the grip level on the racing line is significant, but we were unable to make the most of it because I couldn’t get the front tires up to temperature. In my first stint, with the hard tires, I set a reasonable time. In the second stint, the soft tires seemed fine, and I really had a good first sector. I was in Pérez’s slipstream and was already four-tenths faster on my lap. Due to low temperatures, I went off track, had a huge lock-up, and took the corner on three wheels. I also had an issue with the DRS activation in turn 10 and had to abort the first lap with the softs.
Overall, I am happy with what we have achieved to close the gap with Caterham in qualifying as well as in the race; given that we don’t have KERS, it’s really pleasing for everyone in the team. It’s a shame that the issues we encountered today prevented us from passing Petrov and Kovalainen because they were easily within our reach.
For tomorrow, we have a good strategy and we have given ourselves two options to play with, so the goal now is to have a good race with the cars in front and try to achieve the best possible result. Thanks to my car team for their efforts here and the quick changes between stints, but also to the factory for continuing to push until the end of the season.
Charles Pic – 22nd and 24th:
Naturally, I’m a bit disappointed because it doesn’t reflect our true pace here. The first stint on hard tires was solid in sectors 1 and 2, but I had to stop my effort. In the second stint, on soft tires, we were less competitive than with the hard tires, which we need to analyze to understand. Overall, the lap time was better, but only because we were able to finish the lap.
I think we have a lot of work to do to make sure we have the car that will perform well tomorrow because our race pace is good. It will be difficult to start behind the HRTs, but my goal will be to overtake them as quickly as possible because it will be crucial for me to have a good race tomorrow, which I really hope for.
