Saturday: Caterham takes back control over Marussia thanks to Pic
Charles Pic has new parts on his CT03 this weekend and they seem to be working well as the Frenchman managed to finish ahead of both Marussias. A great performance also for Giedo Van der Garde, who, without these new parts, managed to get ahead of Max Chilton's Marussia. Both Caterham drivers are now focused on the race where they hope to be able to make their mark.
Charles Pic – 18th and 19th [18th on the grid]:
I’m really happy with my final position today. Obviously, we would have liked to be a bit higher on the grid, but with the package we have here in Bahrain, I think we extracted the maximum today during qualifying, so we can be pleased. We have several new parts here which clearly helped us to make progress, and after good free practice 3 sessions, we were fully ready for qualifying.
Yesterday, the car had a bit of understeer, which was the result of the new parts being fitted back onto the car. However, the changes made overnight have resulted in a more balanced car, and my last lap in Q1 today shows the progress made since last week. We now need to maintain this pace tomorrow during the race, and having seen not too high degradation levels on long stints, we can have some good battles with a few cars ahead.
Giedo van der Garde – 20th and 21st [20th on the grid]:
« For me, it was a good qualifying session and I am happy with my position, considering that I have the same car since Australia without the new parts that Charles has here in Bahrain. Overall, I am thrilled for the whole team because his time is a sign of our position and the work done by everyone to show what our capabilities are.
In Spain, I would have the same updates as my teammate, and that means I should be able to fight at the same level as him, but for today, I squeezed the maximum out of the car on my last lap, and I think I can play an important role tomorrow in the race on a track where we seem well.
