Saturday: Both Toro Rosso reach Q3 in Montreal
During a qualifying session held on a wet track, both Toro Rosso drivers managed to make it into Q3. Vergne and Ricciardo hope to take advantage of their good starting positions to have a good race tomorrow and score points.
Jean-Eric Vergne – 17th and 7th:
This wasn’t an easy session, and at one point, I even thought I wouldn’t make it past Q1! But we managed to improve several things on the car, and that helped. Generally, I feel comfortable in the wet, but that wasn’t the case today. The car wasn’t exceptional, but I think we got the most out of it. It was difficult to drive here, but in the end, it worked because I secured 7th place on the grid. It’s my best qualifying in F1, but I’m not going to jump for joy with a 7th place, as no points are awarded on Saturday. We still have the bulk of the work to do tomorrow, where I’ll try to at least maintain my position and maybe do better. I’m a race driver, so I always want to move forward. It’ll be a tough afternoon with various conditions, but our pace over long runs was good yesterday, so that’s a reason to be optimistic.
Daniel Ricciardo – 13th and 10th [11th after a penalty]:
« The conditions were very difficult this afternoon, everything you can think of – rain, wet track, slippery track… so we never really got going and we were lucky to get into Q3 because I was never comfortable or happy with the car on intermediates. I think there was an element of luck for me to get into the top 10 today. If it’s dry tomorrow, I think we can gain places because I think there are several drivers ahead of us who aren’t on the pace in the dry, so I hope the rain doesn’t come tomorrow. However, I’m happy that both Toro Rosso are in the top 10, it’s a great achievement for the team. »
