Saturday: Toro Rosso crashes into the wall!

The Toro Rosso drivers may be kicking themselves. After a free practice session this morning in Japan, the young Spaniard clocked the 10th fastest time ahead of world champions such as Alonso and Hamilton. A very satisfying and encouraging 10th time with qualifications following closely. But the standout performance was credited to his teammate, Sebastien Buemi. The Swiss driver achieved the 2nd fastest time, just 62 thousandths of a second behind Jarno Trulli. A performance that would not remain unique…

At least, before the Suzuka track got the better of the Toro Rossos. For the first time in his young career, Alguersuari managed to qualify in Q2, but having crashed into the wall, he couldn’t do better than 15th place. Sebastien Buemi, who had an extraordinary morning, hit the rear of his car in the first laps. The Swiss driver managed to bring his car back for repairs, participated at the end of Q1, and easily qualified for Q2 and then Q3. But it was in this final part of the qualification that Buemi grazed and then touched the wall once again. Therefore, the Toro Rosso driver will start from 10th position.

Sebastien Buemi – 2nd and 13th (10th fastest):

I am not happy, given what I did in Q3, but after losing the car, I couldn’t get back on track. It’s shameful on my part, as it was my second Q3 of the season and the car felt great today. I was really comfortable, and maybe I didn’t need to do the final lap. In Q1 after my crash, I managed to bring the car back to the pits to get it repaired. After the second crash, I had to try to bring the car back to the pits again because we didn’t know the damage to the cockpit. Hopefully, I can deliver a great performance with the car tomorrow to repay the team for all the work they’ve done so far.

**Jaime Alguersuari – 10th and 12th (15th fastest time)**:

«Before the accident, I was on the attack on hard tires. I lost control and went into the wall. It was a significant impact. The car is completely damaged, but I’m fine. I felt confident in turn 9, and so I was doing well until I went too fast on hard tires and once I was on the grass, I had no grip at all. I hope the car will be repaired so I can start tomorrow from the position I qualified in. I think with the car, we’re moving forward, and I hope to have a good race tomorrow with a strong pace. Sorry to give extra work to the guys!»

Laurent Mekies – Chief Engineer:

The most important thing is that our two drivers are okay, and we hope the same for the other drivers who crashed this afternoon. It’s a mixed day; on one hand, we demonstrated good performance on both dry and wet tracks, but on the other hand, both cars are damaged. We must note Jaime’s achievement of qualifying for Q2 for the first time. Sebastien was fast and was on track for a very good qualification. It’s a shame. Work awaits us now. I’m impressed by our two drivers who learned a lot on this track in a very limited time.