Saturday: the track did not evolve as expected for Lotus Renault
The Lotus Renault Grand Prix team knew that the qualifying session would be difficult, especially for Vitaly Petrov who received a five-place penalty for colliding with Michael Schumacher in South Korea. The Russian driver set the 11th fastest time and will therefore start 16th - quite far back. His teammate, Bruno Senna, will start just ahead from the 14th position, but with only one set of softs left for the race, he expects to face a tough Grand Prix. Vitaly Petrov, on the other hand, still hopes to climb back into the top 10 to bring a good result to the LRGP team.
Vitaly Petrov – 14th and 16th
«It was a nice feeling to be leading after Q1 this afternoon and it was fully justified – at that moment our pace was very good. I was a bit slower in Q2 in terms of lap time, and I couldn’t beat my Q1 time because I made a few small mistakes in several corners. That added to the fact that the other teams managed to improve, you have the reason why I couldn’t qualify for Q3. Tomorrow will be the first Indian Grand Prix so anything can happen a little. Even with my five-place penalty, I remain optimistic because I can still achieve a good result for the team.»
Bruno Senna – 12th and 14th
« It has been a very disappointing qualifying session. The track has evolved a lot compared to this morning, and the changes made to my car have, I think, taken me in the wrong direction given the track conditions. I struggled a lot with the car’s balance and paid the price for it. I only have one set of new soft tires left for tomorrow, which complicates things, but I hope it might be a bit cooler, and we can have a good day. I think the track evolved and favored the other cars, but we might be better off at the start tomorrow, especially with the fuel load we are carrying. The tire wear level seemed correct during the free practice 3, so we’ll see how it goes during the race. »
