Saturday: Difficult Qualifying for Virgin
The Virgin team didn't expect to face such a challenging qualifying session today. Jérôme d'Ambrosio was outpaced by both HRT drivers, although he will ultimately start ahead of them due to two penalties. As for Timo Glock, things didn't go as planned at all. The German driver experienced a gearbox issue and could only complete one timed lap, outside the 107% rule. He will have to wait for the stewards' decision to find out if he can take part in the race tomorrow.
Timo Glock – 21st and 24th
«It was a disappointing qualifying session for the whole team. We had a very good Friday yesterday, but today we were unlucky because 5th gear broke during the qualifying session and I could only do one timed lap. This lap was quite positive – the car seemed good and I had no problems. We will not start from the position we hoped for, but I think we can beat the HRT, and we have saved a set of tires as well, so we will see what we can do tomorrow. But it is obviously a big disappointment for me and for everyone who takes care of my car, but that’s racing.»
Jérôme d’Ambrosio – 23rd and 21st
« It wasn’t a very good qualifying session for me, and it has been a difficult weekend, to be honest. I feel like the car changes completely from one session to another, which makes life difficult because it’s a new circuit and the track is constantly evolving as well. It’s disappointing to find ourselves behind both HRTs because given our struggles, they manage to get on our level. It’s a great track, and I think we should have a good race, so hopefully, we can improve our position tomorrow. We managed to save a set of soft tires, and that could be very helpful. »
John Booth – Director of the Marussia Virgin Racing team
This has been a challenging day that ended with a lot of disappointment on Timo’s side of the garage. This morning, he continued to work on the settings, which were all positive, so he was confident about achieving a good result in qualifying. But after only one timed lap, he had to return to his pit apparently due to a problem with the fifth gear. We will decide what to do about it this afternoon. For what has been a very good year in terms of reliability, it is a frustrating end to the day today. It is also the second issue of this kind, so we absolutely have to resolve it. We obviously managed to save more tires than expected for Timo and I am sure he is determined to achieve the best result possible. Jérôme had some difficulties with a variable balance on his car between the different sessions. We will analyze the data with him to try to understand this.
