Saturday: Toro Rosso saves for the race

Jaime Alguersuari – 16th

« Given that we tried to preserve tires for the race, I think I did my best today. I believe that the car setup for the race can be very effective, so I’m confident for tomorrow. I don’t know if it will be possible to finish in the points, but we need to see how the race unfolds. Anything can happen tomorrow, with 70 laps and different strategies. I hope ours pays off! »

Sebastien Buemi – 18th

« My 5-place grid penalty influenced our approach to qualifying. We chose not to use the super softs today to preserve them for tomorrow, giving me three sets of super soft tires for the race. Given the high level of degradation on this circuit, this could be an important factor, and I hope it will allow me to make my way into the top 10. There is a big difference between completely new tires and those that have done a few laps. One of the keys to the race will be to overtake others as early as possible ».

Giorgo Ascanelli

Jaime did a good job, considering that we gained a place because Maldonado did not run in Q2. He was quite close to those ahead of him in Q1, running first on soft tires and then on super softs, but the gap widened again in Q2, during which he only did one stint on super softs. For Buemi, given his 5-place penalty, we chose to ignore the grid position and focus on preserving tires for the race, which we achieved. He only ran on soft tires, leaving him with three sets of new super soft tires for the race. Logically, we hope for better race pace compared to qualifying. Yesterday, it was the case. Nevertheless, we weren’t spot on with low fuel, so it’s difficult to be sure of the situation on this type of track. Overtaking is difficult here, so we must be clever with our strategy and try to optimize tire usage.