Saturday: Contrasting Qualifiers for Virgin
After free practice sessions dedicated to testing the new features brought to the MVR-02, Timo Glock has a good qualifying session and will start from 20th place on the grid. Jérôme d'Ambrosio, on the other hand, will start 23rd, having suffered from hydraulic problems.
Timo Glock – 20th
« I think we had a good qualifying session today. We encountered some problems with the first set of tires because it wasn’t working as it should, and I was a bit worried. […] We spent most of the time on Friday unable to focus on the settings, and it wasn’t easy to make the old aerodynamic package work. We did our best this morning, and ultimately, it didn’t go too badly in qualifying. Now, we need to focus on the race and stay positive. »
Jérôme d’Ambrosio – 23rd
« It hasn’t been an easy day for me today. This morning, we couldn’t recover the speed we had yesterday and then in qualifying, I only managed to do one lap because I encountered hydraulic problems on my first lap. But, even though it wasn’t the simplest session, the team did a good job repairing the car and we will be in the race, so let’s wait for tomorrow. »
John Booth, Team Principal
This morning, Jérôme had difficulties achieving the same performance as yesterday from our race package, and his qualifying was compromised by a hydraulic leak during his first run. The team quickly located the problem and allowed him to get back on track, even though his time is not representative of his potential or that of the car.
Timo had a much better session although he found himself with less grip than he expected in his first stint, but adjusting the tire pressure allowed him to achieve a better time.
As for tomorrow’s race, finishing with both cars remains our objective. They were in a configuration that complies with the technical guidelines concerning the exhaust.
