Saturday Report: HRT – Liuzzi and Karthikeyan will join the party

The small Spanish team can now regain hope, even if everything is not yet won: its two drivers will be on the starting line. After experiencing a relatively normal Friday for a Formula One team, HRT continued its momentum by qualifying quite easily within the 107%. Jose Ramon Carabante’s team thus gives itself a bit of a respite in its survival.

Vitantonio Liuzzi – 23rd and 23rd

« It’s great for everyone to be well below 107%. We proved that in Australia, the issue wasn’t about pace, but a lack of running; we had half a day of testing compared to the three months other teams had. You can’t accumulate mileage like that. Now, we have to work hard in the coming months, for the next races, to try to close the gap.

This is only the first step for Hispania Racing, we have done an excellent job and we have improved a lot since Australia. I am proud of the work done by everyone, from the moment the car arrived in Australia to being able to race here in good conditions. We had some minor issues yesterday and today, but it’s normal when working with such tight deadlines. I think we can still make progress, I had a good lap and here is the result: we will be on the grid tomorrow.

Narain Karthikeyan – 24th and 24th

« We went through the qualifications, which was our goal for today. The car is almost brand new, so it’s good to accumulate a few more kilometers; the more time we spend on the track, the better it is. I flat-spotted my second set of tires at the first corner, so it was difficult to set a good time after that, but everyone worked very hard and we are thrilled to be in the race.

We had said that Sepang would be one of the most difficult circuits to achieve the 107%, so it’s a great satisfaction to have done it. Now, I hope to finish tomorrow’s race and accumulate more kilometers on the odometer with the new car. They are forecasting rain for tomorrow, so you never know what might happen.

Colin Kolles

We have crossed the next step by qualifying for the race. Our goal was to qualify and be able to do more laps. By covering more kilometers, we can better understand the F111, and our drivers can get more and more out of it. Both drivers did a good job today, Tonio laid a good foundation. Now, we have something to work on for the future.

Once again, I want to thank the entire team for their massive efforts. Now, we have our next goal in mind: to keep doing laps and finish tomorrow’s race with both cars.