Saturday: D’Ambrosio Satisfied and Glock Disappointed at Virgin
Hindered during one of his quick laps, Timo Glock could only manage to take the last position on the grid, behind Jérome D'Ambrosio, who secured 23rd place in what might be his last Grand Prix for the Marussia Virgin team.
Jérome D’Ambrosio – 20th and 23rd
« It wasn’t a bad qualifying, but honestly, it wasn’t the best either. I had better sensations with the car this morning – I lost performance between FP3 and qualifying. We need to see what happened. I lost a bit of time in the second sector on my best lap. As I said, it wasn’t perfect, but it’s not bad and we will fight tomorrow to try to compete with the HRTs. If it rains tomorrow, the most important thing will be to stay on the track because anything can happen in Brazil when it rains. »
Timo Glock – 23rd and 24th
« A bit of disappointment I must say. The car was difficult to drive this morning – from one stint to another, I had no stability. So, it was hard to go into qualifying with confidence, even though on the first stints, the car seemed okay. I tried to push on the second set of tires. I did three good first corners but a Toro Rosso came out of the pits in front of me and stayed there for the whole lap, so I couldn’t go any faster and I lost a lot of time. It’s a shame because I had to cool the tires before doing another lap, but they are never as good as in their first laps. So we have to start last, which is very disappointing, but we have to see what we can do tomorrow. Maybe the weather will help us a bit, but overall, it’s a shame. »
John Booth, team leader
« A disappointing afternoon for the team. It was not what we were hoping for. Timo struggled with the balance of his car this morning and had to make some significant changes for qualifying, which is far from ideal even though the balance improved. Unfortunately, Timo’s second run was disrupted by Buemi on what would have been his fastest lap, and that’s unfortunate. Jerome had a good morning and was very happy with his time during FP3, which, after adjusting for the fuel load, was much better than his Q1 lap, where he was hampered by oversteer. At times today, the weather seemed like it might play a role, but that was not the case. We are looking forward to tomorrow: the threat of rain exists, and we will try to finish the season as strongly as we can. »
