Saturday: Caterham confirms its progress by reaching Q2

Heikki Kovalainen – 18th and 16th:

Our performance today is the result of a big effort from the whole team. This morning, we weren’t sure if we could do it, but my two attempts in Q1 were really good. As the temperatures rose and the track evolved, I felt my car was getting better and better and I really extracted the maximum from it in this final lap on Softs. In Q2, we decided to wait until the end of the session to see if we could improve our Q1 time, and although it wasn’t possible, we managed to beat both Toro Rosso and that’s obviously a great feeling.

I think tomorrow could really be interesting for us: it seems we have a chance to race against them and it’s a significant step forward for our team. We have gotten closer to them in the last few races, but this circuit, the conditions here, and the new parts we have brought give us the chance to progress in our goal of reaching the middle of the hierarchy, now we must translate the result into better news tomorrow and keep moving forward.

Vitaly Petrov – 20th and 20th:

« It has been a good day for the team thanks to the improvements we have made here that help us take another step forward. For my part, I had a good first stint with the Medium tires and then everything was going well with the Softs but I made a small mistake that cost me a few tenths, and here, it only takes losing a little time to lose a few places. Now, it’s time to focus on the race and anything can happen here. I believe the key to a good race will be controlling tire degradation and so far this weekend, we have been reasonably happy with how our car has behaved on long runs. Obviously, we won’t know until tomorrow how our closest competitors will be able to preserve their tires, so we will just make sure to perform at our best, finish the race, and see where we end up. »