Saturday: Best qualifying in its history for Marussia thanks to Bianchi
The Marussia team managed to get both of its drivers into Q2 at Silverstone thanks to a good strategy. Jules Bianchi secured the best starting grid position for the Russian team with his 12th place, just ahead of Chilton in 13th, but who will ultimately start 17th.
Jules Bianchi (No. 17) – 17th and 12th
The Frenchman secured 12th place on the grid, the best qualifying result for a Marussia, and he is delighted: “It’s a fantastic day for the team, and I’m happy for everyone. After our first points in Monaco, it’s nice that we achieved the team’s best qualifying result. The situation was not easy, so this result is a combination of a great strategy, perfect judgment of the changing conditions, and making the most of the track time when the conditions were good for the tires.”
He thinks he could have done even better without the yellow flag following Gutiérrez’s off-track excursion. But he is still satisfied and hopes to perform well in the race tomorrow as well: « I’m really happy to have achieved this result for the team’s home race, and anything is possible with our starting position on the grid tomorrow. I will do my best to take advantage of every opportunity. »
Max Chilton (No. 4) – 19th and 13th [17th on the grid]
The Briton achieves a good result at home just behind his teammate, even if he falls back a bit more due to a penalty, but he is delighted with his performance: « The team did an extraordinary job today, making fantastic decisions and putting us exactly in the right place at the right time. I am thrilled with this 13th place, but the reality is that we could have done a bit better without Gutierrez’s yellow flag because in these wet conditions you are fast at the end. Obviously, I have a 5-place penalty due to the gearbox change this morning, which pushes me back, but a good qualifying session was exactly what I needed because of this penalty. »
