Toro Rosso joined Lotus, Virgin and HRT at the back of the timesheets in qualifying for the Italian GP.../B>
Toro Rosso:
Sebastien Buemi: "I am satisfied with what I managed to do this afternoon, because getting into Q2 is not bad, given how little track time I got yesterday and my lap was okay. I was reasonably happy with my lap, but of course, it's a bit hard to take after our much better qualifying in Spa a fortnight ago. We brought many new parts to try here and, in the end, especially because of my accident yesterday, we did not really have time to evaluate everything properly. Recent races have been very open and uncertain, so anything could happen tomorrow. We will just have to try our best and see where we are after 53 laps."
Jaime Alguersuari: "Even if the result is not so good, I can be pleased with the fact that we have at least managed to improve the car since the start of practice, but my lap was simply not quick enough to move up to the next session. The pace was not there. Sebastien did a really good lap, so well done to him for getting into Q2. I have scored points before from starting eighteenth on the grid, so let's see what happens tomorrow."
Team Lotus:
Jarno Trulli: "I'm really happy with the job the team has done today and I think I got the most I could out of the car, particularly on the second run. There's only really one line here in Monza - it's not a particularly technical circuit but you need to be extremely precise and with the power steering system we had in Hungary back on the car I'm able to feel my way around the whole lap, which gives me the chance to put in laps like I did to get into the 1.26s. The car has definitely improved since yesterday - we found the balance we were struggling for in FP1 and FP2 and I think that puts us in a good place for the race tomorrow."
Heikki Kovalainen: "The car felt good today but I struggled a bit to get the ultimate lap time out of it this afternoon. I don't really know why so I'll have a look at the data with the engineers and see where we could find some time, but the good thing is that we have definitely improved since yesterday which shows we keep on going in a positive direction all the time. Even after that I think we didn't qualify too badly and are in a reasonable position to fight tomorrow. Jarno is strong here and it will be a good battle with him tomorrow. The important thing is to keep the gap to the guys behind us and look ahead, not behind. I think we'll be ok."
Virgin:
Timo Glock: "A disappointing qualifying. We had a problem with the rear wing - it just stayed open and didn't close again. Then after a certain speed it just closed on its own. We have never had a problem with it before and didn't have anything wrong yesterday, so we have to look at this and resolve it because it's not very comfortable to experience that. It was very difficult and frustrating because we were very close to Kovalainen today and close 'enough' I think. With the wing working properly, who knows?"
Jerome D'Ambrosio: "Today's wasn't a bad qualifying and I'm generally very happy with it. I think it was difficult to try and get a tow as there was quite a lot of traffic and that made it even harder. But I felt very comfortable again in the car and in general I'm very satisfied. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's race - it looks like it's going to be a very close one."
Hispania:
Daniel Ricciardo: "It feels really nice not being on the back of the grid and finishing ahead of Tonio, which is a small target I had set myself, so I'm happy to have achieved that. But I don't want to stop there, I want to do it constantly and progress in one way or another. It's been a tough weekend having suffered some mechanical problems in yesterday's practice sessions, so we didn't get to run as much as we would have liked today. I was aware that I had to give everything I could in this qualifying session and it's really satisfying to have done a good job. Now we have to wait and see how tomorrow goes but I think we should have a good set-up because we didn't go completely aggressive in qualifying."
Tonio Liuzzi: "If you take everything into account then, overall, it was a good qualifying session because the car was behaving well. But the thing about Monza is that slipstream is very important in order to set a good time and I wasn't in the right place at the right place, so I wasn't able to make the most of this. So, at the end of the day, I'm on the back of the grid. But the car is behaving well for the race so I'm positive that tomorrow we can have a good race."
Related Links
Qualy: Seb slides his way into pole
Saturday's shots from Monza
