There were top ten grid slots in Japan for both Renaults and Kamui Kobayashi while Adrian Sutil narrowly missed out...
Renault:
Bruno Senna: "It was a bit of a squeeze getting my car together in time for qualifying but the team did a fantastic job to mend it after my mishap in practice this morning. I haven't been able to get as much track time as I would have liked yet this weekend, however the car performed flawlessly throughout qualifying, and the strategy we deployed helped put us in a strong position for the race tomorrow. I am really looking forward to lining up on the grid, as it should be an exciting race. As I've said several times this weekend, I love this track and I am very well supported here so I hope to be able to give the supporters in the stands something to shout about."
Vitaly Petrov: "I'm pleased with lining up ninth on the grid. We are looking much stronger here than in Singapore, and we're demonstrating the potential of the R31 at high speed corner tracks once again. The car has felt progressively better each time I've taken to the wheel this weekend. It felt good in FP1 and FP2, and then FP3 this morning confirmed my sense that there will be a good opportunity for us to perform well here. The stability of the car improved around the high speed corners and the traction was better too, so I'm feeling confident going into tomorrow. A lot of different strategies will be played out during the race but I'm glad we are back in the hunt again."
Sauber:
Kamui Kobayashi: "I am really happy we made it into the top ten qualifying in Suzuka. I very much enjoy seeing all the fans here. In free practice we struggled quite a lot with the balance of the car, but the set up changes we made for qualifying worked out well. I think from the pace of the car you can see now that the new aero package is starting to work. My laps in Q1 and Q2 were good, and I can't complain. We still have some good tyres left for the race tomorrow, and the race is what counts. I want to score points in front of this crowd."
Sergio Perez: "As you can see from Kamui's result the car is quite competitive, and I was optimistic t I would also make it to Q3. But then on my last lap in Q1 in sector two I suddenly had a hydraulic problem, I lost everything, starting with the power steering. Therefore I could not go out in Q2, which is obviously disappointing. The mechanics worked very hard and tried to fix it, but we have to do some further investigations and I'm sure we will be alright for the race. For me the weekend isn't that easy because I also have a cold. However, looking at it positively - I have plenty of good tyres for tomorrow's race."
Force India:
Adrian Sutil: "Overall I think today's qualifying session went pretty well. I was a little bit disappointed to miss Q3 because we were not too far away from it, but everybody knows P11 is a very good place to start, especially because of the free choice of tyres for tomorrow. I was happy with my laps and I don't think I could have found much more. Also, we opted to do just one run on the soft tyres in Q2, which means I have a fresh set available for the race. So I think we can make the strategy work tomorrow and have a good race."
Paul di Resta: "Given the weekend we've had I'm pretty happy to be starting P12 - just a place behind Adrian. I've struggled to get fully up to speed here and find the ideal balance, which is why we've opted for a set-up more suited to the race. Hopefully that will pay off tomorrow because I think tyre wear is going to be a major factor in this race. Also, I'm feeling a bit under the weather today with a sore throat, so I'm pleased to come away with a starting position that should allow us to fight for points. I'll get some rest tonight because this is one of the more physical tracks of the year and will give it my all tomorrow."
Toro Rosso:
Sebastien Buemi: "I got a super lap in Q1, but I cannot be happy with Q2, because I made a mistake on the exit of Turn 9, hitting the kerb a bit too hard which sent me off into the grass, costing me around half a second. I am disappointed about that because I've ended up behind the Williams, when we could easily have been ahead of them. They don't give out any points for qualifying, so we took the decision to save tyres for the race and we will see if that was the right choice tomorrow. Tyre degradation is quite heavy, which means that having new tyres will be important in the race."
Jaime Alguersuari: "We could have had a much better qualifying in performance terms, but we had concentrated on the race in terms of our set-up and aero balance. Therefore, even if the grid position is not so good, I am quite happy because I feel that tomorrow I will have a car strong enough to score some points. I could have gone quicker this afternoon, but we decided to save tyres as well as run with a race set-up. I expect we can see a situation similar to Valencia and Monza, being very quick in the race. We have tried to focus a lot on the race in terms of getting consistency from the tyres, even if that was going to penalise us this afternoon. Thanks to the mechanics who did a good job of sorting out a problem on the car after Q1 in order to get me back on track in Q2."
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