“Jenson didn’t have as good a balance with today’s track conditions, and our car seems more suited to the prime tyre than the option. In qualifying the option tyre was the faster of the two, but we were unable to get the most from it.
“The forecast is for the possibility of rain, and for us a wet race would certainly suit our starting grid slots of P11 and P14. It is also our best chance of scoring points. If the conditions remain dry it will probably be a very tight race in the midfield, and we would expect most people to two-stop and probably at the same point in the race.”
Giorgio Ascanelli [Scuderia Toro Rosso – technical director]:
“We had to change the engine on Bourdais’ car after the morning session, then in the afternoon his car suffered a brake problem which meant he had to slow down on his fast lap. Malaysia has confirmed it is a demanding circuit for the entire package, and we did not get it quite right. My biggest regret is the lack of reliability we have seen in certain areas over the past two days.”
Sam Michael [Williams – technical director]:
“It was obviously a disappointing qualifying today. This morning we had a bad run on Nico’s car in practice with a hydraulic leak which cost us some set-up time, but even so it would be difficult to see how we could have made it into the top ten; our qualifying performance needs improvement. We’ll now look to strategy and put together the best race plan we can to get the cars into the points.”
Mike Gascoyne [Force India – chief technical officer]:
“Ultimately it was very disappointing to have missed out on Q2 with Giancarlo by only five hundredths of a second. It is also frustrating to have been within a second of the quickest time in the first session and to still be 17th on the grid, but that shows just how close and exciting
Formula 1 is at the moment. Giancarlo has done a good job all day. Adrian struggled with the balance, but overall I think we have a car that can be competitive with those in front of us.”
Graham Taylor [Super Aguri – sporting director]:
“All credit to the drivers, engineers and the boys after a very difficult Friday. We came back fighting; we had a good practice session this morning and a better balance in the car. We were a little worried about the forecast of rain during qualifying as neither driver has run with the new ECU rules in the wet, but fortuitously that didn’t occur. Our small victory of Takuma beating one of the Force India cars gives us hope for tomorrow.”
