“David did an excellent job to get comfortably through to Q3. As he had no soft tyres left for his final run, we were always adopting a strategic game with him. It was a strong team performance.”
Fabrice Lom [Renault – principal engineer, track support]:
“We are very pleased with today’s result. To have both cars in the top ten is what we have been aiming for and now we have it. The Q2 times of both drivers were very good. Sixth and tenth is a good result for us; now let’s see what we can do with that tomorrow.”
Pat Symonds [Renault – executive director of engineering]:
“It was unfortunate for Nelson to drop out of qualifying so early, especially as he had shown very equal pace to Fernando all morning, but that is what qualifying is all about. It’s very competitive and it’s necessary to produce the goods at the right time.
“However, I’m sure he can still have a strong race. Fernando is quite nicely positioned given our current performance – let’s see if we can use the strategy tomorrow to improve upon that starting position.”
Denis Chevrier [Renault – head of engine track operations]:
“We probably did not have the best qualifying session today, but Fernando finished more-or-less where we expected. The competition was once again very tight, especially in the top ten, but I hope we are able to fight with them tomorrow.
“The weekend is therefore a continuation of the progress we saw in Barcelona, which is encouraging. For Nelson, today is a bit disappointing because it will be difficult to adopt a strategy that will allow him to fully recover. He needs to prepare himself for a difficult race, but we will do our best to support him.”
Pascal Vasselon [Toyota – senior general chassis manager]:
“That was a very shaky qualifying session after a weekend that had been going smoothly so far. Timo in particular had been having a good weekend, consistently running well with no set-up problems. He was fast and heading for a top ten position.
