“Qualifying was not great and the car was bottoming too much in the first sector – that cost me time which I could not recover in the rest of the lap. That is strange because we didn’t change the car itself. It’s difficult to find the right set-up when the wind changes so much, but I went for a wet set-up in case we have a wet race tomorrow. Now I just hope that will pay off and our Sunday will be better.”
Kazuki Nakajima:
“Obviously it was a very hard qualifying session for us. I made it through to Q2, but was struggling with grip, and the difference between our times and those of the other teams is quite significant. We need to find something from the car, and from me, and we will need to do a lot of work tonight to make sure we have the best strategy in place for the race.”
Rubens Barrichello:
“It’s unfortunate that we were not able to progress further in qualifying today, and I’m afraid that reflects the true potential of the car on a dry track. Out on the circuit, I thought we were through in 15th when it began to rain, but unfortunately it was just raining in the section of track that I was on and others were able to improve further round the lap, dropping me to 16th.
“I wasn’t able to improve on my final lap at the end of the session as I had too much understeer in the car and the tyres were graining on the damp surface. We’re expecting wet conditions for the race tomorrow, which should make it exciting and open up possibilities if we can stay out of trouble.”
Jenson Button:
“It was a disappointing qualifying session today for my home grand prix. The brief rain shower did come just at the wrong moment for us as my final run on the completely dry track was compromised by traffic through Becketts. That left me in 18th when the shower began, so I had to go out right at the end of the session to try to improve, regardless of the conditions.
