“It's not going to be an easy race tomorrow, but I will give my maximum to try and recover. I will work hard with my engineers this evening so that we can try and improve for tomorrow and for the races to come. After that it will be down to me to do what I can on the track during the race.”
The Enstone-based concern's executive director of engineering Pat Symonds admitted to mixed feelings at the end of the hour-long session, but insisted he was hopeful of putting strategy to good use to come away with a solid points haul on race day.
“It was unfortunate for Nelson to drop out of qualifying so early,” the Englishman acknowledged, “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.”
“We probably did not have the best qualifying session today,” concurred
Renault's head of engine track operations Denis Chevrier, “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.”
