On a day when no drivers or teams had an easy time of things,
Scuderia Toro Rosso were inarguably the most severely in the wars both before and during the qualifying session for this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
With the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve quite literally disintegrating beneath them, drivers were spinning off left, right and centre, and both
Sebastian Vettel and Sébastien Bourdais came to grief before qualifying had even got underway, during Saturday morning's final free practice session.
Vettel's impact was the heavier of the two, with the damage forcing the young German to sit out qualifying altogether – all the more frustrating given his pace during FP3, when he had lapped a competitive tenth-quickest despite not being out on-track when the best times were generally set. He will consequently begin Sunday's grand prix on the Ile Notre-Dame from the pit-lane.
“This morning I made a mistake,” the 20-year-old rued, “losing the rear end of the car and unfortunately here the walls are very close, without much run-off area. The impact was not that bad, but bad enough to damage the monocoque in a way that it could not be repaired in the two hours we had available before qualifying. This year of course the rules ban spare cars, so we had to rebuild the damaged one which meant no qualifying for me today.”
Team-mate Bourdais, for his part, was always hovering around the Q1 cut-off during the opening phase of the qualifying session, and was ultimately forced out by four tenths of a second. Worse still, the Frenchman will now start the race from 18th spot, after receiving a five-place penalty for having to undergo a gearbox change in the wake of his practice ‘off'.
“The track is falling apart and the conditions are really difficult,” the four-time Champ Car king blasted afterwards. “Because of the wind, there was also a lot of debris and leaves which made the track very slippery, plus the asphalt has got marbles on the racing line because it's breaking up.
