Sebastien Buemi continued his impressive late-season form with an impressive tenth position on the grid for Toro Rosso.
The young Swiss driver had been as high as seventh in Q2, and admitted after qualifying that he was disappointed not to have qualified even higher.
Jaime Alguersuari was fifteenth after problems in morning practice.
Sebastien Buemi – 10th: “I was hoping for a little bit better after finishing seventh in Q2, but I am happy with our fuel load which should allow us to be flexible in terms of race strategy. The car feels very competitive, as indeed it has been for the past few races and scoring points is a realistic target for tomorrow. The visibility is no problem so that should be fine for the race and the track is getting faster every time we go out on it.”
Jaime Alguersuari – 15th: “Taking into account that I was unable to do any laps this morning, because of a problem with the car, I think my performance in qualifying was quite positive, especially as I was not completely happy with the aerodynamic balance of the car. I was not expecting to make it to Q2 after not running in FP3 on a track that is new to everyone. Looking back at my season, I think that getting into Q2 again shows I am making progress, but I still have a lot to learn. I hope I can have a nice race to end the season tomorrow.”
Laurent Mekies (Chief Engineer): “A session with mixed fortunes: firstly Sebastien made it through to Q3 for the third time in a row and this is pretty much his level now, being a regular Q3 contender, which is a positive aspect. Managing the session was more difficult than usual, as both tyre compounds were very close in terms of performance, needing a longer run to get the best out of them. We did not help Jaime much today, as he did not take part in FP3 because of a problem on the car and then in the afternoon, we had a few glitches on his car. Therefore, overall, I think he did the best he could today and we hope that tomorrow we can be competitive again and bring home some points.”
