Sebastien Buemi was left puzzled by his disappointing qualifying performance, as both Toro Rosso struggled around the Hockenheim circuit.
Buemi could only manage the seventeenth fastest time during the session and could not pinpoint the real reason behind the uncompetitiveness of his STR5.
Team-mate Jaime Alguersuari, who qualified one place better in sixteenth, was surprised to have out-qualified his team-mate, after struggling to get to grips with the German circuit in practice.
Jaime Alguersuari – 16th: “To be honest I did not expect to be quicker than my team-mate today, as it has been a difficult weekend with not so much testing on a dry track. Therefore, I found it hard to get up to speed in the dry, but in the end, I managed it in qualifying, even if I might have been able to improve by one or two tenths. If it stays like this for the race, who knows what might happen as it is possible that tyre degradation will be a factor that might help me move up the order.”
Sebastien Buemi – 17th: “Q1 went well, but I am not really sure what happened in Q2, as I was unable to make the most of the improving track conditions. We will have to see why that was, if it was down to the way we ran the tyres or some other reason to do with the set-up. Therefore I am rather disappointed that things did not go as well as expected. As for tomorrow’s race, there are a couple of places where you can overtake if you have the speed, so let’s wait and see what happens and a lot could depend on the weather. If it is dry, the key element of the strategy will be managing the usage of the soft tyre.”
Giorgio Ascanelli: “After this afternoon’s session, we are looking a bit better than in Silverstone a fortnight ago, however that is mainly due to Liuzzi’s crash – I’m glad he seems okay rather than due to our own efforts. “
