Nelson Piquet produced a strong performance when it mattered to conquer the challenging weather conditions and outqualify his team mate for the first time.
Piquet’s 10th place on the grid will only help ease the growing speculation regarding his future in the team. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso made a mistake on his flying lap in Q2 eliminating the Spaniard to 12th.
Fernando Alonso – 12th: “At the start of qualifying we were quite optimistic. We were competitive in Q1 but after that Q2 became difficult for everybody as the conditions were constantly changing. Unfortunately we missed the opportunity to be in Q3, but hopefully tomorrow we can make up some positions and if it does rain that could work to our advantage. I’m quite confident for the race tomorrow.”
Nelson Piquet – 10th: “The conditions were difficult today, but I managed to deal with them well and had the right tyres at the right moments. It’s a shame that I couldn’t get any more out of Q3, but it’s good to be in the top ten and hopefully we will be in a position to score points tomorrow.”
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: “There is no doubt the updates on the car have improved our position this weekend. It was a very exciting qualifying session; Fernando looked extremely competitive but unfortunately spun at a critical moment and failed to make Q3. Nelson had a steady session and thoroughly deserves his position on the grid.”
