Virgin Racing continued to be plagued by unreliability, during Saturday’s qualifying session for the 2010 Australian Grand Prix.
Timo Glock suffered a fuel pick-up problem and was forced to run heavier to compensate, meanwhile Luca di Grassi, who had also experienced technical gremlins throughout the weekend, made a number of errors on his fast lap.
With a fuel tank too small and a car littered with problems, it will be a miracle if Virgin can make it to the end of tomorrow’s race.
Timo Glock – 21st: “We had another tough morning so all I could do is try to get the best out of the car in Qualifying. We were carrying more fuel than we would have liked because of a pick-up problem, otherwise I think we would have been able to have more of a fight with Lotus. Anyway, we’ll do what we can to prepare for tomorrow and see what the race brings.”
Lucas di Grassi- 22nd: “Free practice was okay for me and the car was feeling quite good. I was certainly feeling some improvement. I didn’t manage to maximise the performance of the car in qualifying as I made a mistake on my quick lap. I’m looking forward to the race as the car is behaving quite well with heavy fuel.”
Nick Wirth, Technical Director: “Lucas had a trouble-free morning although he had an unexpected low fuel pick-up problem, which ultimately badly affected both himself and Timo in Qualifying. Timo had another blocked gearbox filter, which meant he went into Qualifying having not tried the option tyre and with a similar fuel pick-up issue. So in the end I think both guys did a good job in Qualifying considering the extra fuel they were carrying and the lack of practice time during the weekend. Sometimes it may not seem like it, but we are getting on top of the issues as they arise and we’ll see if we can make further progress in the race tomorrow.”
