27 Aug 2011
TODAY’S QUALIFYING IN SPA WAS A CHALLENGING EXPERIENCE
Qualifying for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix was a tough experience for drivers and engineers up and down the pit lane this afternoon, thanks to the changeable climatic conditions and track incidents. It was no exception for us.
This morning’s rain provided Timo and Jérôme with the opportunity to put both the Intermediate and Extreme Wet tyres through their paces and prepare for the afternoon.
It looked like it might be a dry qualifying, but then rain started to fall just a few minutes before the start of the session. Intermediate tyres were fitted to both cars but the conditions were mixed across the lap, with the pit lane being much drier than sector two, which was actually pretty wet. It finally stopped raining but the track was never dry enough for slicks and seven minutes before the end of Q1, Timo decided to come in for new Intermediate tyres. On the last lap of his second run he posted a time good for 20th position.
Jérôme stayed out as his lap times were improving with his existing set of Intermediates, but his strategy didn’t work out as planned. His best qualifying lap remained outside of the 107% time but the Stewards ruled that he is able to take part in tomorrow’s race on the strength of his free practice performance throughout the weekend and the changeable weather conditions in qualifying.
"Of course I’m a bit disappointed about the result, but I’m really happy with my pace this weekend. I think I had a good feeling with the car, I was happy with everything and my performance in normal conditions was quite good. We got it a bit wrong with the strategy – we should have pitted really. But again, it’s very difficult to decide a call like that because it might have just rained a bit earlier and then it wouldn’t have worked. So basically it could have been better but in terms of performance we are there, so it should be good for tomorrow’s race."
Credit: Jerome D’Ambrosio (www.jeromedambrosio.com)
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