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Petrov says 12th 'not enough'

ESPNF1 Staff
July 30, 2011

Vitaly Petrov was 0.127s away from a place in Q3 © Sutton Images

Vitaly Petrov says that Renault's recent qualifying performances have been "not enough" after he qualified 12th for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Renault's best qualifying position so far has been sixth place, which Petrov achieved in Australia and went on to finish a seasons-best third in the race. The exact same result was achieved by Heidfeld a race later, but since then Renault has been unable to qualify on the third row, with neither driver making it in to Q3 in Hungary.

Petrov said the threat from Sauber was causing the team to work harder improve the car as it wants to challenge higher up the grid.

"The difficulty we had was warming up the tyres because the weather was so changeable," Petrov said. "I also encountered quite a lot of understeer, especially in turn nine, which cost me two-tenths and practically put an end to my chance of getting in Q3. It is this, combined with traction problems that have been our main problems so far this weekend.

"Sauber is looking increasingly competitive with us now so we need to understand where the problems lie and rectify them because qualifying where we have been recently is not enough; we are more ambitious than that, so the focus will turn to how we make the best out of the situation tomorrow."

Heidfeld echoed Petrov's sentiments, saying positions in the midfield have never been the target for the team.

"Today was again not what we would have hoped for," Heidfeld said. "P14 is not in our line of thinking when we step into the garage for qualifying, though perhaps it's an indication of where we stand right now. At the moment, we are finding it tough to extract more from the car.

"We'll still be going into tomorrow absolutely fighting for higher positions; gaining some places in the race is very achievable. For this to happen, we will need a good start and the right strategy, so we'll be grafting to make both those happen when we line up here tomorrow afternoon."

Credit: ESPN F1 (en.espnf1.com)