10 Sep 2011
It was the last Qualifying of the season in Europe today here in Monza, where Timo and Jérôme will start tomorrow’s race from 21st and 22nd positions respectively.
In FP3 this morning, both cars took to the track with the new upgrade package. Jérôme had a smooth practice session but unfortunately Timo had an issue with the DRS on his final run with the soft tyres.
With a track temperature of 44°C and an air temperature of 29°C, both drivers left the garage when the light went green for the start of Qualifying. Timo experienced the same problem with the rear wing as in the morning and after 9 difficult laps qualified 21st. Jérôme had a trouble-free session and will start tomorrow’s race from 22nd on the grid.
Jérôme D’Ambrosio, Race Driver #25
“Today’s wasn’t a bad qualifying and I’m generally very happy with it. I think it was difficult to try and get a tow as there was quite a lot of traffic and that made it even harder. But I felt very comfortable again in the car and in general I’m very satisfied. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race – it looks like it’s going to be a very close one.”
John Booth, Team Principal
“Jérôme’s car crew had quite a busy evening, fitting the upgrade package to his car. Overall this went very well and it was interesting to hear Jérôme’s comments in FP3. The numbers yesterday seemed to show a healthy advantage and Jerome’s comments this morning seemed fairly positive. Both cars stepped through more set-up work this morning. Timo experimenting with wing levels and Jérôme establishing a good balance on the new package. Unfortunately, we had an issue on Timo’s soft tyre run with the DRS system not deactivating correctly, which cost him significant time as he effectively ran with no DRS. We spent quite a bit of time over lunch going through his rear wing in detail and found some issues which we corrected and everything seemed fine in the garage before qualifying. As is often the case with these fairly complicated systems, there can be more than one fault and during qualifying Timo again experienced the issue. We clearly have to get to the bottom of the issue before the race. In terms of our competitiveness, the field seems to have closed up and the gap to the guys in front does seem less. However, as always we will treat this with some caution until we get back to a more representative circuit. Given the smaller gaps in the field and hopefully with Timo’s issue fixed, both drivers can look forward to what should be a more interesting race tomorrow.”
Credit: Jerome D’Ambrosio (www.jeromedambrosio.com)
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