Toro Rosso
Carlos Sainz
“Today’s qualifying just shows how much our grid position can vary depending on the track layout… After last qualifying session in Singapore we were P6 and here, two weeks later, we are P16, just because of the time we spend flat out through the lap. If I’m honest, I’m not very happy, as I was expecting a bit more than P16 today, but this is how it is – we just need to take it and try to keep improving, because if not, it’s going to be a tough end to the season. Tomorrow I will push like crazy, as always, try to do a good start and move forward. We’ll see where we end up. Some rain would also be welcome for the race, as it could spice things up a bit!”
Daniil Kvyat
“Not an easy qualifying. We managed to get through to Q2 where we had clean laps but no pace, which made it difficult to fight for higher positions. It was very close between Carlos and I but, to be honest, we were just fighting each other today… It’s quite a tough situation as the car is missing speed here and I think we extracted the most out of the car but it’s just not our track. A P15 shouldn’t be what we aim for but right now this is where we are. For tomorrow, our long-run pace doesn’t look that bad, but overtaking here is a difficult task still, so we will see what we can come up with. The good thing is that this new tarmac offers some different opportunities which we will have to analyse overnight. It won’t be easy but we will certainly try our best!”
Phil Charles, chief race engineer
“A very difficult day today unfortunately. P15 and P16 in qualifying is a big jolt back down to earth from the P6 and P7 we had in Singapore. Our top speed deficit has proven again to be a big penalty with a very big loss on the long straights here. It is a very close battle in the mid pack and some of our direct competitors have brought developments. The McLarens looked strong from the start of the weekend and the Renaults appear to have made a jump, with Magnussen ahead of us in qualifying. Haas also did a decent job with both of their cars. So all of this means we need to be absolutely on top form in qualifying nowadays or we can come out on the wrong end of that mid field battle, like we have today. Having said that, on quick review live, I am not sure there is a huge amount more we could have found today. Carlos was quite happy in P3 but didn’t quite get a perfect flow in qualifying and a slightly scrappy last lap blunted his efforts. Daniil did a decent job and was just a bit unhappy with his car balance in the last corner. We will work hard tonight on strategy and tyre usage to come back fighting tomorrow.”
