20/06/2009
NEWS STORY
Sebastien Bourdais: I think we improved the car by two or three tenths compared to Turkey, but so did the others. Our car is much nicer to drive and a bit quicker. I felt comfortable inside the cockpit and I think I had the pace to make it into Q2, but the red flag came at just the wrong time for me. It's a real shame. This is an awesome track and when you get the car set up right, a qualifying lap is an unbelievable feeling.
Sebastien Buemi: It's been a bad weekend so far, with a few small problems and if you don't get many clean laps without any trouble, then when you go into qualifying, you really pay the price. It is disappointing that I couldn't use the quick-shift on the gearbox in qualifying, which cost me at least three tenths and that is a big difference here. But that's racing and now we will have to see what we can do tomorrow. It will be a difficult race whatever happens.
Giorgio Ascanelli: We had two reliability issues today, both on Buemi’s car: a hydraulic problem in the morning and then a gremlin with the quick shift, which is why we sent him out again at the end of Q1 to try and identify it. Bourdais did a reasonable job, but he lost his last flying lap because of the red flag. I think 15th was the best we could hope for today. We experimented with various elements in free practice to improve our pace and we were a little bit better today on that front.