06/11/2010
NEWS STORY
At a wet and rainy Interlagos circuit, Hispania Racing completed qualifying for its first ever Brazilian Grand Prix today. Christian Klien will start tomorrow's race from 23rd position (1.23.083) and Bruno Senna, who will race for the first time in a Formula 1 car in front of his home crowd, will do it from 24th position (1.23.796). The rain was present the whole day, so in the morning, during the third practice session, both Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team drivers did 39 laps between them and were able to get used to driving in the rain.
Dr Colin Kolles, Team Principal: "We are quite happy with the qualifying result under these difficult conditions. The gap to our competitors was quite small and we showed a solid performance today. We even could have been within half a second from the other new teams but unfortunately Christian Klien lost some time on his last lap when it started to rain again. For Christian, it was the first time in our car on a wet track and he did well. He will start tomorrow from 22nd position due to a five position penalty for Adrian Sutil. Now we hope to go on like this and we want to have good fights in tomorrow's race, which for sure will be a special one for Bruno Senna as he is racing at his home track in Brazil for the first time."
Christian Klien: "I am very pleased about the qualifying outcome today under these difficult conditions. This morning was the first time I was driving this car in the rain and especially in qualifying it was very important not to do any mistakes. But I managed to stay on the track and could improve my lap times at the end of the session. We hope to fight for positions in the race tomorrow and we are well prepared for it."
Bruno Senna: "We could have done better today if we would have changed the tyres during the session. The track got quicker at the end of qualifying but unfortunately we couldn't use it. We hope to have more luck tomorrow, when it is expected to be dry again. It is going to be a long and tough race and I am looking forward to compete in a Formula 1 car here at home in Brazil."
To check out our Interlagos qualifying gallery, click here