01/09/2012
NEWS STORY
Pastor Maldonado qualified third for tomorrow's Belgian GP after putting together a great lap of 1:47.893. He will start sixth on the grid due to a three-place grid penalty incurred for impeding Hulkenberg in Q1. Bruno Senna was hampered by a spin in Q2 and subsequent damage to his front wing therefore qualifying in 17th.
Pastor Maldonado: This morning didn't go as well for us as we had hoped, but during qualifying I adapted myself to the car and the changing track conditions which were improving all the time. After Q1, I saw the potential so we just had to put it together for the rest of qualifying. Obviously, I am disappointed to be sixth following the penalty, but it's still a good result so I'm happy for the team. We will now prepare for the race and I am very much looking forward to pushing for a good result tomorrow.
Bruno Senna: I'm slightly frustrated with qualifying as things just didn't seem to come together today. The spin was unfortunate and there seemed to be a bit of damage on the car from that. It's frustrating to be further back than we should be but we've scored points from those positions before, so we need to keep our heads up and make sure we do it again.
Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: After full wet conditions yesterday it was good to get a complete day of running in the dry. FP3 was extremely busy trying to compact three test sessions into one. We went into qualifying hopeful of a good result and Pastor drove brilliantly with an exceptional lap in Q3 to claim 3rd. Unfortunately Pastor was subsequently dropped three places after the stewards judged that he had impeded Hulkenberg, but from sixth place tomorrow we look forward to a good race. Bruno unfortunately finished qualifying in 17th being significantly hampered by a damaged front wing.
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