19/07/2014
NEWS STORY
Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton ended the qualifying session for tomorrow's 67 lap German Grand Prix in 18th and 21st places respectively.
Hot and sunny conditions prevailed at the Hockenheimring today, with the track temperature peaking at 57°C and the ambient high at 33°C.
Jules Bianchi: "I think we did a good job today, so I'm pretty happy. On my second quick lap I made a small mistake and maybe lost a tenth or so, but otherwise I think we pushed the car to the maximum. I'm ahead of who I needed to be and close to Sutil, so I think we can enjoy a really good race from here. This weather has been quite challenging, but tomorrow it could be for a different reason."
Max Chilton: "I'm pleased with the job I did in qualifying. It wasn't the result we wanted but considering I went into qualifying having only run the prime tyre this morning, it's perhaps not as bad as it could have been. We had an electronics glitch in FP3 which cost me half of the session, so the recovery is not bad at all, even though it's a little frustrating as there was so much more in the car. I'm sure that we can improve in the race tomorrow, but of course we have to see what the weather will bring."
John Booth, Team Principal: "Following on from the progress we made yesterday afternoon, step by step through FP3 and into qualifying we have further improved the balance of the car, which had taken a step back this weekend due to the suspension changes required. Jules' day passed off very smoothly, with us making small incremental improvements to the car and this definitely rewarded him in qualifying. Unfortunately, with Max, we lost some track time due to an electronics issue. This was very unfortunate for him because he missed out on experiencing the finalised setup on the option tyres at the end of FP3. Into qualifying this meant that Max was definitely on the back foot and lost out to Kobayashi, almost certainly because of this. Overall it seems that the changes this weekend have benefited the Saubers, so we are not quite on their pace. However, we do seem slightly closer to the Lotus cars and having still maintained our advantage over Caterham. There's a mixed forecast for the race tomorrow but either way our target is to try to progress from our qualifying position."
Check out our Saturday gallery, here.