Doornbos satisfied with qualifying

Robert Doornbos enjoys excellent Brazilian GP qualifying!

Once again Robert Doornbos demonstrated his driving skills today by claiming a fine 15th starting position for tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix. Only because the engine of the Red Bull Racing was changed yesterday after some problems in the second free practise session, the 25-year old Dutchman unfortunately has to start the 71 laps season finisher on from the back end of the grid.

Powered by a new Ferrari engine, Doornbos made the most out of the third and final free practise session on Saturday morning by lapping the 4,309 meter long track the most times of all drivers. With 21 laps under his belt Doornbos compensated for the lost tracktime yesterday. His best laptime of 1:13.564 handed him P15 at the end of the session.

In the first qualifying session, Doornbos again showed an impressive pace by improving his time from this morning with a full second. By setting a 1:12.530, Doornbos easily qualified himself for the second qualifying session. Teammate David Coulthard was less lucky as he didn't make the cut with his fastest lap time of 1:13.249.

As he knew he would be demoted ten places on the grid, Doornbos only drove one single 'flyer' in the second qualifying session to save his available Michelin sets of tyres. Despite he matched his time from the first session, his advance in the second part could not bring him a top 10 qualifying spot. But by still setting the 15th best lap time overall, Doornbos still emerged satisfied with his performance.

Robert Doornbos: "This was the max I could do, so I'm satisfied with my performance. But also a 'thumbs up' to my engineers for the great job they did today. I can be proud to have outqualified David in two out of the three occasions I was given this year, and I'm sure more people have noticed this. A shame that we had to change my engine yesterday and I will be set back to positions on the grid. But hey, I'm looking forward to tomorrow and fight my way back to the front!"

-credit: www.robertdoornbos.com