European GP Sauber Saturday notes

Pedro Diniz and Mika Salo qualified their RED BULL SAUBER PETRONAS C19s 16th and 20th respectively for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Europe.

Pedro Diniz:
Qualifying was really frustrating. The car had good balance on the first two runs, but my third was much better until I hit the rain at the chicane. I was two tenths quicker up until that point, but then the lap was ruined. At the end, we missed the chequered flag by a couple of seconds on the final run. The only thing I can say is that if the weather is as unpredictable tomorrow, it could be a different story.

Mika Salo:
We tried something different for my first run and it just didn’t work, so we changed the car back to this morning’s settings. It then had big oversteer for the second, but my third was much better and I was a lot quicker until, like Pedro, I came up to the chicane and found it was raining. I’m very disappointed, especially as the traffic on our fourth attempt made me miss my flying lap by a tiny margin. On the positive side, however, there are a couple of corners where you need heavy braking, so it is possible to overtake here in a race.

Peter Sauber (Team Principal):
Qualifying was as bad as the weather for us today, but I’m sure both will be better in the future.