French GP: Toro Rosso Saturday qualifying notes

Comments from the Toro Rosso team after qualifying for the French Grand Prix

Scott Speed:

"I was definitely not expecting to repeat yesterday's performance. We like to keep our feet on the ground here at Toro Rosso! I had a good run in Q1 and then the track conditions started to be a bit more difficult for our car as it got more rubbered in."

"We struggled a lot with the front end, trying to get the front to grip in the slow speed corners and that problem was worse in Q2. The car balance in the high speed corners is good and quite driveable and it is easy to produce a consistent performance with what I think should be a good race car."

Tonio Liuzzi:

"The main problem I had today was traffic and I had been hoping to be much higher up the order. We didn't get the right slot and paid the consequences. There was a big mess in the pit lane as our neighbours were coming in and out of their garage, causing a traffic jam."

"But my main problem was the Spyker ahead of me on the track that made a mistake a cost me a lot of time. I was three and a half tenths up on my first run time but I lost the chance of going into Q2 because of that."

Giorgio Ascanelli, technical director:

"The cars ran okay today and were well balanced but with twelve cars within three tenths of a second, it does not take much to make the difference between the top of that group and the bottom of it. However, maybe there are signs of some progress since North America."

Scott Speed
Chassis: STR2-04
1:16.049, 15th

Tonio Liuzzi
Chassis: STR2-03
1:16.142, 17th

-credit: toro rosso