Good qualifying for Doornbos

Robert Doornbos will start his first Grand Prix for Red Bull Racing on from tenth position. At a wet and slippery Shanghai International Circuit, the 25-year old Dutchman already showed an outstanding form in the third free practise session earlier ...

Robert Doornbos will start his first Grand Prix for Red Bull Racing on from tenth position. At a wet and slippery Shanghai International Circuit, the 25-year old Dutchman already showed an outstanding form in the third free practise session earlier today and continued his pace in all three qualifying sessions. By claiming a starting position on the fifth row, Doornbos was, among others, also the fastest Red Bull driver today.

Already in the final free practise session earlier today, Doornbos showed his competitiveness as both RBR drivers topped the timesheets after 40 minutes of practise. Only because Doornbos did not use the latter 15 minutes of this session, and the track dried as time progressed, he fell back to 18th position.

Also in the first and second qualifying session, Doornbos impressed many with his performance and never even came close to the 'drop zone'. Though all four Red Bull drivers (Speed, Liuzzi, Coulthard and Doornbos) were fighting to get through to the third session, Doornbos was the only one to actually make it by finishing the second qualifying session in eighth position. After haven gone flat-out in the final stint, Doornbos qualified himself in a notable 10th position for tomorrow's 56 lap Chinese Grand Prix.

Robert Doornbos: "Here you go! The Michelin tyres were very impressive today under these weather circumstances and the team also gave me a very good car. Qualifying in the top ten on my RBR racedebut is not too bad either, is it? I'm really looking forward to tomorrow as I think we're on quite a promising strategy as well!"