Spanish GP: Toro Rosso Saturday qualifying notes

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

Tonio Liuzzi:

"A shame as I had managed to get into Q2. But once again unfortunately, I was hit with a mechanical problem. The car was going well after we managed to fix the problems we had in the morning session. We hope to be able to get everything working properly for tomorrow, when I hope we don't run into any more difficulties. It won't be an easy race, but I'm optimistic because to start from sixteenth is not so bad."

Scott Speed:

"What happened on both cars was very disappointing, because when you look at Tonio's pace and the lap time he did to get him into Q2, I think our performance level was better than what I had expected after yesterday. But the transmission problem meant I never even posted a time."

"On my out lap, as I tried to change gear I got a neutral and the engine died and then as I started my flying lap, it happened again and I almost went off the track. It got worse and that was it. But I repeat, we have definitely made a step forward and there is more stuff in the pipeline. I think when all these elements are working we are going to see a better Toro Rosso."

Giorgio Ascanelli, Technical director:

"We have tried to advance our performance as much as we could and part of that meant adopting an aggressive solution on the transmission front. We were a little bit too ambitious. Friday was almost trouble free, but with a steep learning curve."

"This morning, running a more aggressive gearbox strategy on both cars, we had problems with Tonio's car. This afternoon, both cars suffered the same fault. For tomorrow, we can find a solution to get around this issue."

Tonio Liuzzi
Chassis: STR2-03
No time, 16th

Scott Speed
Chassis: STR-04
No time, 22nd

-credit: toro rosso