Toro Rosso Qualifying Report

2011 MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX – SATURDAY 09/04/11

Sebastien Buemi

Twelfth start position for Sebastien Buemi

Photo by: xpb.cc

“I am very happy with how qualifying went today, as it is the second time in two races that I have produced a good performance, improving lap after lap. Unfortunately, I had a problem in Q1, when the left sidepod came off, but the mechanics worked well to fit a new one very quickly. I am satisfied, because in twelfth, we are not far off the Mercedes and quite close to Q3 and so we must continue to work hard to improve. At least it seems we are on the right road. We changed the car a lot between free practice 3 and qualifying and it was the right thing to do, especially as these settings should also work well in the race. I think it will almost certainly rain at some point tomorrow, so finishing the race will be the first challenge.”

Jaime Alguersuari

“Finishing P12 and 13 is a good result for the team and I feel we have the potential to do a good race tomorrow. We got pretty much the maximum out of the set-up. Sebastien was again faster than me by a small amount, doing a good job. I feel we have a good set-up, whether it rains or not and I don’t personally mind if it is wet or dry in the race. The key will be to keep the rear tyres alive and make them last as long as possible and I hope we can bring home some more points for the team.”

Giorgio Ascanelli

Technical director Giorgio Ascanelli

“I am happy to be ahead of Force India and I feel Sebastien did a good job this afternoon and is where he should be, which means he can have a strong race tomorrow. Up until this afternoon, I feel we did not get the best out of the car’s set-up, but we turned the car around for the afternoon. As for Jaime, he too drove well. To sum it up, we did not do the best job in free practice, but we did in qualifying. As for the sidepod flying off Sebastien’s car in Q1, at the moment, I have no idea if the part was not properly fixed or an insert cracked. However, there was no question about the integrity of the components, which is why we refitted another sidepod and sent him out again.”

In other news from Sepang…

Sebastien tried running with a new cool vest under his race suit this weekend. Jaime is keeping his training programme going by bringing a Spanish-built race bike to every Grand Prix this year. Even though Malaysia produces over 21 million chicken eggs per day, for the past few days, local newspapers have been reporting that fake eggs have been sold in markets here. 270 fake eggs were seized by the investigating authorities.

Sebastien Buemi (STR6-02):

FP3: Best lap 1.38.665, pos. 15th, 14 laps
Qualifying: Best lap 1.37.160, pos. 12th

Jaime Alguersuari (STR6-03):

FP3: Best lap 1.38.716, pos. 17th, 14 laps
Qualifying: Best lap 1.37.347, pos. 13th

Source: Toro Rosso