Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 Japan GP qualifying 26.09.2015: 2015 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX – SATURDAY 26/09/2015 Carlos Sainz (STR10-04, Car 55)

2015 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX – SATURDAY 26/09/2015
 

Carlos Sainz (STR10-04, Car 55)

Third Practice Session - Best lap: 1:35.963, pos. 10th, 29 laps

Qualifying - Best lap: (Q1) 1:34.873, (Q2) 1:34.453, pos. 12th


“It’s disappointing to be out in Q2, it was definitely a day to get into the top ten easily. Unfortunately, during my second Q2 run, we picked-up some vibrations on the front tyres, which meant that I couldn’t improve my time and missed out in getting into Q3.


 It’s been difficult to adapt to this track in the dry. I had just 20 laps to learn the circuit and today it’s all been a build-up until Q2, when I finally felt totally comfortable and knew exactly what lines to take. I was ready to get into Q3 and it was a big shame not to make it in the end. I was starting to have great fun!


For tomorrow our objective is to finish in the points again. I have a set of new Option tyres available, so that should help a bit, and I also have a good car so I’m convinced we can have a great race.”
 


Max Verstappen (STR10-02, Car 33)

Third Practice Session – Best lap: 1:35.160, pos. 7th, 26 laps

Qualifying – Best lap: (Q1) 1:34.522, pos. 15th


“Certainly not the best of days! I had a sudden loss of power, all the electricity shut-down in the hairpin and from there on I couldn’t do anything. It’s very frustrating, because the car was going very well, but in the end it is what it is… We might be on the back foot again before the race, but we never give up.


Hopefully tomorrow we have a bit more luck and can enjoy a good race – it would be good if some rain spices it all up! Our objective will be to finish within the top ten… We have to do some overtaking again, but I’m ready for it!”


 
Phil Charles (Chief Race Engineer)

“It obviously hasn’t been the qualifying session we were hoping for: Max started his session pretty well and was very happy in Q1. Unfortunately, he had a systems black-out at the end of Q1 which we are still investigating in order to understand what happened.


I think he would have had a decent qualifying session without this issue, as he was getting better and better and the car was performing well. Carlos had not run here in the dry before today (Max ran here last year in P1) and was steadying himself in nicely through P3 and into Qualifying.


He was improving lap after lap but unfortunately on his last tyre set in Q2 we found a small issue on the car, which meant he wasn’t able to better his first run in that session. This is a shame, because he was doing a good job and I think he could have been a bit higher than P12. So we have got a bit of work to do with both cars tomorrow:


 There is some wet weather forecast in the morning which would definitely be welcome and Hulkenberg has a penalty from last race which promotes Carlos one place.”
 
 

- Fabiana Valenti - photo Red Bull