The two Toro Rosso cars remained firmly rooted to the bottom of the timesheets in qualifying at Monza yesterday in stark contrast to one year ago when Sebastien Vettel claimed the Faenza based team's first pole position. It all served to graphically illustrate just how the Italian team has slid backwards over the last year. In the end Sebastien Buemi squeezed out his 19-year-old team mate Jaime Alguersuari yesterday afternoon to take nineteenth spot on the grid in the Ferrari-powered STR4 as both drivers were quickly knocked out in the first qualifying session. "We ended up where we deserved to be," commented Technical Director Giorgio Ascanelli afterwards.

Sebastien Buemi (STR4-03): “I did the best I could, but the session did not go well for me. I was held up by Hamilton, who did not know I was there. Another lap for me might have made a bit of a difference, but not much. As for Glock saying I held him up, I don’t think I did, as I was just trying to rebuild a gap after being slowed by Hamilton. They say it might rain tomorrow, so now we need to work out the best strategy for whatever conditions we might encounter in the race.”

Jaime Alguersuari (STR4-02): “I was not expecting much from this session, after problems in the morning with my gearbox meant I only did ten laps in free practice. Because of that, I did not have the time to try much in terms of setting up the car. Therefore, we carried over some unknown factors into qualifying and I have to say, I am still getting used to driving the car in this low downforce configuration. I hope I can still have a good race tomorrow and to be honest, I hope it rains.”