The Toro Rosso drivers remained rooted in the middle of
the field during qualifying in Monte Carlo this
afternoon with Sebastien Buemi eventually getting the
edge on his younger team mate Jaime Alguersuari to line
up on the seventh row of the grid with the Spaniard, who
collected the final point on offer in Barcelona last
weekend, set to start four places further back. Buemi
and Alguersuari were eighth and seventeenth in FP3 this
morning, while in the qualifying session neither driver
made it past Q2 with Buemi posting a 1:15.413 in the
Ferrari-powered STR5 to lay claim to thirteenth on the
grid with Alguersuari seventeenth after setting a
fastest time around the streets of Monte Carlo in
1.16.176.Sebastien
Buemi: “I am a little bit
disappointed, because I had hoped to do a bit better,
maybe getting into Q3, based on what I done in this
morning’s practice. So, if you don’t get the maximum out
of the car, you cannot be satisfied. I did not have too
much trouble with traffic, but I don’t think we managed
well the situation regarding the change of temperature
between the morning and the afternoon, which meant the
tyres were working a bit differently. My aim tomorrow
will be to get into the points, which means getting
ahead of at least three cars. It’s a very long race
here, so before doing that, the most important element
will be to make sure we get to the finish. On the
positive side, our pace over a long run has been good so
far this weekend.”
Jaime Alguersuari:
“I can be satisfied with the fact
that I tried my best, but I’m not happy about how much
traffic I met on every lap, especially on the last run,
when I really had to back off in the last two corners,
which means my day ended in Q2. I’m looking forward to
tomorrow’s race, which will be very long and to a
certain extent on this very special track, my main aim
will be to finish, as that will give me plenty of
experience for next year.”
Giorgio Ascanelli:
“There’s not much to say after
today’s qualifying. I would not describe it as
disappointing, because when all is said and done, this
is Monaco which sets its own challenge. In Jaime’s case,
it was his first time here in a Formula 1 car and he
struggled a bit and Sebastien’s result shows pretty much
where we are. We did not get it completely right, but
then nobody really does here and we had our share of
traffic and mistakes, but it was not a major drama.”
