Toro Rosso endured a tough day in Northamptonshire as the British weather proved too much of a challenge for Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.
Ricciardo who made his debut last year for HRT at Silverstone likened the conditions to last year, “It was a tricky session and a long one, with similar conditions to last year, when I made my F1 debut at this race.”
The session was broken in to two parts with the session red flagged with six minutes to go in the second part of qualifying, Ricciardo believes that if it hadn’t of been for Grosjean spinning on the last lap he would have made it through to Q3.
“Unfortunately, after the restart I didn't manage to get through to the top ten, where we had been before the red flag. I am sure I was affected by the yellow flag for Grosjean's spin on the last lap, because without it I would have have been into Q3.”
“Our pace is better than our position would have you believe, therefore, as I said on Friday, if we have a wet race, which seems likely, I think we can do well tomorrow, when I will be racing hard. The car seems to work well in the wet, but starting in the mid field there will be a lot of spray to contend with, so there are pros and cons to racing in the rain.”
Team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne was left ruing the decision to stop the session for bad weather, “It could have been a really good qualifying and it had been going well up until the red flag. I was fourth at the time, but I knew it would restart with better track conditions and I would have to do it all over again.”
Vergne wasn’t bitter about the red flag decision though adding “The red flag was definitely the right decision as there was too much water for the tyres to clear.”
“At the restart, we considered running Intermediates before making a quick decision to switch to the Extreme and I think maybe I could have been higher up the order except that I therefore missed the opportunity to do a second flying lap as the chequered flag came out.
Vergne will start the race from the back of the grid following his penalty from Valencia demoting him ten places. “I am disappointed, as I feel I could have got into Q3 today. I hope we have a wet race tomorrow, because although I will be starting from the back, everything is possible in these conditions and I hope I can make the most of the fact our car is working well in the wet, to have a good race.”
