Toro Rosso got both drivers over the hurdle of Q1 in qualifying today as Sebastien Buemi claimed fifteenth spot on the Hungarian Grand Prix grid ahead of teammate Jaime Alguersuari, who will start tomorrow’s race from seventeenth.
“I would say the car worked well and the balance was quite good, even if I did not feel so comfortable in the car up until now,” said Buemi. “At least I finished in front of my team-mate, having been behind him most of the weekend, which is every driver's first target. I think our main problem is still a lack of downforce and pace, especially in the twisty corners in the second sector.
“I think it will be a long and difficult race, in which the key will be to try and make up some places at the start, because after that moment, it gets very hard to overtake other cars.
“Last year, I was on the dirty side of the grid and made a very bad start, so I hope that being on the clean side will be a big improvement tomorrow.”
Alguersuari thinks that his qualifying position was respectable, and also representative of the speed of his STR5. “Not too bad today and for me at least, I was on the limit of what the car could do,” said the Spaniard. “We found a good set-up for Q1, but maybe I had a bit too much front wing in Q2 and the car was oversteering too much. My lap times were all similar and I think it was the best I could do today, even if I had expected a little bit more from the upgrades we had here.”
Giorgio Ascanelli, the Toro Rosso technical director, said that the two cars got into Q2 on their own merit, rather than befitting from the misfortune of others, and said that this was an indication of how new upgrades on the car were working.
“Today's performance was a little bit better than usual, as we genuinely got both cars into Q2,” he explained. “By this I mean that even if our two drivers have also been in Q2 in recent races, it has usually been because of the misfortune or mistakes of others.
“We have worked hard over the past months to produce the updates we have brought here, which have delivered something, but clearly it is still not enough.”
