Jaime Alguersuari has hailed his Singapore qualifying result as his best performance so far this season, after missing out on Q3 by just five one-hundredths of a second. The Spaniard will start tomorrow's race from 11th, ahead of team mate Sebastien Buemi.
“It's a shame I didn't quite make it to Q3 in the end, because overall my weekend has gone well right from the start,” said Alguersuari. “I don't think we can be unhappy with what we have achieved and I am pleased with this performance, also because the team has made a good step forward with the car.”
“I am surprised to be this high up the grid, because in today's free practice we had a problem with the car set-up, but we were able to correct it for qualifying.”
Toro Rosso technical director Giorgio Ascanelli shared Alguersuari's delight. “Jaime missed out on Q3 by what I estimate was two milliseconds per corner!” he said. “I think the team has done a good job and, first in Monza and now here, the car has made a step forward.”
“This is our best qualifying performance of the season, so I cannot be unhappy and for tomorrow, we should have a good race pace, particularly with Jaime.”
Meanwhile Buemi was less happy with his qualifying result, putting his 14th place down to traffic and a lack of grip.
“Qualifying did not go well for me today and I seemed to be stuck in traffic on every lap and the one clear lap I got was spoilt by yellow flags,” said the Swiss driver. “The main problem I had was a serious lack of grip. Jaime did a very good lap whereas this morning I was going better than him, so I am not really sure what happened, but obviously, I am disappointed.”
