The Team Lotus duo were again comfortably faster than both Hispania and Virgin drivers during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix as Jarno Trulli secured a higher grid slot than Heikki Kovalainen for the first time this season.
“I’m pleased with the performance today,” said Trulli, who will start tomorrow’s race from P19. “It was very windy out there, and a lot cooler than yesterday which maybe affected our ability to get the most out of the tyres, but I think I got as much out of the car as I could on the final lap in qualifying.
“The gap to the guys ahead keeps coming down and I think with the rain tomorrow it’s going to be an eventful race, and hopefully we’ll be in a position to take advantage of whatever happens.”
Kovalainen is also optimistic about taking the fight to the cars in front here in Montreal, and was also pleased with how qualifying had gone: “A pretty good session for me today,” summarised the Finn. “The car felt fine and the strategy worked out as we wanted it to so I think we did what we set out to.
“Little by little we keep on improving and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow – it’s going to be eventful and I think what we’ve shown all season is that we can fight with the guys ahead, so let’s see what happens.”
Team Principal Mike Gascoyne said that both drivers had done well and was pleased with the performance relative to the cars in front: “That was a good qualifying session for us and overall it has been a very solid weekend so far for the whole team,” he said.
“Both drivers drove well in qualifying – Jarno struggled a bit with the brakes and Heikki couldn’t improve on his second set of tyres as he reported that they had lower grip levels than the first, but we finished the session with a small gap to the cars ahead and I think we will have a good race tomorrow.”
