Sebastien Buemi described his qualifying result of P16 today at Monza as ‘not bad’ given the lack of preparation for the session that resulted from his accident in FP2 yesterday.
However, with team-mate Jaime Alguersuari down in P18, the result here will come as something of a disappointment for Toro Rosso, who qualified eighth and eleventh last time out at the Belgian Grand Prix.
“I am satisfied with what I managed to do this afternoon, because getting into Q2 is not bad, given how little track time I got yesterday,” said Buemi. “I was reasonably happy with my lap, but of course, it's a bit hard to take after our much better qualifying in Spa a fortnight ago. We brought many new parts to try here and, in the end, especially because of my accident yesterday, we did not really have time to evaluate everything properly.
“Recent races have been very open and uncertain, so anything could happen tomorrow. We will just have to try our best and see where we are after 53 laps.”
Alguersuari blamed a simple lack of pace for his failure to make it out of Q1 this afternoon. However, on the three previous occasions that he has qualifying in that position this season, he has taken points at each of those races. That statistic explains the Spaniard’s optimism for the race tomorrow:
“Even if the result is not so good, I can be pleased with the fact that we have at least managed to improve the car since the start of practice, but my lap was simply not quick enough to move up to the next session,” he said. “The pace was not there. Sebastien did a really good lap, so well done to him for getting into Q2. I have scored points before from starting eighteenth on the grid, so let's see what happens tomorrow.”
