There were top ten grid slots at Spa for Jaime Alguersuari, Bruno Senna, Sergio Perez and Vitaly Petrov...
Toro Rosso:
Jaime Alguersuari: "This was my best ever performance and the best for the team this year. I think I have to be very happy with this and also because my team-mate came very close to Q3, which shows we have done a good job, not just on the car but in the way we managed the session, being the first out of the pits to get a clear track. The weather helped, because the car worked very well on the intermediates and the extreme wets, but we have also been quick in dry conditions. We knew we had a better car here than in Hungary and we have learned a lot about it so far this weekend. Certainly the DRS is now working better than ever before. Hopefully tomorrow I can do a good job again and score some more points and I believe we have a good chance of doing that, if we stay calm, because our car has a good pace. The start from the third row will be very important and maybe tricky and I hope it stays dry."
Sebastien Buemi: "It was not easy this afternoon, because the track dried very quickly after the rain actually stopped falling. Therefore you had to get a good lap at just the right time. I managed to do that right up until the end, when I made a small mistake. I am a bit angry with myself for that, but eleventh is still a good place to start the race tomorrow. I think we have opted for a good compromise in terms of car settings for the race. In any case, the team seems to have made a lot of progress in performance terms so I hope this translates into a good race, because it's tomorrow that the points are given out."
Renault:
Bruno Senna: "I am really quite satisfied with my qualifying and I don't think my first weekend racing for Lotus Renault GP could have started much better; I wasn't expecting to be in the top ten when I set out this afternoon. I was a little nervous going out in Q3 using dry tyres on a damp track, because I hadn't managed much running on them this morning or yesterday. Bearing this in mind, I feel absolutely delighted with P7. Leading up to qualifying, I'd been working on getting a good performance in the wet, and I knew that if qualifying was fully wet I would be in a strong position, so to perform well on dry tyres is a fantastic feeling. Looking ahead to the race, I'll take everything step by step. The car was very good to me in qualifying so I hope this is something that repeats itself tomorrow. This circuit has been kind to me in the past and I hope that continues; the weekend is just getting better and better for me!"
Vitaly Petrov: "It's a good feeling to qualify in the top ten again, even though I would like to have finished higher than P10. I will need to sit down with the engineers to discover what happened in Q3 when I spun, but the conditions throughout qualifying were very, very difficult. It was challenging for the team to know which tyres to select because the weather changed more than once in the hour-long session and this really tested us. As a whole, the weekend has been interesting because we've seen several different tyre compounds used, but the most important thing is we came out with both cars in the top ten. It's good to see the team members with smiles on their faces once again."
Sauber:
Sergio Perez: "I'm happy. It was a very difficult but good qualifying for the team. We have put ourselves in a good position to score points tomorrow. In Q3, when I was on dry tyres for the first time in today's qualifying and obviously using the soft compound, the track was drying quickly with the conditions improving every single lap. In Q1 and Q2 especially it wasn't easy with the car being set up for the dry conditions that are expected tomorrow. I'm glad it all worked out today. I was in Q3 for the third time and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do from what is my best grid position so far in Formula One."
Kamui Kobayashi: "Of course it is a shame I missed Q3 by a small margin, but overall it was a good qualifying performance from us today. Because of our timing at the end of Q2, when we were running intermediate tyres on the drying track, I took the chequered flag a little bit earlier than the others. This meant with the rapidly improving track conditions my time then just wasn't good enough for Q3, but, given the fact we were running a dry set-up with very little rear wing, it went really well today. The forecast predicts dry conditions for tomorrow, and I hope that is correct because in Spa you can never be sure about it."
Williams:
Rubens Barrichello: "Today was one of those qualifying session that I enjoy very much. We have a new package for this race but the car is still not as fast as we would wish. Unfortunately I had traffic all the way through which is a shame as if it wasn't for that, I'm really sure we could have gone into Q3."
Pastor Maldonado: "It was a difficult qualifying because of the changing conditions and I had some problems with the balance because of that, especially during Q1. I was expecting a bit more in Q2 and thought we'd make it through to Q3, but I had traffic in my final lap which cost me a quicker time. This race is a long one and I think our pace is better here so we will see. About what happened with Lewis. He slowed down a lot at the end of the session, so I tried to go past him. I then felt contact at the back of my car. I don't really know what happened. It was a difficult moment."
Related Links
Qualy report: Seb takes pole as drama unfolds
Saturday's gallery: And the rain came down
