Planet-F1

Sat: Williams, Honda, STR, Force India

Saturday 10th May 2008

Williams, Honda, Toro Rosso and Force India were the only teams that didn't have a representative in the final qualifying segment in Turkey.

Williams:
Nico Rosberg: It didn't go the way we expected it to today. I thought we could get into the top ten but it wasn't possible as there were a couple of things on the car I was not completely happy with. However, 11th is a good starting position and we are normally good off the line, which gives me confidence going into the first corner. On top of that, I can now choose what strategy I want to run, which gives us the opportunity to pull it back in the race and do well."

Kazuki Nakajima: It was a tough qualifying session for me, and a shame to miss Q2 by just one position. The balance on the car was ok, but we couldn't quite pull everything together this afternoon. I also struggled getting enough grip out there. We'll now work hard to try to find some improvements before tomorrow's race."

Honda:
Rubens Barrichello: It was a good effort from everyone today however unfortunately we are not as fast as we thought we might be here in Turkey. It is a balance problem, rather than the tyres or grip levels, and I believe we achieved the best that we could today. I could not get the car to perform well over the whole lap. The first and second sector were good, but the third sector was not working for us. Realistically this is where the car is at the moment. We need another step to make us a regular qualifier into Q3."

Jenson Button: I have to be reasonably pleased with 13th as we were struggling to get the tyres working in qualifying today. Q1 was not too bad and we completed both runs on the prime tyre. We switched to the option for my first run in Q2 as everyone seemed to be going quicker on that tyre but for some reason the option didn't work for me and I had no grip. So we went back to the prime which should be about three-tenths slower around here so 13th is not too bad. It's annoying that we can't get the option to work but our prime tyre pace is very good, particularly over longer runs. t's a long way forward to get points from here but this is a tough circuit on engines so we'll see what happens. I've always had fun racing here as it's a great place to overtake so I'm looking forward to the race."

Toro Rosso:
Sebastian Vettel: The track was changing a lot, the earlier rain did not help, but I am happy because at the last two races I struggled a lot to find the balance and now we are slowly getting there and I feel we have made a step forward. It's nice to give our old car a good grid position for its final appearance. In Q2, it was very close with the Hondas and unfortunately we did not progress as the track conditions improved. Overall, we can be happy with today and now I'm looking forward to getting through 58 laps tomorrow."

Sebastien Bourdais: Bad traffic, basically the Force India guys, ruined my afternoon: on my first run I was held up by Sutil as early as Turn 3 and on the second, I came up behind Fisichella in Turn 8. That meant we weren't too sure about the handling of the car and I asked for an adjustment to be made for the last run which turned out not the right thing to do. It's annoying because I came within two tenths of Q2. Everyone seems to behave quite well in qualifying, but I don't know what those guys were doing on their "out" laps. It was a bit surprising. Starting eighteenth, our expectations are limited, but I will give it my best shot as usual and try and make the most of any unusual circumstances that might occur."

Force India:
Giancarlo Fisichella: I did a clean lap and the team did a good job with the car. The balance is not bad, but we just need more grip and more downforce to move forward with the grid position. I am looking forward to a better race tomorrow."

Adrian Sutil: Actually I had quite a good qualifying and we made a big improvement from practice. My car in the free practice had a few problems with the balance so we did a few changes between the sessions and it was better for the afternoon. On the last set of tyres I couldn't improve my time and didn't get the grip I expected and locked up into turn 12, but it was not so bad overall. From a performance perspective, to better to the practice pace and to get close to the rest of the field is positive."