Planet-F1

Sat: Williams, Honda, Force India

Saturday 19th July 2008

Williams, Honda and Force India all failed to make it into the final qualifying segment for the German GP.

Williams
Nico Rosberg: It was all pretty close today and we had a good chance to make it into the top ten but it just didn't play out that way in the end. Nevertheless, I am still quite happy with the improvements in our car and we have taken a step forward. Out on track today it was a bit difficult, especially during my last runs because we had changeable conditions, with the wind intensity and direction constantly variable, which seemed to affect the car. Let's hope that tomorrow we can have a good race and score some points, which from P13 is a real possibility."

Kazuki Nakajima: Unfortunately today I don't think I managed to get everything out of the car in the last lap, especially in sector three where I realised I was being too conservative. Because it was so tight at the end of Q1 today, it cost me quite badly, but with every lap, the feeling I have with the car is improving, so hopefully I will have a better race."

Honda
Jenson Button: Realistically we got the best out of the car today, although it is frustrating that we were not quite able to put a complete lap together. On my first run in Q2, the tyres were graining during the last sector, so we tried to look after them on my second run. Unfortunately that meant that they did not work fully in the first sector, putting me two-tenths down on my best lap time halfway round the lap. Once the tyres started working well in the middle sector I was able to gain all of the time back and improve my lap time. So it's a little bit disappointing. However we improved all the way through qualifying today and have generally been working well over the weekend. It's a nice feeling as I haven't felt totally confident with the car for the last couple of races."

Rubens Barrichello: he last time that I started 18th on the grid at Hockenheim I won the race in 2000, so you never know what might happen tomorrow! Realistically the car was just not quick enough in a very competitive midfield today. We were losing a couple of tenths in the first sector but it was the long middle sector that really cost us time. We are having to run a compromised downforce set-up because of the straights and that then impacts the third sector through the stadium complex, so it is difficult to hook up a consistently good lap time. We are so close to the limit of the car's performance that if you don't quite get it right, you can lose a lot of places, and that's what happened today. I'm not sure that it is going to rain tomorrow but that's what we need to have a good race."

Force India
Adrian Sutil: I'm a bit disappointed to be honest with this qualifying as I think we could have done a bit better. My second run was looking good, the car felt well balanced and I was comfortable, but then I ran a little bit wide on the last corner going into the straight and lost a couple of tenths. My last run was not so good as the balance had changed a little, but I did improve a bit, just not enough. It's a shame, but as we look better in race conditions we will see for tomorrow."

Giancarlo Fisichella: We did three runs today, and on my fastest lap I hit some traffic in the last sector and couldn't record the time I think we could have done round here, so I'm quite disappointed. Of course we don't know what's going to happen in the race tomorrow, there are some overtaking possibilities at this track so we can try and make up some places like this."