Planet-F1

Sat: Toro Rosso, Toyota, Williams

Saturday 23rd August 2008

There were top ten grid slots in Valencia for both Toro Rosso drivers, Jarno Trulli and Nico Rosberg.

Toro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel: My best result ever so I am pleased, as it has taken a bit of time to improve on my P7 that I did in my first grand prix. It's been a fantastic day for us. We made some changes to the set-up overnight and they all turned out to be positive. The team worked hard to make the most of the data. We didn't expect to do this well here but it's a good thing to have both cars in Q3. My last lap should have been a bit better, but I made a mistake in turn 12, locking the rear under braking. Now we have to keep our feet on the ground, because there are a lot of laps ahead of us tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the race when I think we have a real chance to score points."

Sebastien Bourdais: This wasn't bad. I am still having my problem of not finding grip on the "option" tyre, so we need to work on that. But I am happy that our performance is getting better. I'm really pleased to be in Q3 for the first time. It's a good feeling as I kept waiting to hear that I dropped down to 11 or 12! What we have seen here is that, on a new track, some teams have worked in the right direction and some have not. The team did a good job of giving me a car that was one of the best today. Now it is up to me to get the most out of it in the race. It's bound to be a tough race but I hope to be in a position to fight for points after making a good start."

Toyota
Jarno Trulli: After our difficult practice yesterday, we completely changed my set-up for today. Then we had a gearbox oil pump problem this morning that meant I could not try it out. So in a way I was driving blind this afternoon but I used my experience, I concentrated very hard and I made it through into Q3. I made a mistake on my last run but I am still very happy with what we achieved today. I'm also delighted with the way the car is developing and the fact that we can always fight for the top ten and score points. That is again our target tomorrow. It's important and realistic and it will be an interesting race. Here, more than anywhere, anything can happen and it should be a great event."

Timo Glock: I don't know what went wrong but I just didn't get the lap together in the second session and that was that. We definitely had the chance to be higher, in the top ten, but it was a difficult qualifying in the end. For me the prime tyres seemed to work better but I struggled to get temperature into the tyres in the first sector of my last lap in Q2. So it was just not my day today. I had a heavy cold overnight and didn't feel particularly well, but no excuses. I think the car was good enough but it just didn't work out. Of course we will do our best to make up positions tomorrow. There could be safety car periods so we will aim to make the most of our freedom with the strategy."

Williams
Nico Rosberg: It's been a few races since we managed to get into the top ten, so this is a good result for us. We'd obviously always want to do better, but this shows we've made a step in the right direction and that's satisfying. We had a better understanding of where we had to improve, so we've made those changes which gave us a more competitive car today. We have a good strategy for the race so anything is possible. Today has been positive which gives me hope for points tomorrow."

Kazuki Nakajima: It was a good qualifying for us as both cars are close in the midfield. It was a shame to miss out on Q3, but actually P11 is not a bad place to start the race from because we can select our fuel level. I'll also be on the clean side of the track tomorrow so, all in all, it was a positive qualifying session for us."