Formula One news

Disappointing qualifying for Sauber

Sauber Petronas drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve will start tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai from 11th and 16th positions respectively after this afternoon's qualifying session.

"That was a pretty bad lap," said Villeneuve. "We were struggling with the handling this morning so we made some changes with the tyre pressures and temperatures and things like that, and they didn't really work out this afternoon. The car was just sliding around all over the place."

Felipe Massa commented, "With new tyres this morning the balance was still poor, so we took some risks with the set-up for qualifying and they paid off. The balance was much better and that was a really good lap. Almost perfect."

Team chief Peter Sauber concluded, "After our performance in practice this morning we did not go into qualifying in a very optimistic frame of mind. But Felipe managed a really good lap for 11th place after we made some changes to his car. Jacques still struggled with his set-up, and I am sure he is disappointed with his lap."

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