Formula One news

Disappointing qualifying for Renault

Heikki Kovalainen made a mistake in the final corner of his timed lap in Q1 that cost him over half a second, and meant he failed to make it into the top 16. Giancarlo Fisichella got the most out of the car this afternoon, and in a tightly-fought second qualifying round (at a circuit where the lap-times are notoriously close), he missed out on a top ten position by just 0.08s. 

"I was right on the limit this afternoon, and I think this was our maximum today," said Fisichella. "It was hard to do a perfect lap in the slippery, low-grip conditions and it is a shame to miss out on Q3 by such a small margin. I think we will see an interesting race tomorrow, especially when it comes to the tyre behaviour, and hopefully we can find a good strategy to take advantage of this."

Heikki Kovalainen commented, "I was very disappointed not to make it out of Q1. It was simply my mistake: I went too deep into turn 12, locked the front tyres, got a poor exit and it cost me over six tenths of a second. The grip level was poor compared to this morning, but everybody had to deal with the same conditions. We have been in this position before this year, though, and the results afterwards showed us how important it is to never give up. We won't, and we will be pushing hard for everything we can get tomorrow, but it's going to be a tough race."

Engineering chief Pat Symonds added, "We seem to have lost a disproportionate amount of grip this afternoon as the circuit temperatures climbed. A small mistake from Heikki was enough to relegate him to the bottom third of the grid on a circuit where the qualifying gaps are always very close. Giancarlo got the maximum from the car, but the car's maximum simply wasn't sufficient today."

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