Formula One news

Two Toro Rossos out in Q1

The Toro Rosso team was disappointed to see both of its cars eliminated in the first phase of qualifying, as Sébastien Buemi and Sébastien Bourdais qualified seventeenth and twentieth on the grid respectively. The Swiss driver was promoted to sixteenth, however, after Adrian Sutil received a grid penalty.

"It should have been much better and I ought to have comfortably got through to Q2, but I made a mistake in the third sector," admitted 20-year-old Buemi, who is the only rookie in F1 this year. "I'm disappointed with my performance as the car performed better than expected and, with the sector times I was doing, maybe I should have been more cautious just to make sure of getting into Q2." Before being lifted to 16th, Buemi's 17th place in qualifying matched that of the final morning practice session. The Swiss pilot is looking to make the most of the Super Soft Bridgestone tyres during the race, which produce more grip than the Medium compound but with a shorter life-span.

"Losing track time this morning did not help," said Bourdais, whose car remained in the garage for much of final practice with technical issues. "This afternoon, my first run was quite good - better than I thought - and I was optimistic. But on my second run, we picked up a lot of understeer, which I corrected with the front wing for the final run. But suddenly the car went the other way, with massive oversteer; the car is extremely sensitive to the changes we make and we suffered with a lack of downforce and therefore grip. It is disappointing to finish so far down." A four-time Champcar champion in the United States, the Le Mans-born Frenchman is suffering a difficult start to the 2009 campaign.

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