GP Europe: Qualifying

1. S. Vettel, Red Bull, 1:37.587
2. M. Webber, Red Bull, 1:37.662
3. L. Hamilton, McLaren, 1:37.969
14. V. Liuzzi, Force India, 1:38.884

Tonio will start tomorrow’s European Grand Prix from 14th after a slightly frustrating qualifying session.

He has been performing well throughout the weekend, finishing the earlier practice session inside the top eight. He started qualifying well, making one run on the prime tyres, posting the 11th quickest time to pass easily into Q2. A switch to the option tyres did not however produce the anticipated improvement in pace and despite putting together clean laps, frustratingly Tonio couldn’t progress through into Q3.

Tonio said: “This morning we were really quick and it didn’t start too badly in Q1 for us so we were very positive about getting a good result. But it got very hot this afternoon, perhaps seven or eight degrees hotter than in free practice this morning, and it seemed to have a big effect on the tyres. Both Adrian and myself had big issues with the soft tyres in Q2 and had a lot of understeer.”

“It’s a real shame as both yesterday and this morning we were looking very competitive and we had hoped for more. But we’re not giving up as there are so many possibilities in the race – just look at Montreal where we had the accident at the start, but fought to the end and still picked up two points.”