JAPANESE GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Pedro de
la Rosa will line up 11th and 13th on the grid for tomorrow's
Japanese Grand Prix. Kimi's time of 1:30.827 in the second
qualifying session just missed the top ten, whilst Pedro's
lap of 1:31.254 was also not quick enough to get into the
final shootout.
Qualifying Session One: Qualifying Session Two:
Kimi: 3 laps, 1:32.080 (15th) 6 laps, 1:30.827 (11th)
Pedro: 6 laps, 1:31.581 (9th) 6 laps, 1:31.254 (13th)
KIMI RAIKKONEN
"Not particularly a great qualifying for anyone in the
team today and not where we expected to be. I do not really
understand what the problem was as the car didn't feel too
bad, we were just too slow. We will now have to look at the
strategies available to us so that we can improve in the race
tomorrow. It is not ideal to be starting where we are, but
it is not impossible to still get a decent result."
PEDRO DE LA ROSA
"The balance of the car was OK, but we just didn't have
enough grip over one lap with the Michelin tyres that we selected.
However we can work on our strategy now and try to make the
best out of this situation. Hopefully the tyres that worked
well in qualifying might not be as strong in the race."
RON DENNIS
"Very much a qualifying that was dominated by tyres.
Clearly our choice, which we thought was right after this
morning's session, was in fact wrong. This was compounded
by a strong performance from Michelin's competition. The race
will be very much influenced by the weather and maybe with
an optimal fuel load and better race performance from our
tyre selection we can still aim for a good result."
NORBERT HAUG
"We were half a second too slow, our target is to be
the fastest Michelin team, once the tyre competitor has an
advantage, and this we didn't achieve. For the first time
this year we didn't manage to get into the top ten, which
obviously is disappointing. Anyway we now will optimise our
strategy and aim for a much better result tomorrow."
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