2007 Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying Report
Adrian Sutil (car 20, F8-VII/03):
FP3: 21st 1:38.868 (20 laps)
Q1: 21st 1:38.668 (8 laps)
Sakon Yamamoto (car 21, F8-VII/04):
FP3: 22nd 1:39.517 (21 laps)
Q1: 22nd 1:39.336 (7 laps)
The Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team today had a fairly
disappointing Qualifying session at the Shanghai International
Circuit. After scoring its first point at last week's Japanese
Grand Prix, the team had been hoping for more this weekend,
however a combination of a slippery track and a car balance
set up in anticipation of tomorrow's expected rain conspired
to put Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto in 21st and 22nd positions
respectively for tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix.
Both Adrian and Sakon made two runs on the softer Bridgestone
Potenza option available this weekend and set their fastest
runs on their second outings. Adrian's time was 0.4secs from
the next fastest car of Takuma Sato, with Sakon just behind.
With heavy rain however predicted for tomorrow's 56 lap race,
conditions could be very similar to those in which the team
secured that crucial one point last week.
Adrian Sutil (car 20)
'We were hoping for maybe one more place today. The lap was
OK and the car balance seemed good, but no one made a mistake
and I think this was our maximum today. We just need more
top speed as we are losing a lot on the straights, although
hopefully in the race we will pick up some more places. In
general I don't think that this circuit suits the car and
I'll be hoping for a wet race tomorrow.'
Sakon Yamamoto (car 21)
'This is a bit disappointing for us. My car balance didn't
really improve from yesterday and we tried to do our best,
but the lap time showed we still have a lack of speed. I don't
know what to expect for tomorrow but as we think it will be
a wet race, we might be OK. We know we can do better in these
conditions, so we are going to look at the data and hope for
more tomorrow.'
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer
'Today was reasonably disappointing as we are not as competitive
as we have been over the past few races. But with the expected
conditions tomorrow, we compromised the set up to take into
account the predicted rain and I am sure we will be more competitive
in the race as we always are.'
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