Saturday: Hülkenberg and Force India satisfied with their qualification
The two Force India drivers, qualified 10th (Pérez) and 11th (Hülkenberg), are happy with their positions even though there was probably more to extract from the VJM07. They hope to fight for points in the race tomorrow and rely on strategy to achieve this.
Sergio Perez (No. 11) – 7th and 10th
The Mexican is happy to have qualified in Q3 but hoped to do a little better. He didn’t manage it due to a small mistake: « Even though it’s good to be in the top 10, I feel a bit disappointed not to be better positioned on the grid. My fast lap in Q3 was quite difficult, and I locked my wheels arriving at the New Chicane – so there was clearly more to be gotten out of the car. »
Pérez still hopes to be able to gain positions tomorrow and is counting on strategy to achieve this: « We need to look at how to gain positions tomorrow and we should be aggressive with our strategy because I don’t think there will be many opportunities to overtake. Hopefully, it will be an interesting race. »
Nico Hülkenberg (No. 27) – 8th and 11th
The German had to stop at Q2 but that suits him: « A place in Q3 was very close today – less than a tenth – but I’m not too disappointed because I was happy with my lap in Q2. »
He knows he will have an extra set of tires compared to the top 10 drivers and plans to take advantage of it to finish in the points at the end: « Starting 11th with an extra set of new tires gives us a good chance to score points tomorrow. It’s a long race, and we must be ready to react quickly with the strategy to try to gain positions. We also expect more clouds tomorrow and there might even be a bit of rain. »
