Saturday: Caterham Drivers Satisfied with Their Qualifications

Charles Pic – 20th and 19th:

« We made a number of changes overnight for the free practice 3 sessions, but in the first stint, it seemed we went too far to the rear with the balance because the car was unstable. We went from a predominant understeer on Friday to too much oversteer on Saturday, and even though the aerodynamic balance improved throughout the session, the mechanical balance was still too far off.

During the qualifying, we waited for the first cars to go out, and then we did our first stint with new super-soft tires. The balance wasn’t perfect yet, now the car has some understeer again, but by the end of the first stint it was good and with the way the car was performing, I probably couldn’t have done better in qualifying. The positive point is that we have an advantage of 0.7 seconds over the Marussia, and it’s good for us for the race as we seem to be able to fight with the cars in front, rather than those behind. I am looking forward to tomorrow as it will surely be exciting, and with the many safety car interventions here in recent years, anything can happen.

Giedo van der Garde – 19th and 20th:

Free practice 3 wasn’t too bad – we clearly made progress compared to Friday and even though there was still a bit of understeer and front locking like in free practice 1 and 2, the car seemed better. With our performance run at the end of the session, I was happy with our position so I was confident for qualifying.

In Q1, we went out for two stints on super softs with one timed lap each. My first stint was good but I had a bit of traffic so I knew I could do better. In my second stint, I pushed very hard and hit the wall which cost me a bit of time, but overall, I think our position is good. The main thing for the team is the gap with the cars behind, so now it’s about the race, making sure to avoid problems and being there to take advantage of whatever comes our way.