Saturday: Toro Rosso in Q2 and close to Q3

The feelings of the Toro Rosso team after qualifying are quite mixed. Even though the small Scuderia delivered a good performance, placing its drivers in Q2 with 11th and 14th positions, the hopes showed the potential to reach Q3 and the top 10.

Sébastien Buemi once again outpaces his French teammate Sébastien Bourdais and demonstrates that even in Monaco, he can be relied upon. The Swiss driver is on the cusp of reaching Q3 and regrets a small mistake in his fast lap. Bourdais, for his part, is disappointed. He had found performance with the STR4 this morning, but the car’s balance disappeared during qualifying, causing him to lose grip several times. However, hopes are high for tomorrow, and the goal with both drivers is to score points.

Sébastien Buemi – 16th and 11th:

« I am quite happy with my performance although I could have accessed the top 10 if I hadn’t made a mistake in my last corner. There’s nothing else to improve or comment on. Now we will focus on the race tomorrow, trying to find the best strategy. We can see that the car is much more competitive than before, and I think we can finish in the top 8 tomorrow and score some points. I’m confident, we can do it. »

Sébastien Bourdais – 13th and 14th:

This morning, I was fully satisfied with the car’s balance, but this afternoon I couldn’t get the car into the corners properly and I don’t know why. I brushed the rails several times, but there’s a big difference between brushing them and hitting them! It’s disappointing because I think the car had the potential to go into Q3. 14th isn’t too far on the grid, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.

Laurent Mekies – Chief Engineer:

Overall, we can see that we are making progress in the last few races. Buemi was really close to entering Q3, but in any case, it’s good to have the option to choose the fuel load for the start. Both our drivers reached Q2 in heavy traffic conditions while keeping their cool. We believe it’s still possible to get more out of the car and we hope to further improve our performance quickly.