Romain Grosjean secured a best-ever front row starting spot with the second fastest time in qualifying for tomorrows Hungarian Grand Prix, whilst Kimi Rikknen will start from fifth position after a searing hot session at the Hungaroring.
Kimi Rikknen, E20-05. Q: P5, 1:21.730. FP3: P6, 1:21.953 Not a bad qualifying performance for sure, but its a bit disappointing I didnt go faster when it mattered. The car feels good, but I didnt get the crucial lap together at the right time. Lets see what happens tomorrow.
Romain Grosjean, E20-04. Q: P2, 1.21.366 FP3: P7 1:22.110 Qualifying was very tight and it was difficult to see where we would end up so on the front row is fantastic. We came here after a difficult weekend at Hockenheim and to be honest I didnt get off to the best start yesterday. We worked hard to improve things overnight and the car felt much better in practice this morning. Im very happy and just a little bit surprised to be P2 on the grid. Todays job is done, lets see what we can do tomorrow.
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: Its great to be on the front row.
How do you assess todays qualifying performance? Its been a good day. Its great to be on the front row with Romain. Wed like to have seen Kimi a little further up the orderespecially as his Q2 time was better than he achieved in Q3but overall its been an excellent weekend so far; lets hope that continues tomorrow. Our target has been to improve our qualifying performance; weve clearly demonstrated that today.
What can be achieved in the race? Were starting from the front row so there is good potential. Its a difficult circuit to overtakeone of the hardest next to Monaco and Singapore. A good start will clearly be very important. After the start, even with the DRS, the straight is not long enough to mount an overtaking bid unless a car ahead is suffering from tyre degradation or something else to slow them down.
How do both tyre compounds perform here? Both the medium and soft compounds have exhibited pretty low degradation so we have no worries or concerns about durability, even with high temperatures.
Does the weather forecast throw any curve balls? Conditions similar to those weve seen over the last couple of days have been forecast. There is potential for some rain, but its so hot here there could be thunder showers like we saw on Friday. Were ready for whatever the weather throws at us.
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