Sat: BMW, Renault, Toro Rosso

Saturday 5th July 2008

Both BMW and Renault drivers as well as Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel found top-ten grid slots for the British GP.

BMW
Nick Heidfeld: I'm quite happy with fifth because it just continues a positive trend which began in qualifying in Magny-Cours, and confirms all our efforts and work have paid off. I can now manage again to heat up the tyres properly and get them to work, but we shall continue to work on this subject. In Q2 Robert and I where just separated by two hundreds of a second. Generally my car was a lot better today than on Friday. However, on my last lap in Q3 it felt a little bit strange, so we have to find out what this was. I think we shall have an exciting race tomorrow. There is a high chance of rain!"

Robert Kubica: It was a difficult qualifying in the end. Finally we were on the right pace. Qualifying 1 was good and qualifying 2 was even better, as the first time on option tyres was very good. I backed off in the last sector to just bring the car home, and it was still enough to be two or three tenths off the McLaren time. In qualifying 3 I went through the first sector without any problems, but then I felt the same problem at the rear I felt on Friday. Now we have to analyse everything and see what is going on."

Renault
Fernando Alonso: It was a difficult qualifying session with changeable track conditions, wind and rain. But we have done our maximum and so overall it's a satisfying result for the team. If the race tomorrow takes place in normal conditions, we can hope to have a strong finish. If it rains, the race will be open and anything can happen. I must now prepare for that and will give my all once again to achieve a good result."

Nelson Piquet Jr: "I'm very happy with today's qualifying session. The car felt good and we were improving lap by lap. I struggled a bit at the end of Q3 with Heidfeld, but it worked out OK in the end and so it does look promising for tomorrow. Now I'm looking forward to the race and I hope we can put on a good show in the team's local race."

Toro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel: I qualified 7th in Indy with BMW, but to be 8th with Toro Rosso means we can be very proud of what we have achieved today. We had a very good balance on the car and all weekend I've felt very comfortable even on my first race weekend at this tough and challenging track. It seems we are moving in the right direction with the new car and we have made a step forward. It's fun fighting in the top ten. We should be in good shape tomorrow, whatever the weather and we will deal with whatever comes."

Sebastien Bourdais:Thirteenth is not exactly the most satisfying result, but given how much we struggled here in practice, it's good to move up a notch and be a bit more competitive. We struggled to find the right set-up so we went for the best compromise and the result was rather encouraging. I don't think anyone knows what the weather will do tomorrow, but definitely, it seemed to go well in the wet in the morning and I found the car easier to drive in those conditions, so I wouldn't complain if it rained tomorrow afternoon."

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