Kubica: Cooler temps hindered Renault
Date published : 27 Mar 2010 - 09:14:19
Robert Kubica believes Saturday's cooler track conditions explained why Renault couldn't replicate its strong practice form in qualifying.The team had felt that its first two-car Q3 result of 2010 was possible in Melbourne after both its drivers ran strongly on Friday, Kubica having topped the weekend's opening practice session before Vitaly Petrov finished fifth in the later session.But in qualifying Petrov disappointingly dropped out in Q1 while Kubica only narrowly made the pole shootout before going on to claim ninth on the grid.The team's lead driver reckons he couldn't have achieved more in the conditions although he remains optimistic he can open Renault's points account for the season in the race. I think I got the maximum that was possible from qualifying today, Kubica said. I had to push hard because the car was not easy to drive and I think we lost some performance in the colder conditions. For the race tomorrow the weather could play a big role, but I don't care if it's wet or dry. Hopefully we can fight for some good points.With the grid's three new teams' drivers currently all but guaranteed to fill six of the seven places in the Q1 elimination zone, Petrov was surprisingly the one driver from an established team to fail to clear the first hurdle.The Russian rookie couldn't hide his frustration at the failure to match the promise he showed on Friday, but he also admitted that he still had to get used to the hurly-burly nature of Q1 after he made errors towards the end of his final hot lap. I'm disappointed not to make it out of Q1 because the car has been competitive all weekend, he said after qualifying 18th.Qualifying is a new experience for me and I'm still learning: it's very busy out on track, it was difficult to get a clear lap and I didn't put my three best sectors together when it counted on my final run. The times show I had the pace to be in Q2, so of course I'm disappointed not to have reached my potential. The car didn't not feel as well balanced today, either, in the different track conditions."And on his race prospects from the ninth row, he added: "It will be a tough race starting so far down the field and the track is narrow so it's difficult to overtake, but I will try my best to get a good result tomorrow.Renault's chief engineer Alan Permane said both drivers had reported a lack of grip from the R30 compared to Friday.Robert's ninth place was as good as we could hope for from today's qualifying session after a difficult practice session this morning, he said.We seem to have lost some of our competitiveness overnight with both drivers feeling the cars had less grip and more oversteer than yesterday. Robert did a credible job to qualify ninth and had a fairly straightforward session. Vitaly made a small mistake on his second run in Q1 and unfortunately didn't make it through to Q2.
