Kubica 'could've done better' than ninth

Date published : 13 Mar 2010 - 14:37:42

Robert Kubica said he was pleased to prove Renault is still a Formula 1 force by getting into Q3 in Bahrain - but felt he should have done much better than ninth place on the grid.The Pole rued a wild moment in the middle of his fastest lap, without which he reckoned seventh place was on the cards."The first target for today was to get into Q3, so we can pleased with that part of the qualifying session, but I am actually a bit disappointed to be only ninth on the grid," Kubica said."I did two good laps in Q1 and Q2, but on my lap in the final part of the session I had a big snap oversteer in the hairpin at turn 16 that cost me about four-tenths."But he was happy that his car looked competitive enough to be on the fringe of the lead pack."On the positive side, we have a clearer picture of where we stand now, and it looks pretty positive when you see the cars around us on the grid: the R30 clearly has good potential," said Kubica.His rookie team-mate Vitaly Petrov was only 17th in the second Renault - but said he was satisfied with that position given his lack of experience and minimal dry mileage in testing."For my first ever qualifying session, this is a normal result, but I really enjoyed today," Petrov insisted. "Our first target was to make Q2 so we achieved this, but we were not very lucky in Q2 and could not continue. "Tomorrow is race day and it will be very interesting to see how we do - we will certainly try our best."Renault's chief engineer Alan Permane reckoned a small error cost Petrov the chance to do better."He went comfortably through Q1, which was good," said Permane."In Q2, he went into turn nine a little bit too quick on his final timed lap, so he will start P17 tomorrow."