Buemi, disappointed illusions

Sébastien Buemi, tenth on the grid, could jump for joy at the sight of the qualifying result. Indeed, the Swiss, at Suzuka, equaled his best performance (10th, just like in China and Hungary). But this time, the regrets are present. Dominator of the morning free practice session (2nd time), the driver Toro Rosso made mistakes twice in qualifying, first in Q1 then at the end of Q2. If his first error was able to be repaired (damaged rear wing) so that he could progress to Q2, his second error condemned him to end his session there, despite having already progressed to Q3.

« I am unhappy because I had progressed to Q3, comments Sébastien Buemi. But after I crashed the car, I couldn't participate. It's a real shame because it would have been my second Q3 this season and the car was really great today. I was comfortable so maybe I didn?t need to do this trick? »

However, if he was unable to improve on his tenth place acquired thanks to his passage in Q2, the driver was nevertheless satisfied to have been able to restart after his accident at the start of the session. “ In Q1, after my crash, I was able to bring the car back to have it repaired. So I tried to do the same thing in Q2, bring it back to have it repaired. From the cockpit, you don't know the extent of the damage. » These were too important to allow the Swiss to leave before the end of Q3. “ At this point on the track, the curb is very high and, if you touch it, you take off. »

Despite the poor conclusion to the qualifying session, the Toro Rosso driver hopes to be able to do well during the race. “ I hope to take advantage of the performance level of the car and have a good race to thank the team for all the work they have put in so far. »

* After a meeting of the sports commissioners, Sébastien Buemi received a drop of five places on the starting grid for having brought his damaged car back to his stand