Pedro de la Rosa expected it

Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber), eliminated like his teammate, Kamui Kobayashi, in Q2, was not surprised by his performance. “ Getting into Q3 will be very difficult because there are already eight places taken (by the drivers of the Top 4 teams), then there are two places left for a group of six to eight cars. It will be difficult to enter, with competitors, like Force India, who seem to be in good shape “, he said before the qualifications. Visionary words!

At the end of qualifying, the Spanish driver was not too disappointed. “ I knew it would be difficult for me to get into Q3, due to the competition. But it's a circuit where you can overtake and, as I don't wear the tires much, I will try to make the difference thanks to an adapted strategy. »

Indeed, drivers located in the second half of the grid should, on the whole, rely on a one-stop strategy, in order to take advantage of the advantage of being able to start with a set of new tires. On the other hand, the drivers who competed in Q3 and wore soft tires should start with a two-stop strategy.

However, the Spaniard was also critical of his performance, admitting that he could have done much better than the time achieved in Q2. “ I have to blame myself, I made mistakes which cost me a few tenths. It was my last lap, I attacked hard because I had nothing left to lose. But, we knew that this track was not for us even if we would have liked to do better than that. »