Back To Reality

By Andrew Cutler
June 30 2007

It looks like Scott and Tonio were right to caution against those who might have read too much into Scuderia Toro Rosso's impressive Friday practice times. After stunning the paddock yesterday, today the squad from Faenza had something of a reality check.

With so many cars putting up times within a few tenths of a second from each other, luck/traffic played as much of a role in setting the grid as sheer horsepower and driver skill did. Tonio would end up on the losing end of the traffic battles and miss the cut for Q2. He will roll of in 17th spot tomorrow. Scott would make Q2, but then he couldn't get the car "settled" enough to do much with the opportunity. He will start just ahead of Tonio in 15th.

Here is what both drivers and technical director Giorgio Ascanelli had to say afterwards:

Scott Speed (15th - 1:16.049)

“I was definitely not expecting to repeat yesterday's performance. We like to keep our feet on the ground here at Toro Rosso! I had a good run in Q1 and then the track conditions started to be a bit more difficult for our car as it got more rubbered in. We struggled a lot with the front end, trying to get the front to grip in the slow speed corners and that problem was worse in Q2. The car balance in the high speed corners is good and quite driveable and it is easy to produce a consistent performance with what I think should be a good race car.”

Vitantonio Liuzzi (17th - 1:16.142)

“The main problem I had today was traffic and I had been hoping to be much higher up the order. We didn't get the right slot and paid the consequences. There was a big mess in the pit lane as our neighbours were coming in and out of their garage, causing a traffic jam. But my main problem was the Spyker ahead of me on the track that made a mistake a cost me a lot of time. I was three and a half tenths up on my first run time but I lost the chance of going into Q2 because of that.”

Giorgio Ascanelli

The cars ran okay today and were well balanced but with twelve cars within three tenths of a second, it does not take much to make the difference between the top of that group and the bottom of it. However, maybe there are signs of some progress since North America."