While attention was focussed on the front of the grid interesting developments were happening right at the very back with HRT for the first time qualifying both cars in front of the Virgins.
While neither Timo Glock nor Jérôme D’Ambrosio could get under the 1m17s barrier, both Tonio Liuzzi and Daniel Ricciardo did so comfortably, despite completing fewer laps than their rivals.
“That was a good way to finish the season, in terms of qualifying, ahead of the Virgins,” said Liuzzi. “It’s a great feeling to be back in business with a car that is working one hundred per cent, allowing us to fight with the others. We showed that when things are working we can perform and that’s what we’re here to do. It could be a crazy race as there is a chance of rain so we’ll look forward to that."
Ricciardo was less pleased, having been out-qualified by his team mate: “For the team, qualy was good but for myself I was disappointed. Not just because I was out-qualified by Tonio but more for the fact we didn’t improve on the second set of tyres, which was strange. The car was pretty good on the first set and we made a small change for the second to improve a bit more – but for whatever reason it didn’t and we went backwards, which was a bit frustrating – but still it was still good to hang on in front of the Virgins.”
Next door at Virgin team principal John Booth bemoaned setup problems as his drivers struggled with the flowing Interlagos turns. “A disappointing afternoon for the team and not what we hoped for going into this weekend,” he said. “Timo had struggled with the balance of his car this morning and so needed to do some significant changes for qualifying, which is far from desirable although his balance did improve as a result. Jerome had a good morning and he was very pleased with his lap in FP3, which even before correcting for fuel was much better than his lap in Q1 which was plagued by oversteer.”
Despite the grid placing everyone pointed to the possibility of bad weather and, given Interlagos’ history for retirements, both teams are hopeful of an attritional race and a healthy finish.