Daniel Ricciardo on almost taking a maiden pole position in front of his home fans; Lewis Hamilton on snatching it away from him; Kevin Magnussen on qualifying ahead of team mate Jenson Button in his first qualifying session; and Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado on a dreadful day at the office. All the drivers and senior team personnel report back on a thrilling qualifying session in Australia…
Lotus
Romain Grosjean (21st, Q1 – 1:36.993)
“We had a lot of problems today and every time we fixed one another one comes along! The guys are working very hard and it’s a tough situation for everyone. We just have to learn everything we can every time we are out in the car on the track. Yes it’s frustrating, but I’m the one who has the easiest life as I’m not working all night on the car. The whole team is here to win, so when it doesn’t go to plan it’s not great. It could still be made into a monster of a car if we all pull together as a team. We’ve been through some tough times in the past so we’ll work our way out of it.”
Pastor Maldonado (22nd, Q1 – no time)
“It’s been quite difficult today. We’re working very hard and we need to be optimistic. On the plus side, we’re not the only ones with problems. We’ll keep on working hard and try to work harder than the others. It was a power unit related issue which meant we were so late to the track. By that time it started to rain, and then, that’s it! We just need to stay focussed and keep on working and that’s exactly what we’re doing. For the race we’ll just do the best we can. Our pace should be quite good; we just need to put the laps together