Toro Rosso’s James Key has apologised to Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo after the team mistakenly sent them out too early in the session which was ultimately the wrong choice.
Both drivers went out early in the hope of missing the most of the rain, but as the shower moved away from the circuit and the track dried, they failed to switch to slicks – unlike the Caterham of Giedo van der Garde and both Marussias who made it through to Q2.
Explaining the situation, Key said it was simply an error on the teams behalf which put them out in the first session.
“Up until Q1 we had been having a strong weekend, looking competitive in the dry and not too bad in the wet in FP1,” he said. “Jean-Eric, in particular, was showing good form and looking forward to qualifying.
“We went into Q1 knowing there was a good chance the track would dry out towards the end. We timed our final tyre change at a similar moment to others but, somehow, we were in the wrong place at the wrong time today. We should have had two cars in Q3, instead they both went out in Q1.
“Should we have switched to slicks? Some of the cars that are usually at the back of the grid took that risk but, in our case, it’s hard to know. As a team, we should apologise to the drivers, work out what went wrong to ensure we don’t do it again and, most importantly, see what we can do to still get the best out of the cars tomorrow.”
Vergne starts 18th with Ricciardo in 19th.
