11th and 14th for Toro Rosso

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuitmc

The Scuderia Toro Rosso can look back satisfied on today's qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix. That the team made a lot of improvement the last few races was displayed by Sebastian Buemi's 11th and Sebastien Bourdais' 14th place in the narrow streets of Monte-Carlo.

Sebastien Buemi (STR4-03)
“I am reasonably happy with my performance, although I could have made it into the top ten if I hadn’t made a mistake at the final corner. But there’s no point thinking about that anymore. Now we must concentrate on tomorrow, trying to find the best possible strategy. We have seen that our car is much more competitive than before and I think we can aspire to finish in the top eight and get some points. I am confident we can do well.”
Third Practice Session: Best lap 1.16.432, pos. 16th, 22 laps
Qualifying Session: Best lap 1.15.833, pos. 11th

Sebastien Bourdais (STR4-01)
“This morning I was pretty happy with the balance of the car, but this afternoon, I just could not get the car to turn and I don’t know why. I touched the barriers a few times, but there’s a big difference between touching and hitting! It’s disappointing because I think the car had the potential to get to Q3 today, but fourteenth is not so far back, so we will see what we can do tomorrow.”
Third Practice Session: Best lap 1.16.301, pos. 13th, 23 laps
Qualifying Session: Best lap 1.16.281, pos. 14th

Laurent Mekies, Chief Engineer: “Overall our performance shows a bit of an improvement over the last few races. Buemi got very close to making it into Q3, but in some ways it’s quite nice to have a couple of hours to plan our fuel strategy for tomorrow. Both guys got into Q2 in difficult traffic conditions, keeping a cool head. We believe there is still more to come from our car and hopefully that will happen soon.”