Zoom This forced a gearbox change for Bourdais

It was a very tough day for Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais today in Montreal. The morning practice session saw Vettel hit the wall at turn nine and the German rookie was unable to take part in the afternoon practice session as the Toro Rosso team were unable to build up the spare car in time.

Bourdais also crashed in the practice session, but the damage to his STR3 was relatively light and he was able to take part in qualifying. The Frenchman set the 16th fastest time in qualifying but still starts at the back of the back courtesy of a gearbox change penalty, a legacy of his morning accident.

Sebastien Bourdais
“The track is falling apart and the conditions are really difficult. Because of the wind, there was also a lot of debris and leaves, which made the track very slippery, plus the asphalt has got marbles on the racing line because it’s breaking up. After the morning, I could not afford to make any mistakes and run the risk of not taking up a start place for the race and in these conditions it was just unreal. For me this is one of the worst days of my career so far.”

Sebastian Vettel
“This morning I made a mistake, losing the rear end of the car and unfortunately here the walls are very close, without much run-off area. The impact was not that bad but bad enough to damage the monocoque in a way that it could not be repaired in the two hours we had available before qualifying. This year of course the rules ban spare cars, so we had to rebuild the damaged one which meant no qualifying for me today."

Franz Tost
“This morning, we paid the price of the unforgiving Montreal walls and of having two young drivers, neither of whom had driven here in a Formula 1 car before Friday, pushing to the limit. In Vettel’s case, he crashed at Turn 9, after losing control of the car, using too much of the kerb. The impact broke the right hand front and rear suspension. Unfortunately, this also damaged the monocoque around the rocker mounting point. We therefore have to change the monocoque, which could not be done in time for qualifying. Sebastian will therefore start the race from pit lane."

"Bourdais went off at Turn 4, damaging the right hand side suspension. The wishbones broke and the right hand driveshaft came out of the gearbox, which means the box had to be changed. Sebastien will therefore take a five place penalty on the grid. Our drivers always try hard. To paraphrase a well known saying: better to have tried and lost than never tried at all!”

E.A. © CAPSIS International