Q & A: Glock on Virgin's plight

AUTOSPORT spoke exclusively to lead driver Timo Glock after the sessions.

Q. It's looking like the Virgins are marginal to make the 107 per cent qualifying cut-off. How do you see it?

Timo Glock: It's disappointing. We're not where we should be and it's quite easy to see that we are not quick enough at the moment.

Q. The car seems a little less competitive than it appeared in testing. Is there something about this track that you are struggling with?

TG: It's difficult to say. Part of it could be the temperature here, but I have to say that it felt okay on the soft tyres and it felt okay in terms of warm-up. The only chance we have is that the top guys in Q1 run the hard tyre and we run softs and then we don't have a problem to get within 107 per cent. It's disappointing and not great that the car is not on the pace.

Q. The difference between prime and options on a single flying lap is around seven tenths. Is that enough to tip the balance in your favour?

TG: We were three tenths off the 107 per cent today and I did a the laptime as part of the long run. If we drop the fuel and I do a good lap, then we should be in. But the target is not to fight for the 107 per cent, the target was to be up there with Lotus and that's definitely still the target.

Q. What are the shortcomings of the car - is it purely a lack of downforce?

TG: For my part, it's overall downforce that we are missing.

Q. So this form is likely to hold in Malaysia and China because there's not much you can do to improve the car?

TG: At the moment, yes. I hope that the guys who are behind the new package for the car know what they are doing and the numbers are right because at the moment we are clearly not where we had our targets. I hope that the new upgrade for Turkey puts us on target.

Q. Is the car producing less downforce than was anticipated or is it just a question that the other teams are faster than expected?

TG: I think that we just didn't develop strongly enough over the winter and the others made a bigger step. The top guys show their cards and that's the reason why we are so far behind.

Q. What do you make of the tyre degradation?

TG: On the long runs it was very consistent, I think I did my quickest laptime at the end of a long run. The picture has completely turned around with no degradation and the tyre felt okay. No problems.

Q. Is that a big surprise to you?

TG: Yes, definitely. When we put up the programme and said we were doing a long run I thought that it would be very hard work at the end, but it was just consistent.

Q. The one strength that you can have is reliability this weekend because if you finish there's a chance of a decent result. How confident are you on that score?

TG: We had no problems today and testing looked okay, so that's the only target that we can have - to finish the race.

Q. Were you able to judge the effectiveness of the adjustable wing either from overtaking or being overtaken?

TG: It will be difficult, because the run down to Turn 1 is a bit short.