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Top five roles on Motorsport Jobs this week

General
Top five roles on Motorsport Jobs this week

Relationship between F1 driver and race engineer more crucial than ever

Formula 1
Relationship between F1 driver and race engineer more crucial than ever

Formula E launches innovative Gen4 car at Paul Ricard

Formula E
Formula E launches innovative Gen4 car at Paul Ricard

How to make F1's 2026 rules simpler - and why Horner was half-right

Feature
Formula 1
How to make F1's 2026 rules simpler - and why Horner was half-right

Wood is a chip off the old block as he takes first win at Brands Hatch 750MC event

National
Wood is a chip off the old block as he takes first win at Brands Hatch 750MC event

Why riders' nationalities have become a problem for Liberty Media in MotoGP

MotoGP
Spanish GP
Why riders' nationalities have become a problem for Liberty Media in MotoGP

McLaren junior leads the way in British F4 as BTCC support series begin at Donington Park

National
McLaren junior leads the way in British F4 as BTCC support series begin at Donington Park

The key takeaways from the BTCC season opener

Feature
BTCC
Donington Park (National Circuit)
The key takeaways from the BTCC season opener

Bahrain Saturday quotes: Caterham

Heikki Kovalainen - 16th: "That was an excellent qualifying session for our team. It's a real bonus for us getting into Q2 but we'd already seen this morning that we were close to a few cars and we thought that with the conditions today, being hot and pretty windy, we might be able to use the option tyres to get us into Q2, and it worked out. We've also saved a set of tyres for tomorrow as we were pretty sure we wouldn't be able to get too much higher, and with the degradation rates we've seen yesterday and today it's clear tyre management is going to play a big role tomorrow. Overall, I'm delighted for the team. We've worked really hard to put ourselves in a position where we can fight and today we showed that we are close enough to record results like we did today. We made progress over the winter, and even though we haven't really shown it yet this season, today's the sort of result we knew we could put in, so it's a great day, for everyone in Caterham F1 Team back at the factory and here on track."

Vitaly Petrov - 19th: "I'm reasonably pleased with how today went, bearing in mind the problem we had with the floor in FP3 which cost us a bit of time and meant we weren't really able to find a balance on the soft tyres that I could really exploit in qualifying. My run on the prime tyres was good - I was very close to my team mate and the car felt good, but when we switched to the options the car just didn't feel right. It wasn't so much a balance issue, it was more about how the car felt under braking and I think that's what cost me the time on the soft tyres. Despite that I think we look like we're getting towards where we should be. We're much closer to the cars ahead than we were in China and having already seen how we can fight with some of the midfield cars in the races I think tomorrow could be a good day for us. It's definitely going to be interesting. There will be a lot of stops and it'll come down to who uses their tyres best."

Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader: "Seeing Heikki in Q2 is a very good result for us and the whole team. We have been working on giving the drivers the right balance between top speed and traction out of the slower corners and today's result shows we have found the right setup for this track. The wind today, particularly on the main straight where there was a stronger head wind than yesterday, meant we had to fine tune the engine maps and our final positions in today's qualifying session is the reward for the work the whole team has done."

Mark Smith, Technical Director: "We are all delighted with today's result. This morning we had a very good FP3 and the work we have done overnight has paid off with Heikki's result today. Everything on his car worked as we had planned and this is a clear sign that the whole team is making progress. Vitaly had a strong run on the first set of medium tyres but he just was not able to get the most out of the soft tyres on his second run, but he has already shown how strong he is on Sundays so we have good reason to be positive about his prospects here as well. We know we have a good package for the race tomorrow, so we'll look forward to what will definitely be an exciting Grand Prix and aim to maintain the sort of pace we have already shown in the first three races this season."

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