Brazil Saturday quotes: Renault

"It was hard to do a perfect lap in the slippery, low-grip conditions and it is a shame to miss out on Q3 by such a small margin.

"I think we will see an interesting race tomorrow, especially when it comes to the tyre behaviour, and hopefully we can find a good strategy to take advantage of this."

Heikki Kovalainen - 17th: "I was very disappointed not to make it out of Q1. It was simply my mistake; I went too deep into turn 12, locked the front tyres, got a poor exit and it cost me over six tenths of a second.

"The grip level was poor compared to this morning, but everybody had to deal with the same conditions.

"We have been in this position before this year, though, and the results afterwards showed us how important it is to never give up. We won't, and we will be pushing hard for everything we can get tomorrow, but it's going to be a tough race."

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: "We seem to have lost a disproportionate amount of grip this afternoon as the circuit temperatures climbed.

"A small mistake from Heikki was enough to relegate him to the bottom third of the grid on a circuit where the qualifying gaps are always very close. Giancarlo got the maximum from the car, but the car's maximum simply wasn't sufficient today."

Denis Chevrier, Head of Engine Track Operations: "We said yesterday that it would be important to get every detail right in order to qualify strongly at this circuit, and we didn't achieve that today.

"The times are very close, and that meant Giancarlo missed out on Q3 by 0.08s, while Heikki paid a heavy price for a small mistake in Q1.

"However, we saw today that tyre management will be critical tomorrow afternoon, especially if the conditions stay as hot as they were today, and we will try to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way."