Petrov laments qualifying issue

Vitaly Petrov feels the technical problem that saw his stricken Renault cause a red flag at the end of Q2 in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix cost him a chance to place much higher on the grid than the tenth position he will start from

Simon Strang Apr 16, 2011, 7:22 AM

The Russian set the fourth fastest time of Q2 before his car ground to a halt just before Turn 6, with less than three minutes of the session to go.

Having retired from the segment, Petrov was unable to participate in the top ten shoot out and felt that he had missed out on capitalising on his car's potential.

"I don't know, after the second or third corner something started to be wrong with the car," Petrov explained to the BBC.

"I tried to go full throttle but the car was not working, I tried to change the gears and that didn't work also. We need to check to analyse what happened.

"But to be honest I am very, very disappointed because we made a big step on set-up. We improved quite a lot from yesterday because it was really nice to drive the car. It would have been very interesting to see what would have happened in Q3."