Q & A with Robert Kubica

Afterwards the Pole sat down with the press to explain the progress of the team's blown diffuser concept, why it is a difficult thing to set-up for and what his views on the new Silverstone layout are.

AUTOSPORT was there to hear what he had to say.

Q. Sixth place on the grid, are you happy?

Robert Kubica: Yes. I am bit surprised about being P6 because we were struggling quite a lot. A little with the pace and the grip and definitely we were not expecting P6.

Q. You did only one run in Q3, why was that?

RK: There is always some reasons. It is very simple we had one set of new tyres and that's it.

Q. When you set the time were you still struggling with the grip then?

RK: You are not allowed to change anything during qualifying so it was exactly the same as during Q2 and Q1. Overall the general pace of the weekend is not as we would like, because of the handling of the car and we had some issues with the balance. We were a bit surprised to be P6 after Q1 and Q2 was quite difficult.

Q. Why did you do two qualifying laps?

RK: Because the first one I was not pushing. It was the plan to do two laps and that's why I just did it and the second one I pushed to get a proper lap time.

Q. The problems with the handling and grip, are they due to the nature of the circuit?

RK: It's quite a special track, and especially with the blown-diffuser it is quite difficult to get a proper balance, and unfortunately yesterday in second free practice we lost a bit of way in direction and it took some time to find a better way of setting up the car. We were not able to test the things we planned. We have the solutions for fixing the car balance problems for the future. For sure it depends on the track characteristics as well.

Q. Is the balance affecting you more in the fast corners of the slow ones?

RK: It depends. Because there is such a big difference here between high-speed and low-speed corners I think it is difficult to get everything. Once I had a good balance on the high-speed corners we were struggling with the low-speed and vice versa. So that's why it was quite difficult. There are many long corners here. So it is quite difficult to find the optimum balance for everywhere.

Q. Do you go for balance in the high or low-speed corners?

RK: I think the low-speed corners but of course you try to do everything. Here in Silverstone the wind also has a pretty big effect, so when it gets more windy then in the high-speed you are more affected and your balance can shift quite a lot. We have seen this in the past years although the wind speed didn't pick up as much as the weather forecast was saying so the balance was not as bad as we thought.

Q. What about the track conditions from yesterday to today?

RK: The new part of the track was still pretty slippery. I know that the track was cleaned last night, it looked a bit more cleaner but the rubber was taken off. So the new part after 10 and 11 was quite slippery. The track was in a better condition but it was still dusty.

Q. Can Turns ten and 11 match Becketts for thrills?

RK: Turn 11 is only really a corner because there is a huge bump. If there was no bump it would easily taken flat-out, but I think it is already for some cars. Turn 12 is not a corner for us. So still the first part of the track, which was always very challenging, it's good to have it because it is very demanding for both car and driver.

Q. Are you expecting to be able to fight with Nico Rosberg for fifth?

RK: Anything can happen. The crucial points will be the start and the first lap and then pitstops. We have seen that overtaking at Silverstone is very difficult so we will see where we will be. If we are surprised to be P6, then it is difficult for us to look more to the front. It will be quite a difficult race for us to keep up with the top guys, and it is not realistic, but we will try our best. Anything can happen in the race.

Q. Are you having the same problems on both types of tyre?

RK: There is no big difference between the tyres here. Generally we have the same balance and the same problems on both compounds.