Saturday in Monte Carlo - Giedo's team quote

Weather

FP3: Dry, sunny; min / max track temp 28° - 29°, air temp 18°

Q1: Overcast, light rain; track temp 21°, air temp 17°

Q2: Overcast, light rain; track temp 21°, air temp 16°

Fastest laps / positions:

FP3: PIC 1.17.902, 19th / VDG 1.18. 102, 20th

Q1: VDG: 1.26.095, 16th / PIC 1.26.633, 18th

Q2: VDG: 1.19.408, 15th

Total laps:

FP3: PIC 20 / VDG 20

Q1: VDG 13 / PIC 13

Q2: VDG 8

Runplan

Giedo van der Garde, car #21, chassis CT03-04

FP3

1104 - 1116: Run 1, 8 laps (soft tyres)

Changes: front anti-roll bar

1127 - 1138: Run 2, 7 laps (soft tyres) RED FLAG

Changes: front wing flap angle

1152 - 1200: Run 3, 5 laps (supersoft tyres)

Q1

1400 - 1415: Run 1, 9 laps (intermediate tyres)

Changes: n/a

1415 - 1421: Run 2, 4 laps (intermediate tyres)

Q2

1427 - 1435: Run 1, 3 laps (intermediate tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle

1435 - 1444: Run 2, 5 laps (supersoft tyres)

Team Quotes

Giedo van der Garde: "I'm obviously very pleased to put my name into the Q2 timesheets for the first time this year and I want to thank Tony, Cyril and the whole team for the jobs everyone did today. Honestly, it's a great feeling, but it's still part of the learning process for me. I've said since the start of the season that I'd make progress, and today showed how far we've all come in just six races, and there's more to come.

"Saturday started pretty well and in FP3 we went out for a long-ish run on the softs straight away but, like Charles, for me the car was understeering a lot. I was having to use throttle to help turn the car so we made a couple of mechanical changes and from then it was a bit better, but the tyres weren't really coming in as much as we'd have liked, so we tried another mechanical change for quali and the results are pretty obvious!

"In Q1 we went out very early as there were reports of more showers coming. As it turned out that wasn't the case, but we timed the stop well and had about four more quick laps on the inters at the end of Q1, enough time to put myself into Q2.

"Q2 started with a bit more rain, so we again went for the inters, but after one lap I thought it was dry enough for slicks so we boxed, went onto the supersofts and was the first car to make the switch. For a while we were looking at Q3, but that's not where we are performance-wise yet, so we're all really happy with Q2.

"Sunday could be very interesting. I start between the two Williams cars of Bottas and Maldonado and I've had good starts all year, so hopefully I can have another good launch, avoid anything like the GP2 mess on Friday, and from there anything's possible. I finished on the podium here last year in GP2 and, while that's not going to happen this year, we will definitely be racing quite a few cars all afternoon."

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal, Caterham F1 Team: "This is one of the good days, the best so far this year for our team. Personally, I'm proud of the work everyone is doing to give us moments like seeing Giedo's name in Q2. He drove very well, showing how he much he keeps developing and how he's brave enough to be the first driver out there to make the call to go for it on slicks in what were still very tricky conditions on track. Both he and Charles have been driving very well all weekend, minimising the mistakes and pushing when they need to and Charles was unlucky not to join Giedo in Q2. However, he also showed his talent by being right in the mix in Q1 until the flag fell and with the pace and racecraft he's shown all year, particularly in Bahrain and Spain, he'll be right in the action tomorrow.

"This is another small step in our ongoing development, another reason why we are all here working so hard to be part of the show, and I want everyone in our team to use this as another source of motivation for Sunday and the rest of the season. We obviously have the main task ahead of us tomorrow, but days like this are why we're in this sport, and to have our first Q2 of the year when Tony's on track with us makes this a very special day."

CaterhamF1

Monaco GP: Giedo van der Garde says Caterham result 'career high'

Giedo van der Garde regards qualifying 15th for the Monaco Grand Prix as a career high.

The Dutchman reached Q2 for the first time in Formula 1 as he made Caterham's first appearance in the second stage of qualifying this season.

Even though he has won races in his junior career, as well as the Formula Renault 3.5 title, he believes this achievement is up there with anything else he has achieved.

"Yes, it's a big day for me and the team," van der Garde told AUTOSPORT when asked if this was a career high.

"It was a great day for us and I'm very happy and proud of what we did.

"It's not easy in these conditions, but you have to make the most of them and take what you can get."

Caterham judged the conditions well in Q1, opting to bring van der Garde in for fresh intermediate rubber, which allowed him to improve his time by a big enough margin to end up ahead of Paul di Resta and Esteban Gutierrez.

In Q2, van der Garde gambled on a switch to slicks when everyone else was on intermediates. He climbed as high as fifth at one point before being demoted by faster cars that changed tyres later in the session.

"We played it quite aggressive," he said of the team's strategy.

"I was the first one on slicks and it was my call.

"But at those moments, you have nothing to lose and you have to try to get what you can."

Despite being inside the top 10 in the closing minutes of the session, van der Garde believes that he did the best he could have done and that it was impossible to reach Q3 without the rain returning.

He ended up just over a second-and-a-half off the Q3 cut-off time, but believes that there was no more pace in the car because of the conditions.

"The gap to Q3 was quite big," he said.

"It was still wet at the end of Q2 so it was tough and the car was sliding around a lot."

With the Caterham having shown stronger race pace than qualifying pace so far this weekend, van der Garde is hopeful of a good result in Sunday's race.

"You never know - as we saw in the GP2 race on Friday, anything can happen at into the first turn," he said when asked if he felt scoring a point might be possible.

Autosport

Qualifying: Giedo 15th on the grid - Monaco

A very very happy Giedo after a great qualifying in Monaco. 15th on the grid!

What a great day.. Very nice to get in to Q2 and happy with p15 ! Caterham F1 Team thanks guys.. And thx to all your positive support! I hope you will enjoy the race tomorrow.

Facebook/Twitter Giedo

Saturday in China - Qualifying

Weather

FP3: Dry, sunny; min / max track temp 34° - 36°, air temp 25° - 27°

Q1: Dry, sunny; min / max track temp 40° - 41°, air temp 27°

Fastest laps / positions:

FP3: PIC 1.38.821, 20th / VDG 1.39.652, 22nd

Q1: PIC 1.39.614, 21st / VDG 1.39.660, 22nd

Total laps:

FP3: PIC 18 / VDG 18

Q1: PIC 6 / VDG 6

Runplan

Giedo van der Garde, car #21, chassis CT03-05

FP3

1103 - 1117: Run 1, 7 lap (medium tyres)

Changes: rear camber

1128 - 1139: Run 2, 6 laps (medium tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle

1152 - 1201: Run 3, 5 laps (soft tyres)

Q1

1409 - 1415: Run 1, 3 laps (soft tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle

1417 - 1423: Run 2, 3 laps (soft tyres)

Driver quotes

Giedo van der Garde: "After two productive sessions yesterday I just couldn't get the same feeling from the car in FP3 and that carried over into qualifying. Like Charles, I've had quite a few small problems in each session and together they've held us back quite a bit. We're struggling to understand the tyre behaviour here and when the track temps went up today it was like having to start again with our understanding of how to get them working. My final position in quali is obviously disappointing, particularly as I made a mistake in turn two on my second run, pushing too hard into the corner and that cost me about four tenths. Without that I'd have finished a bit higher up the grid but now we have to focus on tomorrow's race and aim for the same sort of performance we put in at the last race in Malaysia."

Caterham (shortened)

Saturday Qualifying Sepang - Report Giedo

Weather

FP3: Dry, sunny; min / max track temp 43° - 48°, air temp 34°

Q1: Dry, sunny; track temp 41°, air temp 32

Fastest laps / positions:

FP3: PIC 1.38.995, 19th / VDG 1.40.209, 21st

Q1: PIC 1.39.314, 20th / VDG 1.39.932, 22nd

Total laps:

FP3: PIC 18 / VDG 18

Q1: PIC 6 / VDG 6

Runplan

Giedo van der Garde, car #21, chassis CT03-05

FP3

1300 - 1313: Run 1, 6 laps (hard tyres)

Changes: brake balance, front torsion bar

1322 - 1335: Run 2, 6 laps (hard tyres)

Changes: brake balance, front wing flap angle, front torsion bar

1345 - 1402: Run 3, 6 laps (medium tyres)

Q1

1603 - 1609: Run 1, 3 laps (medium tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle, brake balance

1616 - 1622: Run 2, 3 laps (medium tyres)

Driver quotes

Giedo van der Garde: "Qualifying didn't go well for me today to be honest. I've had an issue with a lot of oversteer on the option tyres all day and really couldn't get them to work as well as they did at the last race and that obviously hurt my pace. It's odd as the car felt good on the hard compounds in FP3 today but I just couldn't get the mediums to work so we'll have to look at that again tonight.

"However, with the car performing well on the primes and the pace we have on the inters I think tomorrow could be interesting. It's rained every day at about the same time as it'll be halfway through the race tomorrow so strategy's going to be really important. Physically I feel really good, totally prepared for the race, so we'll look at the plans for the race and hopefully pick up where we left off in FP3."

Caterham / Shortened: giedovandergarde.net

Rain causes chaos at F1 season opener

The start of the new Formula One season was thrown into chaos today as adverse weather in Melbourne forced the second and third sessions of qualifying to be postponed until tomorrow.

Photo: CaterhamF1

Heavy rain initially delayed the opening 20-minute Q1 session, which began 30 minutes late but was ultimately completed only for conditions to worsen again almost as soon as it finished.

Race control at Melbourne's Albert Park announced delay after delay before deciding Q2 and Q3 will now take place tomorrow at 11am local time (midnight tonight Irish time).

Twice in recent years qualifying has had to be postponed on Saturday and held on Sunday morning, on both occasions in Japan.

In 2004 Typhoon Ma struck the Suzuka circuit, whilst three years ago conditions similar to today resulted in a continual stream of delays until the call was made to wait until race day to hold qualifying.

On this occasion the circumstances are somewhat unusual as Q1 found a window in which it could be completed, but with the remainder to now take place tomorrow.

Appreciably the opening 20-minute session was chaotic and ended with the track strewn with carbon fibre given the number of incidents.

One of the issues given the circuit is not a permanent one - it is effectively a street track housed in the middle of a park - was the lack of drainage.

Just as the first session was scheduled to start a number of marshals were out and about using brooms and squeegees to try and sweep away the standing water, albeit to no avail.

When it finally did begin the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Giedo van der Garde, Charles Pic and Esteban Gutierrez all suffered accidents.

For Hamilton in particular, for a few heartstopping moments it appeared as if his debut qualifying session with Mercedes would end with him floundering like a fish out of water.

On the approach to turn two Hamilton struck a patch of water, forcing him to lock his brakes and slide backwards across the track where he ended up striking a barrier with his rear wing.

As he came to rest, beached on a kerb with his car half on the grass and half on the track, initially it seemed the 28-year-old would be unable to free himself.

Instead, after an attempt to rock himself forwards, Hamilton selected reverse and gingerly manoeuvred backwards and into a position where he could again carry on his way, even with the slight damage to his rear wing.

As for Massa, the Brazilian was fortunate to lose only the front wing of his Ferrari after twice hitting a wall as he spun through 360 degrees before being able to trundle his way back to the pits for repairs.

Six drivers, however, will effectively have the morning off tomorrow, led by Williams' Pastor Maldonado, who went for a lengthy excursion across the grass at one point.

The Venezuelan, who declared his car "undriveable" after finishing Q1, will start 17th.

Behind him will be four of the five rookies in F1 this year, with Gutierrez 18th in his Sauber after ending his first qualifying with a spin into the same wall that accounted for Massa.

For Marussia, in what will be a season-long battle for 10th place in the constructors' championship with Caterham, the team struck an early blow with both their cars outqualifying their main rival.

Jules Bianchi and Britain's Max Chilton will line up 19th and 20th, whilst on the back row will be Van der Garde and Pic, both of whom spun at various points, losing their front wings.

Van der Garde actually contrived to run over the dislodged part, providing a suitably bizarre image to sum up the evening's mayhem.

Breakingnews.ie

Caterham duo splash out of rain-hit Q1

Caterham Racing's two cars will line up on the back row of the grid in Albert Park for the start of the 2013 F1 Australian Grand Prix, after both Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic suffered accidents during the rain-hit Q1 session. 

Van der Garde was the first driver to hit problems in the atrocious conditions in Melbourne on Saturday when he slid off the road at turn 5 just three minutes into the session, damaging his front wing. He was able to tour back to pit lane and have a new nose fitted to the car to enable him to carry on. 

"The delays at the start of qualie obviously weren't ideal, but I was very calm and looking forward to getting out there," said the Dutch driver. "It was obviously the same conditions for everybody and it was very tricky out there. 

Qualifying was difficult for all the teams, but it was Caterham that bore the brunt of it with accidents sidelining both cars in Q1.

"I hit a puddle on my first run and span off, which meant I had to pit for a new nose," he continued. But the boys did a good job to get me out again quickly and we were looking good." 

The rain eased toward the end of the session, with the full wet tyres throwing enough water off the race line to entice all the drivers into a risky late switch to intermediates to try and steal a place in Q2 as the times tumbled with every passing second. 

"With a few minutes left in Q1 we switched to inters and the car felt great," said van der Garde. "On my last run I was well up but I had to back off for double yellow flags and that was the end of my chance. It's a shame as I know we'd have finished higher, but sometimes it's like that." 

One of those double yellow flag incidents was for van der Garde's team mate Charles Pic, after the Frenchman spun on the back stretch and ended up hitting the wall. 

"We made the call to switch to inters with about five minutes left of the session," explained Pic. "For the first lap it was very tricky - there was a lot of standing water and it was hard to keep the car on track, but it improved pretty quickly and I was starting to push." 

But then it was disaster for Pic as he battled hard to get within the 107 per cent cut-off time: "I touched the white line which caused me to spin and I made contact with the barrier which meant I had to pit.

Crash.net

Storms cause Qualifying to be postponed

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix will continue on Sunday morning after torrential downpours in Melbourne forced its postponement after Q1. 

Heavy rain fell prior to the start of the session - the storms were severe enough to knock out TV coverage for a time - and ensured the first part of qualifying was delayed on three occasions until finally getting underway half an hour late. Nico Rosberg was fastest in a session littered with crashes, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton lucky to escape an early spin. 

Felipe Massa hit the wall at turn 12 and somehow only suffered damage to the front wing and nose, but Esteban Gutierrez was not so lucky as he crashed at the same point at the end of the session. As a result Gutierrez dropped out alongside a frustrated Pastor Maldonado. 

The Marussias finished ahead of the Caterhams as both Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic lost their front wings against the wall (Pic creatively saying he "made contact with the barrier which meant I had to pit") with Jules Bianchi impressively clear of team-mate Max Chilton. Pic was actually 0.010s outside the 107% time but the conditions should ensure he is allowed to race. 

That turned out to be the end of the action as heavy rain returned and, allied with debris on the track, successive delays forced the stewards to postpone qualifying shortly after quarter to seven with fading light becoming an issue. 

Q2 will start at 11am on Sunday (1.00 am cet) - with the forcecast more promising - as the teams need time to do work on the cars between the end of qualifying and the start of the race at 5pm (7.00 am cet).

ESPNF1

2013 Australian Grand Prix - FP3 & Qualifying

2013 Australian Grand Prix - FP3 & Qualifying

Melbourne, Australia - Saturday 16th March 2013

Caterham F1 Team Partner information

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CaterhamF1: Our F1 rookie waits patiently for the session to begin..

Weather

FP3: Overcast (early), rain (starting at 1415), min / max track temp 20° - 31°, air temp 19° - 23°

Q1: Wet, track temp 16°, air temp 17°

Fastest laps / positions:

FP3: VDG 1.30.598 / PIC 1.30.959

Q1: VDG 1.49.519 / PIC 1.50.626

Total laps:

FP3: VDG 20 / PIC 19

Q1: VDG 11 / PIC 10

Charles Pic, car #20, chassis CT03-06

FP3

1401 – 1410: Run 1, 6 laps (medium tyres)

Changes: n/a

1415 – 1417: Run 2, 1 lap (supersoft tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle, front / rear brake duct blanking

1437 – 1447: Run 3, 5 laps (wet tyres)

Changes: brake balance

1450 – 1504 Run 4, 7 laps (intermediate tyres)

Q1

1729 – 1751: Run 1, 10 laps (wet / intermediate tyres)

Giedo van der Garde, car #21, chassis CT03-05

FP3

1401 – 1412: Run 1, 7 laps (medium tyres)

Changes: n/a

1415 – 1417: Run 2, 1 lap (supersoft tyres)

Changes: front wing flap angle, front / rear brake duct blanking

1437 – 1449: Run 3, 5 laps (wet tyres)

Changes: brake balance

1451 – 1504: Run 4, 7 laps (intermediate tyres)

Q1

1729 – 1752: Run 1, 11 laps (wet / intermediate tyres)

Driver quotes

Charles Pic: “Sometimes qualifying goes like it did today. We obviously didn’t finish where we wanted to but for much of the session we looked pretty good, especially halfway through the session when we were putting in pretty good times.

“We made the call to switch to inters with about five minutes left of the session and for the first lap it was very tricky – there was a lot of standing water and it was hard to keep the car on track, but it improved pretty quickly and I was starting to push before I touched the white line which caused me to spin and I made contact with the barrier which meant I had to pit. Until that point I was much faster but didn’t have the luck you sometimes need.

“Our pace was good in the conditions today, similar to a number of cars ahead, but it’s obviously important to finish our fastest laps – today we didn’t do that but that speed gives us reason to be positive.”

Giedo van der Garde: “Honestly I’m disappointed with where we ended up today as we could definitely have finished higher. We made quite a few changes to the car overnight and it felt much better in FP3 so I was feeling good about qualifying.

“The delays at the start of quali obviously weren’t ideal but I was very calm and looking forward to getting out there. It was obviously the same conditions for everybody and it was very tricky out there – I hit a puddle on my first run and span off which meant I had to pit for a new nose, but the boys did a good job to get me out again quickly and we were looking good.

“With a few minutes left in Q1 we switched to inters and the car felt great. On my last run I was well up but I had to back off for double yellow flags and that was the end of my chance. It’s a shame as I know we’d have finished higher, but sometimes it’s like that.

“Now we have some more work to do to prepare for the race. Starting where we are we just have to make sure we can avoid any problems at the start and concentrate on getting to the end of what will be my first Grand Prix. If it’s raining again at least we know what the track’s going to be like so I’m looking forward to it.”

Caterham