HRT fail to qualify for first Grand Prix of the season - The Melbourne stewards refuse permission for HRT to race
Published by Christine
This is F1Minute - HRT fail to qualify for first Grand Prix of the season.
The HRT team have had a rocky road to the first race of 2012, and their troubles continue as the team failed to make the required cutoff time in qualifying. Falling outside of the 107% lap time, the team requested permission from the FIA to be allowed to race, but the stewards have refused.
In a simple statement, they said: “The stewards have considered all relevant material decide not to allow both cars take part in the race in accordance with Article 36.1.”
After qualifying, Narain Karthikeyan blamed the weather, saying: “We were up against it from the word go and yesterday's weather wasn't good which resulted in us losing a lot of dry running, hurting us badly.”
Teammate Pedro de la Rosa is a little more circumspect: “I already said it when I arrived on Wednesday, this is a test for us, it's our preseason. The downside is that we're doing it in front of the cameras because everything is more evident. We should have done it before but we lacked the time, so now all we can do is work for Malaysia.”
