By Andrew Cutler
June 23 2012

Scuderia Toro Rosso came away from qualificatiions for the European GP with their worst result (tied with China) of the season so far: Daniel Ricciardo starting 17th & Jean-Eric Vergne beside him in 18th. The STR7 has not taken well to the street circut around the Valenca harbour, and it will take a bit of luck - and strategy - to post a good result come tomorrow.

Fortunately, we hope, the squad MAY have an ace up thier sleeve; an extra set of Option tires per car, owing to their not being needed in qualifying. 

Vernge was first out, not clearing the mark needed to advance beyond Q1. Ricciardo did make it through to Q2 but, when his first efforts didn't look to be capable of lifting him past the 17th spot anyways, the team decided to park him and save the extra set of tires.

Given the heat this weekend and the roughness of the circut, the squad expects that many team will be forced into a three stop strategy, so those that have already used up two sets of Options for qualifying will be at a disadvantage.

Nonethless, Chief Engineer Laurent Mekies made it clear in his post-qualy comments that STR is not happy with where the STR7 is in relation to the competition and that the squad will continue to look for ways to get more out of it in future GPs.