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Alex Albon:
"Today was quite unexpected if I’m honest. It was quite a tricky weekend
before qualifying and the wind is really difficult at this circuit,
being hard to read. Track limits are always a talking point and one gust
and you’re off the track. I was really struggling for rhythm so we made
some changes from FP3 to qualifying which initially didn’t feel like
they were helping too much but as the session went on, we just picked up
improvements, got on top of the tyres and put everything together. I’m
very happy with the day so looking forward to tomorrow." |
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Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"The conditions were tricky today, but we got pretty much everything out
of the car in qualifying. We were able to do a few more tests in FP3 to
build on what we did yesterday, and this helped to refine the setup for
today’s difficult conditions.
Alex and Nicholas were effectively in a private shootout at the end of
Q1 with Nicholas looking very strong in the first two sectors but then
losing some time in the final corners. This meant that Alex just made it
to Q2. The extra couple of runs in Q2 gave him the chance to push the
car harder and he was able to go from strength to strength. His final
lap was exceptional, helped by some very good work from the engineers
and strategists to get him into a good position on track with his brakes
and tyres in a good window. It was a shame to miss out on Q3 by 30ms or
so, but nonetheless, P11 is a better result than we had anticipated this
morning.
There are some grid penalties to be applied before we start the race
tomorrow and so Alex will start inside the top 10. Although we achieved
a strong result today, we know that tomorrow will be tricky and will
require another big effort from everyone if we are to stay in the top
10." |
