What the teams said – Sprint day and Qualifying at the 2024 United ...

17 hours ago

Norris made a great getaway in the Sprint, climbing from fourth to second through the first few corners. That looked where he was destined to stay, but his tyres ran out of grip late on, leaving him helpless to defend from Sainz. As for Piastri, he looked feisty as he climbed back through the field, but picked up a time penalty for overtaking Gasly off the track.

Both cars at least made Q3 in qualifying, but they didn’t look to have the pace to rival Verstappen. That was until Norris received a pep talk from his race engineer and put in a very special lap to grab provisional pole. Whether anyone else could have beaten that on the last flying runs will never be known, as the yellow flags prevented anyone from completing their last runs.

READ MORE: ‘I’m lucky and I’ll take it’ – Norris hails ‘beautiful’ pole lap as he predicts ‘tough race’ in Austin

Lando Norris – Sprint: 3rd, Qualifying: 1st, 1:32.330

"It was a beautiful lap. I wasn't going to go much quicker than I did. You know when you do a lap and think, it's going to be tough to beat that. I put everything on the line, it's what we needed to do. We've been on the back foot for much of the weekend. We've not had the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls. So, I had to put in a special lap, and I did that. Overall, a cool lap and a nice place to start the race tomorrow."

Oscar Piastri – Sprint: 10th, Qualifying: 5th, 1:32.950

"It’s been a tricky Qualifying. I felt uncomfortable the whole session, so we probably got the most out of Quali. Obviously not ideal, but still an OK place to race from. We’ll work hard overnight and see what we can do tomorrow."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

"We’ve had a strong Qualifying session at COTA, with Lando and Oscar delivering good laps, going comfortably through Q1 and Q2, and then securing P1 and P5 on the grid. Those are good starting positions from which to bring home some important points tomorrow.

"We made some adjustments to the car this afternoon, based on what we learned in the Sprint. Lando maximised the performance of the car, while Oscar has some potential that we aim to realise tomorrow in the race. We’ve got work to do overnight, understanding tyre management for tomorrow. It’s going to be a tight, interesting race, in which there will be very little between ourselves, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull."

Verstappen made a good getaway from pole and led from lights to flag for his first victory of any kind since June. The best news for him is that he also extended his championship lead over Norris. As for Perez, he worked hard to climb up the order but ran out of time to challenge for the final point.

Roll on qualifying, and the Dutchman was the favourite to take pole. He might have done so, but he couldn’t complete his last flying run thanks to some late yellow flags and thus had to settle for second. Perez lost his first lap in Q3 to track limits, and also couldn’t get a second run in, so starts P10.

Max Verstappen – Sprint: 1st, Qualifying: 2nd, 1:32.361

“It was unfortunate not to be able to finish the final lap in Q3. During my first lap I made a mistake at turn 19 and on my second lap, we were purple in the first sector but unfortunately there was a yellow flag. This happens sometimes in racing and you can’t control these things. I was still really happy with our performance and we were really there to fight for pole which was very positive! We brought upgrades to the car this week which has made it faster and better to drive so hopefully this all works for tomorrow. We have been strong in the weekend so far and it was great to win the Sprint race. We learnt a lot from this and if we can replicate what we did in the Sprint I will be very confident for tomorrow. There are small gaps between teams so I expect that it will be very competitive and I need a good result tomorrow. The most important thing is that we are competitive again and the car is feeling better and hopefully we will be able to fight for the win tomorrow."

Sergio Perez – Sprint: 9th, Qualifying: 10th, No time set in Q3

“We were lacking a bit of pace in the Sprint, so we will review things to see where we can improve for the race tomorrow. We made some changes to the car ahead of qualifying to improve the balance and it felt in a lot better window. We found a lot of pace and rhythm, and everything was going in the right direction. I went P5 in Q2 and things were coming back to us, but it was just then very unfortunate. We saved the new tyre until the end of Q3 and with the yellow flag we were not able to get the lap in, it had looked so promising, so it was a real shame. It is going to be a tricky one tomorrow with all the traffic ahead but if I am able to move quickly through, I think we should be able to fight the cars ahead early enough to do something."

Christian Horner, Team Principal

"The Sprint was a good up lift for the Team, our first win since June. Max managed the race beautifully, he just went out and did his thing. Max rode that wave into qualifying and we were quick today. It wasn’t his cleanest lap on the first run in Q3 but the second lap was up, much better and I think he would have been away and got the job done had the the yellow flag not come. It’s just one of those things, we are still on the front row and hopefully can fight for the win tomorrow. It’s been a positive couple of days so far. Checo had a bit of a struggle today, he ran wide at turn eight on his scrub tyre in Q3 and had the lap deleted, which then put all the pressure on the last run on the fresh tyre. Unfortunately he was then further back the in queue when the yellow flag came out and wasn’t able to post a time. All in all though it was a great performance today and sets us up well for tomorrow."

Both Ferraris looked quick in the Sprint, but they spent much of the first few laps duelling with each other. Eventually, Sainz made a move stick on his team mate and then got Russell too. Leclerc followed him through, with Sainz managing to also pick off an ailing Norris late on. Leclerc looked likely to once again follow the Spaniard through, but Norris just about managed to recover and hold him off.

Sainz was the one who looked the unluckiest late on in qualifying with the yellow flags as he was majorly up on his time and could well have challenged for pole had he been able to complete his lap. But in the end Ferrari had to be content with locking out the second row – and given their good tyre wear, those are not bad starting slots.

Charles Leclerc – Sprint: 4th, Qualifying: 4th, 1:32.740

"There was quite a lot of action in the Sprint this morning. Carlos and I had different approaches. While he pushed at the start, I saved my tyres to be able to push more at the end. It paid off for him and we learned a lot about our race pace, and that of our competitors, in preparation for the main race tomorrow.

"Qualifying went as expected, we knew we would struggle, especially in sector 1, as we didn’t change much since Sprint Qualifying. We have a good car for the race and our competitors all seem to have a similar race pace to ours, so it should be an exciting battle at the front."

Carlos Sainz – Sprint: 2nd, Qualifying: 3rd, 1:32.652

"Overall it’s been a positive Saturday: we started out with a strong Sprint in which the car behaved very well and I was able to attack and move up three places. Then we switched to qualifying in which we knew after yesterday we had to work a lot on tyre preparation. The first attempt in Q3 was good and the second one was even better as I was improving my time and potentially could have finished a bit further up. In any case P3 gives us the chance to fight with the guys ahead for tomorrow. It will be a very interesting and tactical race and we are ready for it."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"The result overall is a good one, especially as we look in better shape over a long run, which will be useful in the race when you can overtake and when tyre degradation will be significant.

"We will start from third and fourth and will try to do what we did this morning, moving up the order. It’s good to have both cars on the second row, but there is of course a bit of frustration because our drivers were both improving on their final lap before the yellow flags and of course that was the same for Max (Verstappen) and Lando (Norris), but we have clearly improved significantly.

"In this morning’s race, we were very consistent, with good tyre management and we were on the pace which is encouraging, scoring plenty of points. I don’t want to make any predictions for tomorrow, but looking at the way we caught Lando this morning and got closer to Max, we can be confident, but we must wait and see."

Russell didn’t have a great first lap in the Sprint, losing out to Norris. From there on in he seemed to struggle with tyre wear more than his rivals, and lost out to the Ferraris as well. Meanwhile Hamilton was suffering from some sort of mechanical issue, and although he picked off the Haas to move up a place, he couldn’t close in on his ailing team mate.

But worse was to come for the seven-time world champion, as that car issue seemingly returned in qualifying. He lost his only lap time on new soft tyres in Q1 to track limits after struggling to keep his car inside the lines and exited at the first time of asking. The Mercedes woes continued on the other side of the garage too, with Russell crashing heavily late on in Q3. He was okay, but the resultant yellow flags meant no one else was able to complete their second flying laps out there.

READ MORE: Hamilton weighing up pit lane start after ‘demoralising’ Q1 exit at Circuit of The Americas

Lewis Hamilton – Sprint: 6th, Qualifying: 19th, 1:34.154

"That was a tough day. The Sprint was a difficult session for us with the car not feeling as strong as it did yesterday. The temperature was warmer than on Friday and that didn’t seem to suit us. We made some changes ahead of Qualifying to counteract that and try to push us in a direction that could get the car closer to how it felt on Friday, but we continued to struggle.

"Tomorrow will be difficult for us starting P19. It will be hard to come across opportunities, but I will be giving it my all to move forward. The car today suffered from an inconsistent balance and a lack of grip so hopefully it will be in a better place on Sunday."

George Russell – Sprint: 5th, Qualifying: 6th, 1:32.974

"Yesterday we were in the fight for P1 in Sprint Qualifying but today we were really struggling. It is confusing how our fortunes have changed so drastically from one day to another. It is clear that when we find the sweet spot of this car, we are capable of fighting for pole positions and race wins. When we don’t, we are at the back of the front pack.

"In the Sprint, I lost a position off the start and was pushing hard early on to regain that. Unfortunately, we then started to struggle with the tyres, and I went backwards. It was difficult to understand as our pace on Friday, particularly on the long run, was strong. We continued to struggle in Qualifying, although my final lap was looking strong before I locked up into turn 12. I was perhaps over-pushing into turn 19 to make up for that time and I lost the rear of the car. I am disappointed in the damage I caused to the car and the work that will have to go on overnight now to repair it."

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"A disappointing and frustrating day. After a strong Friday, we were hopeful of a good showing and it quickly became clear in the Sprint that we didn’t have the pace of our nearest competitors, falling back to finish a distant P5 and P6. Added to that, the handling balance both drivers had enjoyed the day before was missing and they were struggling with tyre overheating - Lewis on the rear axle, George on the front. We made some set-up changes to tackle this ahead of Qualifying, but we continued to struggle and couldn’t unlock the same level of performance we had seen on Friday, with Lewis finishing P19 and George P6 but unable to complete his final flying lap.

"Tomorrow’s race will therefore be an uphill battle: there is a major repair job ahead for George after the Q3 crash. With Lewis starting P19, it will be a case of damage limitation in the race: fighting for meaningful points will be tough and we need things to fall in our favour to do so."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"After a promising Friday, this was a tough Saturday. It became apparent early in the Sprint that we didn't have the speed of our competitors. We were pushing hard to keep up with those ahead and that put extra energy through the tyres. That overheating bit us hard in the second half of the race and we could only manage P5 and P6. We also found a broken part on Lewis' front suspension post Sprint and that definitely impacted the overall balance.

"In an effort to get the car back to the sweet spot we had on Friday, we made some set-up adjustments ahead of Qualifying. Sadly these didn't have the desired effect. A consistent balance continued to elude Lewis although he was unfortunate to be knocked out in Q1 having been impacted by traffic in sector one. George fared slightly better and was on a strong lap in Q3 but came unstuck at turn 12 with a lock up and then finally turn 19 with his off.

"We have a lot of work to do to get George's car ready for the race. The team will be working hard through the evening in order to do that. We know tomorrow will likely be a tough fight but we will continue to work diligently and hard, looking to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way."

Hulkenberg lost out off the line in the Sprint, but bided his time and managed to pick off Tsunoda for the final point midway through the dash. That, combined with Magnussen’s result lifts Haas above RB in the constructors’ championship table.

Magnussen received the new floor after the Sprint and, armed with the full upgrades, made it to Q3 for the first time this season to make it a pretty solid day in Austin. Hulkenberg came close to following him, sounding heartbroken on the radio after a first corner lockup prevented him from making it to the top 10 for the second time in two days.

Nico Hulkenberg – Sprint: 8th, Qualifying: 12th, 1:33.544

“I got a poor start, and also being on the inside didn’t help, so I lost two positions. Afterwards, we were racing and spent quite a bit of time behind Yuki, so I lost a bit of my tyre there but nonetheless we did alright in the end. All in all it was a great team performance; it’s three points and It’s great to get them on Saturday. The car felt okay in qualifying but unfortunately my laps in Q2 were not great, not clean and both times I got caught off guard at Turn 1. It’s a nasty one when you start sliding there as you lose a lot of time, so that’s the cause of why I got knocked out in Q2. I think the performance is there, that’s not the issue, so that’s very promising and tomorrow we just need to stay clean and do a good job.”

Kevin Magnussen – Sprint: 7th, Qualifying: 9th, 1:33.481

“This was an important one for us. We were three points behind RB and now we’re on par with them, and because Nico scored P6 twice earlier in the year, we’re actually ahead of them. We need to keep this going as you never know when you’re going to be this competitive again; we hope to be over the next races, but we have to make the most of it and we certainly did in the Sprint today. Due to the yellow flag my qualifying time is from a used soft. I had a fantastic lap on the new, but in the last sector with the yellow flag we had to abort it although I was three or four tenths up with still two corners to go. The times that we see from Piastri aren’t impossible, so annoyed with that of course, but that’s how it goes sometimes. It’s great to be able to bolt the upgrade on the car and have it work, I think that’s a really big positive, and I’m looking forward to racing it tomorrow.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“It was a really good day in terms of the Sprint, I think P7 and P8 was the maximum we could achieve, and we delivered that. We updated Kevin’s car for qualifying and to be fair, Kevin adapted to it very well, as he went straight into it with a different car so to speak. But he dealt with it well, he built up and was very unlucky in Q3 to have the yellow flag. He definitely would’ve had P8 in the bag, maybe more, but it was good. Nico had so much potential, especially looking at sector three it was very strong, but he locked up twice into Turn 1, so that was his issue. Our race pace is good, so tomorrow the focus is getting both cars into the points.”

Both Alpine cars were involved in some overtakes, Ocon picking off two cars at one point and Gasly being made to work hard by some faster cars that were trying to recover from behind in the Sprint.

But while they lacked the pace for the top 10 in the 19-lap dash, Gasly had more than enough speed to make it to Q3 with ease come qualifying. The Frenchman was one of the standout performers over one lap, in the end matching his season’s best with a P7 grid slot. Ocon doesn’t have the same upgrades as his team mate this weekend, and thus wound up exiting in Q2.

FACTS AND STATS: Norris bags McLaren's first US P1 start since 2007 as Austin sees its sixth different pole-sitter in six years

Esteban Ocon – Sprint: 15th, Qualifying: 13th, 1:33.597

“In this morning’s Sprint race, I had fun and some good overtakes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace for more, nonetheless it was a decent race considering also that I have the old spec car this weekend. The car was a bit trickier to drive this afternoon. However, on a positive side, we can see that the upgrades brought here this weekend seem to be working and came alive in this Qualifying session and that is positive going forward. On my side, the car was also more competitive than what we’ve seen and finishing in 13th position is a step up considering that cars around me had upgrades. We start the race in front of some of the cars we were battling with in the Sprint race earlier today, so we’ll hope for a good race start and a good strategy for tomorrow’s race.”

Pierre Gasly – Sprint: 14th, Qualifying: 7th, 1:33.018

“I’m very happy with our performance today. It has been a while since we reached Q3, and we achieved the equal best Qualifying result of the season. The car was very enjoyable to drive today. We made some changes after the Sprint race this morning and although we are still exploring this new package, we look to be finding the right direction with it and have good potential going forward. We also have some indication on our race potential from today’s Sprint race. We’re starting from seventh on the grid for tomorrow’s race and we aim to capitalise and score some points, as it’s been a while since we’ve been in the top ten. It would be a nice reward for the team after bringing this package to the car this weekend.”

Oliver Oakes, Team Principal

The team did a great job today to improve the car and find performance between sessions. Particularly trying to extract the most from the new parts we brought to the track this weekend, which is never easy during a Sprint weekend with limited running. We weren’t as competitive in the Sprint in the morning, we showed much better pace over a single lap this afternoon. Pierre did a really good job to progress to the final part of Qualifying, and Esteban also narrowly missed out on Q3. Our joint best Qualifying result of the season, which is credit to all the hard work that’s been going on at the factory. We must try to carry this over into the Grand Prix tomorrow.”

With both cars starting down the order for the Sprint, points always looked unlikely for Aston Martin and so it proved. Alonso was left frustrated after finding himself stuck behind Lawson for much of the Sprint, and while Stroll had a better time of it, he finished where he started.

Alonso and Lawson’s spat continued into qualifying when the Spaniard sneakily squeezed past Lawson in Q1 for track position, but they managed to keep apart after that. Alonso did make Q3 which is something he didn’t manage yesterday, while Stroll had to be content with another Q2 showing.

Fernando Alonso – Sprint: 18th, Qualifying: 8th, 1:33.309

"It's a good result for us to finish in eighth position in today's Qualifying. We've not been comfortable with the car and have made set-up changes. I think the changes we made after the Sprint have helped and we found more performance which is encouraging. It's still challenging to drive the car, but this result hopefully allows us to score some points tomorrow. There are some fast cars starting behind us so the top ten will be a good battle tomorrow."

Lance Stroll – Sprint: 13th, Qualifying: 14th, 1:33.759

"It was a difficult Qualifying session - we're struggling to get on top of the car this weekend. We made a few set-up changes between the Sprint and Qualifying, but it will be tomorrow when we'll get a better idea of how that's impacted the overall pace of the car. The aim has to be to score points, but we know that's going to be a challenge given the tight midfield."

Mike Krack, Team Principal

"It is good to be back on track here in Austin. Our disappointing Sprint Qualifying performance yesterday compromised our opportunities to score points, so we switched our focus and used the Sprint to learn more about optimising the set-up of our updated package for the race.

"Lance and Fernando both drove well in Qualifying with a car which is not easy to manage at the moment. As a team, we will analyse the data overnight and do our homework with the objective of scoring some points tomorrow in front of the impressive COTA crowd."

Tsunoda made up a place off the line and was running in the points but couldn’t hold off the faster Haas car of Hulkenberg in the Sprint. He then had a very entertaining fight with Perez and another one with Piastri, getting plenty of wheel-to-wheel practice ahead of tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Lawson also gained some much-needed experience of this track.

The Kiwi didn’t play too much of a part in qualifying as he has a back of the grid start coming for tomorrow’s Grand Prix thanks to some penalties for taking on new PU components. Instead he tried to give his team mate a tow, but it was to no avail as Tsunoda couldn’t quite squeeze into the top 10.

Liam Lawson – Sprint: 16th, Qualifying: 15th, No time set in Q2

“Q1 pace was very strong for us, we made some positive changes to the car from yesterday and it’s great to have that performance. The focus was to get through to Q1 and then help get Yuki into Q3, slip streaming him down the straights. The second lap worked quite well, but it just wasn’t enough, which was a shame because he was so close. It's probably going to be a tricky race, it’s difficult to overtake despite the long DRS zones, you need a clear pace advantage, especially if it’s a DRS train. Anything is possible and there’s lots of positives to take into tomorrow, but it’s going to be tough to get points. I’m very happy but very gutted to have a car that strong and have to take the penalty but we’re going to have to try and make the most of it and just take away as much as we can for the next few races.”

Yuki Tsunoda – Sprint: 11th, Qualifying: 11th, 1:33.506

“It was a good team effort today. This morning was a tough Sprint; I surely enjoyed a hectic battle out there and had some fun, but unfortunately, we didn’t have much pace and I had to fight hard with the other cars to try and minimize the damage. I was pretty frustrated going backward throughout the race, as we started close to the points zone and maybe there was an opportunity to score points today. Unluckily, this afternoon we didn’t make it into Q3, it’s a shame because in the end we were pretty close to getting P10, but overall, we’re still in a good place to start the race tomorrow. Thanks to Liam for giving me the slipstream, he did a good job and helped me during my laps. We made a lot of changes after the Sprint, so for sure we got some good data to look at, given we also had some differences across the cars. It’s been an up-and-down weekend until now, we learned some things between today’s sessions and there’s also some learning for the future. I’m sure it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, but we’ll do our best to try and score points gaining some positions after the start.”

Jody Egginton, Technical Director

"After struggling a bit on both sides of the garage in the Sprint race the team worked very hard to analyse the data and make a range of set-up changes ahead of qualifying and there are some signs from the limited running that it’s a step in the right direction. The balance of the car is improved and better optimised to the new floor. Yuki put a solid qualifying together but unfortunately just missed out on a place in Q3. Liam delivered a fantastic Q1 with his best lap time being good enough to make Q3 but with his PU penalty meaning he will start from the back, it was decided to use him to help Yuki in Q2 which together with his engineer he managed to achieve very well indeed across the two runs in Q2. We believe we have taken a step forward with the car today in qualifying and tomorrow’s race will enable us to see how well this has translated into race pace in what we expect to be another tight battle in the midfield."

Colapinto wasn’t able to hold onto his slot in the top 10, but 12th was a solid result and he gained some more knowledge of COTA. As for Albon, he started from the pit lane after Williams changed his set-up in a bid to gather some extra data ahead of the Grand Prix.

HIGHLIGHTS: Catch the qualifying action from Austin as Norris takes spectacular pole while Russell crashes out

Colapinto couldn’t repeat his Sprint qualifying heroics in the afternoon, this time around falling in Q1 after making it to the top 10 yesterday. And he was joined by his team mate in falling at the first hurdle, with the Williams not looking too well suited to this track over one lap.

Alex Albon – Sprint: 17th, Qualifying: 16th, 1:34.051

"Obviously, we’ve been trying to recover from yesterday. I had the opportunity during the Sprint to practice and test different setups for a race run with varying levels of downforce, but I didn’t really like it. Ahead of Qualifying, we kept some of the changes while reverting to part of the original setup. Regarding Qualifying, it was honestly quite surprising. The biggest issue we faced was that I came out of the pit lane maybe a lap earlier than everyone else, so when we started our push lap, about nine cars had just come out. I was overtaking a car almost every corner, and there was a lot of dirty air, which makes a big difference here. I’ve been struggling with the car and don’t feel in rhythm with it, and the solutions we’ve tried aren’t working, so we need to dig deeper to figure out what’s going on. Tomorrow, we’ll see what we can do with our strategy and hope for the best."

Franco Colapinto – Sprint: 12th, Qualifying: 17th, 1:34.062

"A tough Qualifying session for the team. We maybe went in the wrong direction with the change we made to the car for Qualifying. I thought we were going to be better, but I had a lot of bouncing in the high-speed and lost the rear very aggressively on my second push lap. We’ll try to understand what happened today and recover for tomorrow’s race."

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director

"It’s not the result we wanted today with both cars out in Q1. Both drivers struggled this afternoon with the balance of the car and weren’t very happy with the behaviour on the Soft tyre. On top of that, Alex had a lot of traffic on his last push lap which cost him a few tenths and Franco made a mistake in his last lap so couldn’t improve. We have some work to do at home to try to understand the reasons behind the lack of performance but will now concentrate on the race tomorrow. Our long runs on Friday and our stint on the Medium tyre in the Sprint Race looked competitive, so we’ll see what the race brings tomorrow."

Bottas’ Sprint ended in dramatic fashion as fire emerged from the rear of his car, the Finn being forced to pull over on the last lap with what looked like overheating brakes. That meant some extra work for the team to repair his car ahead of qualifying.

But they did manage to get him out at the start of the session, and he managed to out-qualify his former team mate Hamilton to ensure that the Kick Sauber cars didn’t lock out the back row of the grid again. He’ll also inherit a place when Lawson’s penalty is applied, for his best starting slot since Spa.

Valtteri Bottas – Sprint: 20th, Qualifying: 18th, 1:34.152

"First of all, I want to thank the mechanics who worked really hard to get the car ready in time for qualifying. We experienced an issue with the brakes in the final laps of the Sprint, and fixing that kept the crew busy, so to be even in the session was an achievement. Qualifying was challenging, as we worked to maximise the learnings from the sprint race. We made some positive setup changes that seem to have brought us closer to the competition in terms of single-lap performance. I'm feeling optimistic that these setup improvements will translate to better race pace tomorrow compared to what we saw today. Overall, it’s been an important learning experience, and I'm hopeful we can build on these learnings to deliver a stronger performance tomorrow."

Zhou Guanyu – Sprint: 19th, Qualifying: 20th, 1:34.228

"Today’s sprint race was quite a clean race for me, but we still don’t have the pace needed to be closer in the mix. The qualifying session was difficult, but it’s reassuring to see that, even without the updates, we were able to get closer to the rest of field in terms of lap time, and Q2 was not as far off as in previous events. While it has not been an easy weekend so far, Austin is a track I have always felt comfortable, and we'll keep up the effort. It’s a long race tomorrow and we will give all we have to make some progress."

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative

"Today, in both the sprint race and qualifying, we were unable to improve our overall performance enough to stay closer to our direct competitors. While we saw a small improvement with the new front wing on Valtteri's car, the gap in lap time, though marginal, represents a significant performance gap. Our drivers struggled in sector one and the high-speed corners, which is a characteristic of our car that we are working to improve. We are still investigating a brake issue on the rear axle of Valtteri's car during the Sprint race. For tomorrow, we can only focus on fighting lap by lap to show our strong determination to improve the current situation."

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“A very interesting Saturday, although it was a shame that the thrilling climax to qualifying was never reached because of Russell’s crash. It would have been exciting to see how the fight for pole position would have gone, with at least four drivers seeming capable of securing it. The Sprint race was also very exciting with many duels and with the outcome being uncertain right to the end.

For us and of course for the teams, the 19 laps of the Sprint were a great opportunity to see the Medium at work over a long run, given that it will be the most popular choice for tomorrow’s race. Few drivers held back, so we were able to collect some interesting, but not surprising, data.”

On a track where the total pit stop time is not very long (20”5), a two-stop is clearly the quickest strategy and with nine of the ten teams having already used one set of Hards in the only free practice session yesterday, it’s clear the most likely option involves the use of two sets of the C3 and the remaining one C2. As to how their use will be split between the stints, honestly, we expect that everyone will try and start the race on the Medium. So, to sum up, the quickest strategy, based on a preliminary analysis, is a first stint on the C3, with a pit stop between laps 16 and 22 to switch to the C2, with a second stop between laps 35 and 41 to finish back on the C3. Those who want to run their final stint with the C2 could pit for the first time between laps 11 and 20 and a second time between laps 32 and 38. Finally, a third but unlikely route would be to use all three compounds: start on the C4 (first stop between laps 10 and 14), switch to the C2 (second stop between 34 and 40) and finish with the C3.”