- Sergey Sirotkin qualified 18th and Lance Stroll 19th for the Belgian Grand Prix
- Both drivers qualified on the Pirelli supersoft tyre
- Lance was the faster of the two on his initial run, setting a 1:45.593 to go P11 while Sergey managed a 1:45.850 to go P12
- Both cars pitted for new tyres and went faster on their second runs, with Sergey recording a 1:44.998 and Lance a 1:45.134
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: It’s very disappointing not to get out of Q1 with either car. We ran the session as planned with two runs for each car and the drivers made no mistakes, but the car is not quick enough. We’re losing a lot of time in the straightline elements of the circuit in sectors one and three although we’re reasonably competitive in sector two. Our car is not configured to compete very strongly here as it was clear to see today. It was an exciting qualifying nevertheless and congratulations in particular to Racing Point Force India on their second-row lockout. It was a challenging Q3 session for all the teams and a great shame we weren’t able to be part of it. We would have started Q3 on the intermediate tyres for sure!
Sergey Sirotkin: Today’s a shame as qualifying didn’t feel as bad as it looks on the timesheet. I think, like yesterday, we’ve got a more balanced, stable and understandable base and we’d expected to get more performance from it today than we actually did. I think my lap was really good, but in the last chicane I didn’t nail it so Fernando ended up half a tenth ahead of me. I think otherwise I could have got ahead of him, but not by much as that’s the limit of the car. Unfortunately, it’s one of those days where with your eyes closed you’d say it was a good job, but when you look at the timesheet it’s not. It’s confusing for me because it felt like an improvement.
Lance Stroll: It was very challenging and just a poor session. The car was very difficult to drive, I made a mistake in turn one, as I just locked up on my second push, and then I ran wide again in turn 13 so lost a few tenths there, but we are missing a big chunk of lap time to challenge the others. For the race, I honestly doubt we can do much, as we are quite slow on the straight line and not so good in the corners. However, I am still going to go race and give it my all as anything can happen in turn one and Eau Rouge, so for the start I am going to try and gain some positions and go from there.
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