Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: We made some good progress overnight and got the car into a better window today. It is still difficult round here, especially when the wind picks up, but we got more from the tyres today and were able to get a more consistent balance.
We expected Q1 to be very tight and so opted to send Alex early to give him a clean lap. This worked well and he was able to produce a very good lap to make Q2. Unfortunately, Nicholas struggled with a spike in engine temperature, which we are currently investigating. The problem started during his 1st lap in Q1 and we took some time to investigate whilst the car was back in the garage. However, it was clear early on in his 2nd run that we had not fully fixed the issue and so he had to abort his lap, which was a huge shame as he was very fast in the opening half of the lap.
It was a shame that Alex’s 1st run in Q2 was interrupted by a flare on the track, but he was still able to set a decent lap on used tyres after the red flag. For his final run, we again looked for a clear lap for Alex, which was successful, but he had a small snap early in the lap, which prevented him from bettering his Q1 time. A perfect lap would’ve earned us a few more places on the grid but Q3 was probably just beyond us today. We have a good selection of tyre remaining for tomorrow and there is still a long way to go this weekend.
Alex Albon: Today was okay if you think about the circuit and where we are in our limitations to get into Q2, so I think it’s a really good job. I’m pleased about Q1 as we didn’t expect to make it into Q3, so it’s been a massive effort by everyone. I lost a little bit of the rear in Q2 and we’re fighting small margins out there, so whilst finishing P15 in Q2 is obviously disappointing, I feel like we made some good changes overnight, so can see if we can make up some places tomorrow.
Nicholas Latifi: We had an issue that we are still investigating in qualifying. On my first lap I was getting some messages on the dash and losing power and then on my second attempt I had to abort the lap because the issue re-occurred. It’s not ideal because we’ve been struggling all weekend and it seemed like we had made a decent step in the right direction at the start of the first lap, but we just didn’t get In a representative lap. This is motorsport and it happens.
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