Qualifying Notes
- Sergey Sirotkin qualified 12th and Lance Stroll 19th for the German Grand Prix
- Both Sergey and Lance qualified on the ultrasoft Pirelli tyre
- Sergey and Lance went P1 and P7 on their initial runs in Q1, but moved down the order to P13 and P17 as others improved
- Lance did not make any further improvements during Q1 and finished P19 with a laptime of 1:14.206, Sergey progressed into Q2 with a time of 1:13.708.
- A red flag in Q2 was caused by gravel on the track at turn 13
- Sergey made further improvements and finished P12, missing out on Q3 by 0.7s
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: After FP3 there was a distinct threat of rain as we were coming into qualifying, but as it turned out it didn’t materialise, so we reverted to our standard programme. The two runs for each driver in Q1 were trouble free and it was all very close, but Sergey managed to get through to Q2 with a particularly strong lap. Both drivers improved on their second set of tyres, but by this stage it was clear this was a one lap tyre as neither of them improved on the second lap. Unfortunately, on Lance’s second run he got caught up in a long queue on the out lap and failed to meet his tyre temperature targets for the start of lap, otherwise we may have got two cars into Q2. Having selected two sets of the soft compound tyre at this race we only had one ultrasoft set for Sergey in Q2 which he chose to run at the very end. On a single lap he was able to slightly improve on his Q1 lap which put him in 12th. Overall, it was a trouble-free session, this is a good spot for Sergey to start the race from, and with Lance’s great first lap talent I have no doubt that he can also move himself further up the field during the race tomorrow. Congratulations to Sergey for his best grid position since Baku.
Sergey Sirotkin: It was a really good result for us today getting into Q2 and finishing P12 in qualifying. We ran a big programme yesterday where we went through many things, I don’t want to be too optimistic, but we have found some interesting things yesterday. We put all these findings into one package and it was a good call in the end. It’s a very important step for all the team as we have been waiting for this for a long time and it’s good to show we are moving in the right direction. I am very proud of myself and for all of the team for the hard work and development.
Lance Stroll: It is a shame as I just didn’t get it together. Looking back on my lap, there were a few things I could improve, but we tried all sorts of stuff. I don’t think we adjusted the front wing very well for that last run, as we were on the understeer side, so in hindsight there was a lot more in the car. I didn’t dial in the car the way I would have liked to, but probably with a good FP3 session we could have saved that and had a much better qualifying. However, that is how it is, and I have to focus on the race tomorrow.
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