Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: We had an excellent result today with both drivers completing a brilliant qualifying session. The car was working well and both drivers were able to make the most of that to get into Q3 and qualify in very strong positions for the Grand Prix.
Q1 was a little closer than we had anticipated, with the decision to get Alex into Q2 using only a single set of Soft tyres becoming riskier than we had expected. However, he held his nerve and completed a good final lap on tyres that were past their best. Logan used a 2nd set in Q1 and qualified more comfortably. Both eased through Q2 and put themselves in a great position to push hard in Q3.
Following Alex touching the wall in FP3, the team had to work extremely hard to get his car ready for Q1, but they tackled the work very well and gave him a great car that he could take into Qualifying with confidence. The result is a fair reward for the continued dedication and efforts of the team in Las Vegas and in Grove; supporting this race from the UK is as demanding as dealing with jetlag and the team there have supported the trackside team expertly throughout this week.
Today has been good, but the result needs to be secured tomorrow, and we now need to convert the single lap pace into solid race pace. The work we did overnight should help improve the tyre management, which should give us a good opportunity to fight for good point scoring positions with both cars.
Alex Albon: We executed very well today; we’ve known this track was going to suit us but it’s always a bit scary coming in when there’s a bit of hype and pressure, so I’m really happy with how that went. I’ve been struggling with the brakes all weekend and after my off in FP3, I had to reset my confidence a little bit. I also just want to say thanks again to the team for their hard work in getting the car ready for Qualifying. Tomorrow is going to be all about the graining, with cars that suffer probably going a second and a half slower, and vulnerable to anyone overtaking. We did have some graining on Friday, but we’ve made some setup changes that should hopefully help mitigate this. I’m obviously excited for Logan as well, so to be starting P5 and P6 due to penalties, we now just need to finish it off tomorrow.
Logan Sargeant: Today felt really good from FP3 onwards. I’m very happy to execute over three separate sessions and finally extract the potential that we’ve had. To do it here in Vegas is extra special which is highlighted by the fact we have a great car here. It’s not easy to deliver on that performance, so the fact we’re able to continuously do that throughout the session is awesome. It’s been a great day for the team and congrats to everyone. We’ve worked hard and knew this weekend was a good opportunity and we’re off to the right start. Most importantly we have two cars near the front of the grid. We have a very annoying car down the straights for others, so we’ll try and use that to our advantage. Hopefully, we can continue this level of performance and have a strong race.
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