Portugal GP: Qualifying update

01.05.21

p18

1m20.285s

“It’s been a very tricky weekend so far. Friday was a write off, to be honest. I was massively struggling with the pace, with no real answer why. I think in FP1 I was 1.7 seconds off, in FP2 still more than a second.

We made some big changes overnight to try and rule things out. It wasn’t just set-up related, clearly there was something not quite right. And it seemed that we found something. Straightaway in FP3 my first laps were over a second quicker than anything I did on Friday.

Going into qualifying was tough because I’d had only four representative laps in FP3 to prepare myself – on a track that is one of the most technical in the calendar.

The first set in qualifying was not too bad, but the second was scrappy. Some traffic here and there and it just didn’t feel good from my side. It was probably the worst lap of the weekend. Despite that, I was only half a second off Q2. And a second quicker than what had felt like a good lap on Friday.

So there are positives to take. Even though I’ve not got the result I wanted, we understand why now. Frustrating from my side, but an amazing job from the team to almost get a car into Q3. The race is tomorrow. I’ll be pushing for that.”