Spanish GP – post qualifying update

15.08.20

p19

1m18.532s

So far, it’s fair to say Spain has been a bit of a challenge. On Friday I struggled to find a good balance in the car and keep the tyres in the right performance window, but changes made by the team overnight definitely improved the situation today.

I managed to close the gap relative to where I was on Friday, but I haven’t been able to be as competitive or show the same potential with the car as I have at previous rounds.

For qualifying we opted to go for three runs, with a new set of soft tyres on each occasion because realistically, we knew Q2 was going to be a bit of a stretch.

We were out on track before anyone else and my first lap was in pretty greasy conditions. We weren’t able to make Q2, but again there was more valuable experience for me to take away.

It was the first time I have done three runs in Q1 – so it was very busy. It was a case of going out, setting a lap, back in the box, then 90 seconds later back on track again for the next run. It was high intensity.

My best time came on the final Q1 push lap, but I think there was still more time to be found – I made an error exiting the final corner, so lost a fraction of a second there, and had some traffic in the final chicane. Even without those issues I’m not sure the overall position would have been different.

So, not the best day, but it’s done and now the focus switches to tomorrow’s race when I’m hoping to turn things around and get the best result I can.”