10/06/2017
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India showed well in Montreal this afternoon as Sergio Perez qualified in eighth place just ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix.
Sergio Perez: "I am pleased with our performance today. The car was giving me confidence and my flying laps were clean and tidy. Eighth is a good position to start the race and, even though the strategy options will be quite limited on this track, I am confident we can come away with a decent result. It will be a close fight with the cars around us because the gaps are small, but our race pace looked good yesterday so we should be competitive."
Esteban Ocon: "I'm pleased with today. The car has been strong since FP1 and we've done a good job in all the sessions by always moving forward and improving the car with each run. It's also a new track for me so I've taken things step-by-step and built my confidence with the car and the track. I really enjoyed qualifying - pushing more and more through the chicanes and getting closer to the walls. It's an old-school track and definitely a challenge for the drivers. To start from ninth means we are already in the points and I have a good feeling for the race. The priority is to get a clean first lap, stay out of trouble and find a rhythm to make the most of our competitive race pace."
Robert Fernley: "Lining up in eighth and ninth places for tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix represents an excellent effort by the entire team. It's in the ballpark of where we expected to be and puts us in the fight for good points tomorrow. Sergio and Esteban have been very closely matched through all the sessions and it's great to see this competition within the team, which helps push us forward and maximise performance. For tomorrow we should have competitive race pace allowing us to take the fight to the cars immediately ahead of us. With limited strategy options, it's going to be especially important to capitalise on lap one to hold position and hopefully overtake some cars."