29/07/2017
NEWS STORY
Lance Stroll qualified 17th and Paul di Resta 19th for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Both drivers went out in Q1 on the ultrasoft tyre, but were knocked out of the session having struggled for qualifying run performance over the course of the weekend.
Felipe Massa withdrew from the Hungarian Grand Prix following Saturday's FP3 session after feeling too unwell to continue driving. The team's Reserve Driver Paul di Resta was confirmed as Felipe's replacement for the remainder of the race weekend.
Paul's time improved on every flying lap in Q1, with his final lap half-a-second quicker than his previous effort. Lance's best time of the session was 1:19.102, with Paul setting a fastest time of 1:19.868.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: It wasn't a very regular day for us. In fact, it was the first time in my experience having to swap a driver out during a race weekend. First of all, I'm very sorry for Felipe that he's not well enough to compete. He made a great effort to come through it, and did what he felt he needed to as a member of the team. But it's absolutely the right thing to pull out, and we hope he can make a rapid recovery and that we'll see him back in the car in Belgium. Paul has been our Reserve Driver for a year and a half, and he probably realistically never expected to get called up. However, he was ready to go the moment we took the decision and it was very brave of him to go out for his first time in the 2017 generation of F1 cars, along with the new tyres and aero package, to be thrown straight into a competitive session. He's got to be my driver of the day to achieve what he did today. He only got to do four timed laps, so that's a terrific job when unfortunately the car is not as competitive around this track as it really ought to be. So we look forward to seeing what he can do in the race. Lance, meanwhile, had a pretty good qualifying session, and only narrowly missed getting into Q2. It's just the car is not where it should be, and we've got a lot of work to do to come back and compete as we should at these high downforce circuits. We'll see what we can do tomorrow from these positions on the grid.
Lance Stroll: It was not the best qualifying in terms of position, but we knew it would be difficult for us, and in the end we just have to be more competitive. We were only a tenth or so off Q2, and it is frustrating as I think there were a couple of things on my lap where I could have made up a tenth, but you can always say that afterwards. It is just simply tough for us this weekend, we are not as quick as we want to be and, although there are a couple of other things, it is pretty much down to sheer lack of downforce. We need to keep pushing to see what happens for tomorrow's race.
Paul di Resta: It's been a busy 18 hours, getting prepared to drive in case it did happen but unsure if it was going to. I was nervous and anxious. You're unsure of how your ability is going to be when you get out there. I was ironing my shirt at 11 o'clock this morning preparing to be presenting on TV. But honestly, I quickly felt quite comfortable in the car. There was nothing that took me by surprise, it's just the more laps you can do, the better it is. Getting thrown straight into qualifying is the deepest of the deep ends. To do it in four laps is a big ask, but honestly I didn't expect to be so close straight away. I've carried on everything Felipe has done up until this session like the brake settings, the set-up and the steering wheel switches are all his, so of course it could be more optimised. But there is more ability to progress in me, gaining the speed and confidence in the car. These cars are the most special thing you'll ever drive. It's a tough ask to go straight into qualifying, but that's what it's about and you take these opportunities. Thank you to Williams for the opportunity, thank you to Claire and Sir Frank. To get the opportunity to get in the car and do it, with the team having the faith in my ability, I will hopefully be able to repay that. The team have been great. I've been here a year and a half waiting for this, so it's a good job I've been attending all the meetings and paying attention! Today has been very special. I felt back at home in a Formula One car, and the team prepared me as best they could. We go into tomorrow with a long and difficult day ahead, but at the same time one that I'm very much looking forward to challenge and to see how it goes.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Hungary, here.