23/06/2018
NEWS STORY
Esteban Ocon: "I am a bit disappointed to miss out on the top ten by such a small margin [0.02s], but I am happy about my lap and how we came back as a team from a difficult Friday. We came into qualifying a bit blind after missing track time yesterday, but we were able to improve the car a lot and found a good balance. P11 is the next best thing to a place in Q3 and at least we will have free choice of tyres. Hopefully it's going to be very hot tomorrow and the strategy can play in our hands, or perhaps it's going to rain - I'd welcome anything that can mix things up. I have to thank the fans for all their support. I could see them with their flags and it was a special feeling to drive in front of my home crowd."
Sergio Perez: "I don't feel we maximised the qualifying today. We could have been much further up the grid. I think we were unlucky with the conditions because we were expecting more rain towards the end of Q2. I went out too early and did my laps, and then the track improved. We need to see what happens with the weather tomorrow because if it's wet it will open up some opportunities. The track is very tricky in the wet, but it can also dry very quickly, just as we saw today."
Otmar Szafnauer: "Today's result is not a huge surprise considering the lack of track time we've experienced in the lead up to qualifying. It's disappointing not to have made it through to Q3, but P11 and P13 give us the freedom to choose our tyres for the start of the race. The light rain at the start of Q2 certainly complicated the session and there's a good chance of more rain showers affecting the race tomorrow. We didn't do a huge amount of race simulation on Friday, but our race pace is usually one of our strengths and we will be targeting points tomorrow with both cars."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Paul Ricard, here.