30/06/2018
NEWS STORY
It was a demanding Saturday for the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team at the 2018 FIA Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix. After a strong Friday, things looked promising in FP3 with both drivers showing good pace. Unfortunately, at the end of the FP3, an issue with the transmission on Charles Leclerc's car resulted in changing the gearbox and a five-position grid penalty for tomorrow's race. The team did a good job to fix his car in time for qualifying - the young Monegasque rookie bounced back strongly, finishing the session in P13 (Q2).
Tomorrow Charles Leclerc will take the start of the Austrian GP from 18th position on the grid, followed by Marcus Ericsson who, after a solid performance in FP3, qualified in P20. The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team remains confident of optimizing its performance for tomorrow's race.
Marcus Ericsson: "It was a disappointing qualifying for me. We have had a good weekend so far, so we need to work to understand why we struggled so much during qualifying. The car felt good, so we are going to take a close look at the data to get the maximum potential for the race."
Charles Leclerc: "I am very happy about today - P13. There was not much more for us to extract, and now we must push to understand why we made a small step backwards after FP3. A huge thank you to the whole team for putting my car back out on track for qualifying. Due to a grid penalty, I will be starting the race from P18 tomorrow. It will be difficult to advance, but I will push as much as I can in the first few laps, and do my best to work my way forward in the race."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spielberg, here.