30/06/2018
NEWS STORY
Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne will line up 13th and 15th on the grid for tomorrow's Austrian Grand Prix.
Fernando recorded an 11th-quickest Q1 lap, which was particularly impressive after his difficult practice sessions yesterday. Stoffel didn't manage to get the maximum from the car after struggling slightly with a handling imbalance from tyre-set to tyre-set.
With three DRS zones and unpredictable weather on the cards for tomorrow's race, both drivers are hopeful of racing hard with the pack tomorrow.
Fernando Alonso: "We did our best in qualifying today, and I think we maximised the package, but this is not where we want to be.
"Tomorrow, we need to aim for points by thinking about the best strategy. We have a free choice of starting-tyre and all possibilities are open for us. I'm relatively optimistic.
"On my final lap, I was two tenths slower than on my previous lap; for the final two corners, I said to myself, ‘let's try and do this flat out, in case I can recover those tenths' but that was over the limit...
"We had some fun today and the car was good to drive, but this still isn't the position we want, and we need to keep improving."
Stoffel Vandoorne: "It was a very tight session, and didn't go perfectly for me.
"I didn't have any particular issues this afternoon. We changed a lot on the car yesterday, but we left it alone today - but it still felt a little different from one set of tyres to another, which was hard to explain. Maybe it's the tyre preparation, or other cars doing warm-up laps before starting their push-laps.
"Everyone who's touched those yellow sausage-kerbs has broken bits of their car. Even in qualifying this afternoon, a bit broke off my car - and I didn't even touch any of the kerbs. They're quite harsh: I don't see the reason for putting them there: if you're going that far onto the run-off, you're losing time anyway.
"Qualifying was more or less what we expected - we'll see tomorrow what the race brings."
Eric Boullier: "After three tricky practice sessions, which were spent either testing experimental parts, chasing the car's balance or replacing bodywork damaged on the unforgiving exit kerbs, we'd hoped for a somewhat more straightforward qualifying session.
"While our qualifying pace was more or less what we expected this afternoon, we damaged a few more components over those kerbs. We're evaluating contingencies, and are already looking to fly out some additional spares overnight to ensure we have a useable stock for the race tomorrow.
"It's disappointing to be outside the top 10, but the margins are tight around here, and both drivers will fight hard for positions tomorrow."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spielberg, here.