08/06/2019
NEWS STORY
Daniil Kvyat: "It was a solid Saturday for us and I was happy with my laps, so I don't feel too bad with the result. We improved the car from yesterday and it would have been nice to start from inside the top 10, but we were missing a couple of tenths today to be comfortably in there. When we tried to find that extra bit of pace it felt like there was something missing, so I think Q3 was going to be quite tight. It's not a bad result though as the race is very long, so we'll keep our options open and do our best to move forward tomorrow."
Alexander Albon: "I'd say it would have been very tight to get into Q3 today. Going by our pace on Friday, we wouldn't have expected to be where we are today, but we made some good steps overnight to get back in the fight. We got stuck on the weighbridge and we had to quickly bolt the tyres on and go out on my second run, so it was a bit of a shame because we didn't get to start the lap the way we wanted to. It's a bit frustrating because my lap wasn't very clean but it's a cool track and tomorrow's another day, so we'll see how we do in the race."
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "Following a challenging Friday, the guys had a lot of work to do in order to understand what was needed to get our cars into the required operating window. The performance shown in FP3 highlighted that we were moving in the right direction. This trend continued into Qualifying with both cars navigating Q1 without any issues. Unfortunately, we were not able to make the same step in Q2 and we have missed the cut for Q3 in what was a very tight session, so we need to review the data and understand where we can improve going forwards. On the flip side, both cars have a free tyre choice, which should provide a few more strategy options for the race. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we all know this race can provide some interesting variables and we look forward to what is likely to be a very tight midfield battle."
Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director): "Today, only one of our four drivers - Gasly - got through to Q3. Unfortunately, the red flag came out in Q2, meaning that Kvyat, Albon and Verstappen had to abort their runs. As for tomorrow's race, we can still hope for a strong performance, as it was clear from FP3 that the teams improved the performance of their package overnight."