15/08/2020
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "I think we did a good job in qualifying, extracting everything we could from the car. We know that over one lap we struggle a bit compared to Mercedes but on the long runs it is all closer and we can extract a bit more from our car. It seems like I have a subscription to P3 at the moment as I have been there for the whole weekend but we will try to improve on that tomorrow! I felt very happy on the long runs yesterday, with the balance of the car and the wear of the tyres so I hope that will be the same for tomorrow when it will still be warm but not as warm as today. We will try to stay as close to Mercedes as possible, put pressure on them and hopefully we can have a good fight. I am confident that we can do a good job. It will be hard to beat Mercedes as they still look very fast but we don't give up."
Alex Albon: "I'm not entirely happy with my qualifying as I wanted more but we can have a good race from P6 and it was an improvement over the last two weekends. Overtaking at this track is very difficult so it was important to qualify further up the field but there's still work to do and I still need to find some more pace on Saturdays. The car felt a bit edgy throughout the session and I actually felt better on used tyres during my first Q3 run compared with the second run, so we'll need to look at that and understand why. Hopefully we can have a good race tomorrow and with the challenge here being overtaking we will also need to use strategy. This weekend there has been a lot of talk about tyre degradation so hopefully we can look after our tyres and bring home some good points for the Team."
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "We can be pleased with today's qualifying efforts from both Max and Alex as track position is key here in Barcelona. Max has consistently extracted everything from his RB16 on Saturdays and lines up third on the grid, his best ever start position at this track. Alex meanwhile continues to show signs of progress as he begins to get more comfortable with the car over one lap and starting sixth on the grid gives us plenty of options in the race tomorrow. We will take the momentum from last week's win and try to use it to our advantage tomorrow as we look to keep the pressure on Mercedes and have a good fight with both cars. The high temperatures we've seen today look set to continue and Pirelli have said this will be one of the toughest races this season for the tyres, so hopefully we can give everyone at home a good on-track battle."