29/08/2020
NEWS STORY
Daniil Kvyat: "I had strong laps all through Qualifying and I've been feeling better and better with the car since yesterday. We made steps in the right direction with my engineering crew, so I'm happy with the progress we've made, especially from Friday to Saturday. I think we have a good chance to have a strong race tomorrow, so we'll do our best to make it happen. It will be a long one and, as it often happens in Spa, the weather can play a part. If it rains it could definitely spice up the race, so we need to stay on top of our game in these conditions, as many things can happen and we need to be there to take advantage."
Pierre Gasly: "I would have liked to make it to Q3 as there were only four one-hundredths of a second to Norris in P10. I didn't nail the last chicane and had a poor exit, I tried to give it a bit more and lost traction which cost me a tenth. Still, we have a free tyre choice and we will fight from there. I would like it to rain tomorrow - I come from Normandy so we have rain pretty much every single day! We have a decent starting position in P12 and anything is possible from there, it's super tight in the midfield as always, so I'll push as hard as I can and hopefully we can get a few points. Actually, it's ideal to start P11 and P12 because of the free tyre choice, but I wanted to be P11! However, Dany did a very good lap and I just had to do better today - I can only blame myself."
Claudio Balestri (Chief Engineer - Vehicle Performance): "Based on what we learnt on Friday, we modified our set-ups overnight to improve the car balance, which is always tricky on this track where we run with less downforce. The changes we made brought some improvement and this was evident in FP3, where we showed quite a good performance, especially on the Prime tyre. In preparation for qualifying, we made further changes to improve the balance on softer tyres. This afternoon, both drivers were able to easily make it to Q2, but we have missed Q3 by only a few hundredths of a second, which is a shame. Our focus now switches to preparations for the race and, with the qualifying positions providing us with some useful strategy options, we will be looking to take advantage of any opportunity which might present itself. We expect it to be an interesting race, especially if the rain comes."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spa, here.