12/09/2020
NEWS STORY
Sergio Perez: "I think we got everything we could out of the car and overall it's been a positive day for the team. It was a good lap in Q3, which was important because we only had one set of Soft tyres remaining [having used two sets in Q1]. It's a shame that we have the penalty for the Grand Prix, but if I had to lose a place on the grid - I'm glad it's to my team-mate! Lance was able to run the car upgrade today, which is looking positive, so that's a good sign for the coming races. It's a new race for all of us, so there's plenty of unknowns and calling the strategy won't be easy tomorrow. A strong start will mean we have everything to play for in the race."
Lance Stroll: "It was a little bit frustrating out there today. I think we could have qualified in P4 or P5 without the yellow flag on the final runs in Q3. I'd set a comfortable banker lap on my first run and I think I was set to improve significantly on my second. Regardless, there's plenty of positives to take from today. We improved the car overnight and earned a good starting position - and that's important because overtaking is going to be difficult here. I'm happy with the feel of the car and we have good underlying pace, so I think we have the potential for a strong result tomorrow. We were also able to collect more data on our upgrade package and the early signs are promising. It's been a good day's work and I'm looking forward to the race now."
Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal: "A pretty solid qualifying effort with both cars showing good speed across the sessions. Even with Checo's one-place penalty, it doesn't change our starting positions as a team with Lance now lining up ahead of Checo. Lance was unlucky on his final run in Q3 to be disadvantaged by the yellow flags for Ocon and had to abort the lap. That took away his chance of getting ahead of Leclerc. The layout of this track suggests overtaking will be difficult tomorrow, so it was important to secure good starting positions today. I'm confident our race pace will match our qualifying speed and that we can bring home important points tomorrow."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Mugello, here.