22/05/2021
NEWS STORY
Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher will start from 19th and 20th, respectively, for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, Round 5 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship at Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo.
A heavy crash in final practice for Mick Schumacher meant the rookie was forced to sit out the afternoon's qualifying session - his VF-21 too badly damaged to be fixed and prepared in time to start Q1. The German had just sealed 14th overall in FP3 with a charging lap of 1:13.139 prior to the incident.
As the sole VF-21 in Q1 Nikita Mazepin utilized two new sets of Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires for his afternoon's qualifying run. Logging a time of 1:14.728 on the second push lap of his first outing, Mazepin then made a quick return to the pits for his next set of rubber as the clock continued to tick down. A second flying attempt netted a 1:12.958 for the Formula 2 graduate - the team's fastest time around Monaco this weekend. Mazepin placed 19th at the checkered to close Q1.
Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc claimed his eighth career Formula 1 pole position, despite crashing on his final run in Q3. Leclerc's fastest lap of 1:10.346 delighted the fans in attendance and beat Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing by .230 of a second.
Nikita Mazepin: "We're a little frustrated as it's not the first weekend where we seem to be quite strong at various times in a session, then for qualifying our competitors are able to extract the most. I was wary of falling into that trap again as obviously FP3 went very well for us. I knew that we've been doing a good job consistently throughout the weekend, but we perhaps don't have as much available when it's really necessary. I know that everyone on the team is doing their upmost best to extract from the car and we know where we stand. I think everyone did a great job today. Qualifying around here in Monaco is just very exciting. I've really enjoyed driving here, the whole atmosphere is very cool."
Mick Schumacher: "My feeling in the car was very good, and it is still very good. Looking at FP3, my first push laps were very competitive, and we were right up there with Alpine and Williams - that's very good to see. Usually with those tires you can't improve on the second and third lap. You never know what would have happened, but I think we were definitely in the fight with Alonso and Latifi, that would have been something. In general, I just over pushed the car. Frankly that's it and I feel very sorry for the team. We lost a full session by missing qualifying. It's very unfortunate, but it won't put us down. We start from P20 and we still have a lot of guys we can overtake. This is a special track, a special venue, so I hope the race will be exciting. If we're able to bring that excitement into the race, that would be great. If we can show our potential and some speed, and if we have some nice moves, that would be great too."
Guenther Steiner: "I would say FP3 looked pretty good for us - until Mick (Schumacher) had the accident on his fast lap. In qualifying, well obviously Mick couldn't start with the damage he had, so we now get his car ready for tomorrow's race. Otherwise, Nikita (Mazepin) did a good job. Our car is just not performing good enough, we are always disappointed, but we know the chances of where we end up are high. We will try to do our best tomorrow hoping that something strange happens in the race - by strange I mean something like rain, a safety car or whatever, we'll take it all. We can maybe then try to get something out of that one. That's more a hope than anything else."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Monaco, here.