04/09/2021
NEWS STORY
Daniel Ricciardo: "75 per cent of quali, in Q1 and Q2, was really good relative to where we thought we were. There were a lot of things that felt good, and the lap times were good. It came to me quite naturally and normally, and I was able to improve a little bit in each corner. I felt comfortable.
"In Q3 I felt like I was lacking grip from Turn One, so it was a bit more of a struggle from then on. We don't really know why yet. The track might have changed and maybe we just missed something, but we'll look into that and try to find an answer. It's frustrating as Q3 dictates the grid and that was our worst run in qualifying. There're some positives to take from today, but still some unknowns. We'll keep working at it."
Lando Norris: "Not the day I wanted or that we were expecting - I just didn't do the best job. I didn't feel too confident in qualifying to hook it all up and put it together. It's probably the closest qualifying we've had all year. It's a shame as this is the race we really needed to be strong, but we just didn't manage it. We also didn't get that last opportunity to try again because of the red flag. It's going to make our day tomorrow very tricky, but I think we're definitely quicker than a few other cars ahead of us, so hopefully we can still score some points."
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "This was a very difficult Saturday afternoon for us. On both sides of the garage, it was simply difficult to extract more performance out of the car. Daniel's Q1 and Q2 went well and he could put in a very good lap at the start of Q2, which allowed him to progress to Q3 despite the difficulties we experienced today, but we then struggled with grip in Q3. On Lando's side, in three attempts he never felt really comfortable with pushing to the limit. He missed his final opportunity in Q2, but even with that, it was marginal whether he would progress.
"Given the nature of the Zandvoort track, this puts us in a difficult position for the race, given how hard it is to overtake here. At the same time, so far this weekend we've seen that this is a track where a lot can happen. The job tonight is to see what we can learn from today, make any improvements we can make and be ready to take any opportunities that may come our way tomorrow."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Zandvoort, here.