11/12/2021
NEWS STORY
Lance Stroll: "I think P13 was around the maximum we could have achieved today. We made some changes to the set-up of the car today and I am happier with the balance, which is positive for tomorrow. We will have a free choice of tyres for the start of the race and plenty of options with strategy, so there are opportunities to move forward in the race. We should be fighting to score points. That would be a nice way to mark my 100th race in Formula One."
Sebastian Vettel: "It was not our day - mainly because of problems with traffic. I was held up [by Esteban Ocon] in Q1, but just made it through to Q2 where there were even more problems. All the drivers were backing up at the end of the lap and we saw some drivers jumping the queues. I had to come to a standstill and, as a result, I lost too much tyre temperature, which ruined my final quick lap. I should have been more selfish because other drivers do not respect the agreement to stay in order before they start their lap. We all end up at the same place because we try to maximise the sessions [with the same timings] but then you have the same drivers who always jump the queue. So we start from P15 and hopefully we can overtake a lot of cars tomorrow. Our race pace should be competitive so let us see what we can do."
Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal: "Both our drivers progressed smoothly through Q1 into Q2. Lance did well to end up 13th-quickest, from which position he can drive for points in tomorrow's race. Sebastian was seriously compromised by traffic, and as a result he was prevented from driving a proper out lap, which meant that he was unable to generate enough heat in his tyres to lean on them on his fast lap. The result was that he was 15th-quickest. Without traffic he believes he could have gone significantly faster and be further up the gid."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Yas Marina, here.