27/08/2022
NEWS STORY
Pierre Gasly: "It was a good Quali today, I'm really happy about my lap and how the car performed. The balance was great, and I felt like we maximised the package. We're still not showing our full potential, so we've got some work to do as a team to make it into the top 10, but today I think we managed to get the best out of the car. We start P8 tomorrow, thanks to the penalties of some drivers, so we'll have to make the most of that opportunity come the race. There's going to be some fast cars behind us trying to move forward, so it's going to be a hard race, but we'll try our best to hold our position and to stay in the points."
Yuki Tsunoda: "It's been a really disappointing day. I've felt quite happy in the car so far this weekend and I think we were competitive enough to comfortably get through to Q2 and even be in with a chance of Q3. Unfortunately, that didn't happen today - I had a big snap and then, further in the lap, I went off. There are opportunities to pass here in Spa so hopefully we can try and make our way forward."
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "Following Friday running, we had a good picture of the areas we needed to focus on today. The analysis and subsequent set up changes made overnight pretty much delivered according to expectation, meaning both cars took a step forward in terms of balance for FP3. We included a longer run with both drivers in FP3 in order to try and gather some of the data we were missing following yesterday's rain shower towards the end of FP2. Qualifying was, as expected, very tight in the midfield, but a strong first run in Q1 by Pierre provided a good basis to build on, which he subsequently did, with the car being well balanced and making Q2 without any fuss. Pierre's first stint in Q2 on a used tyre was very strong and he built on this for his second outing on new tyres putting in a very clean lap, but unfortunately, we were missing the last 0.15s to make Q3, in what was a very tight session. On the other side of the garage, Yuki struggled a little more in Qualifying and a couple of front tyre lock ups during his second run meant he was not able to put his best lap together and was unfortunately eliminated in Q1. This is frustrating for Yuki and the team, as he has had a solid weekend so far and for sure more was possible. As normal, focus now shifts to preparations for the race, and with the probability of making a pass here being much higher than the season average, there is plenty still to play for in terms of trying to get into the points with Pierre and also getting Yuki moving forward tomorrow."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spa here.