06/05/2023
NEWS STORY
Fernando Alonso: "It was a very good qualifying session. Things have been a bit up and down for the last few events - Baku was very difficult - but, over a regular weekend format, we've been able to experiment with a few different options on the car. We put it all together for qualifying - the car felt good. And there was still a lot more pace in the car because my Q3 lap was done on used Softs. On my second run, on fresh rubber, I was already a few tenths up - but then the yellow flags came out. The result gives us a lot of confidence for tomorrow - Sunday is usually our day; we take care of the tyres and have good race pace. Plus, starting further up the grid always makes things a little easier. Getting on the podium will still be difficult but we'll just do our race - it's going to be tough but we'll enjoy it."
Lance Stroll: "Qualifying didn't go my way today. We made the call to try and get through Q1 running just one set of Softs. With the benefit of hindsight, that wasn't the right call: other teams fitted a second set and saw big improvements. But these things happen - and Fernando got into Q2 using just the one set, so it was possible. I'm just focusing on the positives: our car feels good and our race pace is usually very competitive. Tomorrow is when the points are scored - and there's a long race ahead."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "This was a particularly tricky day to manage. In FP3, we had to deal with a change in wind direction and a rapidly changing track surface while also trying to find a good race set-up after two stop-start sessions yesterday. All credit to Fernando, who drove with typical fiery spirit to qualify second - it was a great effort. But we were too aggressive with our tyre strategy in Q1, choosing to keep both drivers on used Softs for their second runs. It was a marginal call, and it didn't work out: the track ramped up and drivers on fresh rubber found a lot of lap-time. It meant that Lance finished the session an unrepresentative 18th overall. If we'd done a better job, he would have comfortably made it into the next two sessions. We'll learn from that for the future. We've already seen that fortunes can swing wildly at this track, and we'll be giving it everything to get both cars in the points tomorrow."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Miami here.