28/07/2023
NEWS STORY
Fernando Alonso: "Qualifying was stressful. Every lap was a new game - you had to adapt all the time to the changing levels of grip.
"You had to trust the car - we were taking corners faster and faster each lap, so it was a little bit of a guessing game. We progressed through Q1 and Q2, which was one of our main targets. Q3 was extremely tight - we ended up a few tenths off seventh place, which was probably the maximum we could have achieved today.
"I think the AMR23 was behaving well today: we're still missing those final couple of tenths to our main competitors - particularly over a flying lap - but hopefully we can recover some of that pace on Sunday."
Lance Stroll: "Given the tough conditions, I think getting two cars through to Q3 is a good result, but we would have liked a little more today. It always becomes tricky when the track is drying throughout a session; making the correct tyre call becomes more of a challenge and you have to be prepared to make very last-minute decisions. From that perspective, I think we made some good calls and it felt like we were on the right tyre at the right time. The track was improving a lot towards the end of Q3 though, so we probably played it a little safe being the first car across the line. We'll review the data this evening and get ready to go again tomorrow."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "Getting both cars into the top 10 is a decent outcome from a challenging day. It is never easy when you have a drying track evolving so quickly, but both drivers delivered clean and tidy laps. We have put ourselves in a reasonable position for Sunday's race."
Check out our Friday gallery from Spa here.