26/08/2023
NEWS STORY
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake couldn't capitalise on its practice performance in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix. In a rain-affected session in Zandvoort, Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas claimed the 16th and 19th fastest laps, a result that does not reflect the form shown earlier in the weekend, where the team was solidly in the top ten.
With the weather for tomorrow's showdown still uncertain, the team will aim to maximise their chances with two recovery drives in the race.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "Today's result is not representative of the potential of our package, a potential we had shown in every session of the weekend so far. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make our best laps in the first attempt, and by the time we were finishing the second push laps, the weather conditions had deteriorated in the final sector and the resulting times were not enough to stay ahead of our rivals. It's a pity, as the drivers had done clean laps: we will need to understand where we fell short and where we could have improved to get our spots in Q2. Tomorrow won't be easy, but we have to be ready to exploit any opportunity, especially if the conditions are mixed: it's important we keep working hard, with motivation and no frustration, both here and at home. We will have an aggressive approach in the race and give 100%, hoping to extract a good result from our Sunday."
Valtteri Bottas: "We had been in the top ten in every session so far, so to go out in Q1 is hugely frustrating. I am puzzled, because the feeling in the car was quite similar to FP3, our laps were good, but we are ten places further away from where we were earlier. The conditions on track were tricky but not too dissimilar from earlier in the day, so I have no explanation for this: tyre warmup seems to be the biggest issue, but we need to find some more answers ahead of tomorrow. The race won't be easy, starting in 19th, but we will give it all: hopefully qualifying was an outlier, and if it's a wet race, we could get an eventful one and make up some places."
Zhou Guanyu: "Conditions were trickier than this morning, but I think it was still okay and we had a good chance to make it to Q2. Unfortunately, we weren't able to maximise our final lap: I had a massive snap in the final corner, where it was wetter, and I just lost out on Q2 by a small margin. Today was not an easy Qualifying session, everybody was fighting to find some space, and it was difficult to get the perfect lap in. Earlier this morning, when the rain was heavier, maybe the car was in a better window. Hopefully tomorrow will be another chaotic day that can give us more opportunities to move forward."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Zandvoort here.