18/05/2024
NEWS STORY
Esteban Ocon: "From where we started the weekend with the overall balance and feel of the car, we have made good progress as a team to improve things and put ourselves in the mix for the Grand Prix tomorrow.
"It has been a tricky weekend and difficult to put a lap together, but we optimised all three Practice sessions and kept the team busy with various changes on set-up. We worked well to improve the car balance and behaviour of the car each session, which is credit to the team. The field was very close - closer than usual on this short circuit - but the lap in the end was not enough to make it into Q3. We need to understand why we cannot make the same jump in performance from Q1 to Q2 that the other teams do, which is something we will continue to evaluate further."
Pierre Gasly: "We had a good start to Qualifying, finishing Q1 comfortably inside the top ten, so it is a pity not to be able to consolidate that through the remainder of the session. In Q2, I had a fairly strong lap through the first two sectors, up until the final couple of corners where I met some traffic. It distracted my line into the corner more than anything, which potentially cost me some lap time and positions. There is obviously some frustration not to put it together in Q2 especially as, like in Miami, we were so close to reaching Q3. The car has felt good all weekend so far and we will push hard to put in a strong performance tomorrow. This is a difficult track for overtaking and we will make sure we are prepared for different scenarios and put ourselves in the mix for points."
Julian Rouse, Sporting Director: "Today, like at the previous two events, both cars progressed through to Q2 with little issue. We are showing steady signs of progress, especially considering we have carried over the car from the last two events without any significant updates. We have been strong in Q1 at the last two races, which is a positive sign. Our focus is to keep furthering our understanding on how we can maximise performance in Q2 in the same way we are able to in Q1. Such are the fine margins in Qualifying at the moment, these details are extremely beneficial. We are in contention tomorrow starting from twelfth and fifteenth. We raced well in Miami from similar starting spots, and we will assess our options on strategy with the aim of making it back-to-back points scoring finishes."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Imola here.