27/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Esteban Ocon: "We will start tomorrow's race from ninth place after Qualifying in tenth and reaching Q3.
"We brought some upgrades here in Spa, which we'll continue to gather data for each time we're on track. It was a good afternoon and we maximised the potential in Qualifying. The weather conditions meant that it was not easy in the wet but it was fine for us to run. In Q3 it was trickier out there as we did not have a new set of tyres. We start inside the points on Sunday, we know it will not be an easy race, however, we have given ourselves a great opportunity to score points. We need to look ahead to tomorrow, assess the conditions, where it will most likely be dry, and assess our options on strategy. We aim to take all the opportunities that might come our way."
Pierre Gasly: "It's definitely a disappointing feeling to exit in Q2, especially after such a good Q1 where we ended second on the timesheets. We did not maximise our out laps and tyre preparation in the changing conditions and I felt like I lacked rear grip. We did not give ourselves the best chance to reach Q3 and we need to better understand how we can maximise performance. My set-up is different to the other car - focusing on corners and compromising some straight-line speed - so we will see what that brings in tomorrow's race. It looks like it will be dry, we tried a few things in Practice in dry conditions on Friday, so hopefully it will all pay off tomorrow, where we aim to progress into the points."
David Sanchez, Executive Technical Director: "This weekend it has been a great team effort to introduce our first significant update to the car in recent weeks. We've been able to experiment and better understand how these work on our car and we will continue to do so each time we are on track. Spa-Francorchamps is always a challenging circuit to get right in terms of car set-up. For today's Qualifying, we opted to split the downforce configuration on both our cars. Esteban was extremely fast on the straights - purple in Sector 1 - with a low downforce option, while Pierre ran a set-up more favourable for performance in the corners. We will see how this will pay off in tomorrow's race where we line up in ninth and twelfth. It looks like it will be dry and we will be alert on our strategic options given the potential high degradation on this newly resurfaced track."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spa here.