Qualifying - Spanish GP 2021 - Team quotes

Team quotes

By Franck Drui

8 May 2021 - 17:11
Qualifying - Spanish GP 2021 - (...)

Haas F1

Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin qualified 18th and 20th, respectively, for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, Round 4 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, Spain.

Mazepin and Schumacher entered Q1 with three sets of Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires each for three timed runs. Schumacher’s first two sets netted the rookie laps of 1:20.309 and 1:19.405. On his third and final set of the softs Schumacher clocked a faster 1:19.117 to claim 18th on the grid for Sunday’s race ahead of the Williams of Nicholas Latifi and teammate Nikita Mazepin. Mazepin banked a 1:20.560 to start his quali runs and he bettered that time on his third set of tires dropping his best lap to a 1:19.807 to place 20th ahead of Sunday’s 66-lap race.

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes claimed pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix in Q3 – the 100th pole of his Formula 1 career. His quick lap of 1:16.741 beat Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing by .036 of a second.

Nikita Mazepin

“The target temperatures were there for both my first and last run on the softs, the second one was a bit difficult. But when the time was there the temperatures really came towards us. It’s our second, clean qualifying, so I’m pretty satisfied about it. On the other side of the coin, I’m not happy with the balance yet. I feel like the car is not really doing what I want it to do at the moment. It’s quite difficult to drive it – it’s a big task to keep it on the circuit while trying to maintain the best lap time possible. Loads for me to find but a clean qualifying is a good step forward as well.”

Mick Schumacher

“We’re really happy, it’s been one of our best Saturdays and qualifying sessions. We managed to put the car where we wanted to, we made a big change overnight from Friday to Saturday. It was definitely the right one to do. I feel that the team and I have taken all the right steps to bring the car to where we are now. The predictions said we’d be behind Williams and here we are in front of one. We have to aim a bit higher though and try and get close to Q2, I think we’re on the right path to try and do that. I think it’s going to be tough in the race though. We’re probably looking at a bit of rear degradation in the race – I think everybody is. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

Günther Steiner

“From where we were yesterday, after FP1 and FP2, I think the whole team – the engineers, the crew, the drivers, they all did a good job. We’ve ended up in front of a Williams and that’s what we’re fighting for at the moment. We didn’t get it done in Portugal, but we got it done here with one car with Mick (Schumacher). Nikita (Mazepin) made good progress today as well, as yesterday he obviously didn’t have his best day. We just need to keep on bettering ourselves and climb forward – it’s an on-going learning curve. Everybody is putting a lot of effort into it.”

Williams F1

 George Russell qualified 15th and Nicholas Latifi 19th for the Spanish Grand Prix
 George made it into Q2 for the fourth consecutive time this season, where he posted a 1:19.154 on a used set of the soft Pirelli tyres
 Nicholas continued to improve throughout Q1, posting his quickest time with a 1:19.219
 Congratulations to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton on his 100th pole position in the sport

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance

The changes made overnight improved the car in FP3 with both drivers happier than in FP2. George in particular was happy with his changes to set-up, and overall, we made good progress from yesterday.

Qualifying was difficult, with the usual fighting for track space at the end of outlaps. We were expecting Q1 to be tight and so opted to use three sets of new tyres on each car. George did well to qualify for Q2, but he had no new tyres left to use in that session. His single run on scrubbed tyres was good in the circumstances and he was able to put some pressure on Giovinazzi to complete a good lap in his final run.

Unfortunately, Nicholas’s car suffered some damage at the high-speed T9, and this hurt his performance in the final stages of Q1. We will repair his car ahead of the race.

As we saw last week, qualifying is only a small part of the weekend and so we now turn our attention to the race and will look to move forwards tomorrow.

George Russell

I think getting into Q2 today was the maximum. We knew the car has never really worked perfectly around this circuit, relative to our performance elsewhere. We struggled a bit in FP2, but the conditions calmed down today. The car was in a much better window and we managed to out qualify cars like Tsunoda and Räikkönen, so overall, we really maximised today. It will be an interesting race with the warm conditions, and there is a bit of rain in the area tomorrow. I don’t know if it will come before or after the race but fingers it arrives and spices things up a little.

Nicholas Latifi

It’s been a difficult weekend for us so far. I did collect some damage going wide on my second run and that didn’t help for the rest of my flying laps. There was a bit of traffic too, with everyone bunching up ahead of their lap, but it’s the same for everyone. In terms of the race, it can be difficult around here when the tyres aren’t new, so I think that will be the challenge tomorrow.

Alfa Romeo

Barcelona always had the potential to deliver an incredibly close battle in qualifying, and today’s hour of action to determine the grid produced just that. In Q1, the blink of an eye separated the fastest time and one that would see you in the bottom five. In this challenging situation, we choose to focus on the glass half full, courtesy of Antonio Giovinazzi who made it through the first cut-off before claiming 14th place on tomorrow’s grid.

Kimi Räikkönen had to bow out in Q1 after setting two promising sectors in his fastest lap but falling just short at the line: he will start tomorrow’s race in P17, just behind Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri. Starting in the penultimate row won’t make his life any easier, especially in a place like Barcelona, where overtaking is a challenge, but the Finn will be ready to put up a fight as he attempts a famous comeback.

Closer to the points, however, Antonio will need one of his trademark starts to break into the top ten from the very beginning: a place where we hope he will remain until the chequered flag…

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

“Today was a demonstration of how close and competitive the field is: the margins were unbelievably small, P1 and P17 are separated by one second and P2 and P16 by little more than half a second in the first part of qualifying. In this scenario, anything short of a perfect lap will cost you and that is what happened today with Kimi. Fortunately, Antonio managed to make it to Q2 and qualify in front of Russell: starting in 14th, he has a good chance of being in the fight for the points from the start of the race. As always, you never know what’s going to happen on Sunday, but so long as we’re in a good position we can take advantage of how the situation unfolds.”

Kimi Räikkönen

“It was disappointing to go out in Q1, especially after looking good in the morning. The car still felt good and the lap was not bad, but I lost it in the final sector. I got a bit too close to the car in front at the end of the lap and that was it – it’s so close out there, if you don’t get it right you pay the price. We’ll see what we can do to get back in the fight tomorrow. It’s not an easy place to overtake but we will give everything.”

Antonio Giovinazzi

“It was a good session and I think we got the maximum we could out of the car. My Q2 lap was good, maybe I could have improved a little more but Q3 was still a bit too far. However, we keep improving, and to be in Q2 again is good for the team. I am happy with my performance, we’re still not where we would like to be – in the top ten – but we are making progress. Let’s see how our race pace is tomorrow: the first lap will be important, as overtaking can be difficult here, but we’re ready to make the most of every opportunity.”

AlphaTauri

Pierre Gasly

“I’m obviously disappointed with the final result, that’s the first time we’ve not made it through to Q3 this year and we missed it by just two hundredths, which is nothing. That being said, I’m happy with the car balance this weekend but we’ve really struggled with grip, we just seem to slide around, then overheat the tyres and on this track you really pay the price for that. I think we were slightly more competitive at the start of the year, so we need to go away and understand how we can regain that lead again in the midfield battle. Nevertheless, tomorrow is where we score points and we’ll be starting in P12 with a free tyre choice, which will hopefully give us a slight advantage in the race.”

Yuki Tsunoda

“It’s frustrating for me, the performance in the car is definitely there and I think we should easily be making it through to Q2, but I just couldn’t find the grip today. Pierre and I have very different feedback about the car, even when we have the same set-up, so I need to understand whether this is due to the characteristics of it or our different driving styles and then I can look closer at the data with my engineers. I think if I find this reason then I can really start to harness the full potential of the car.”

Claudio Balestri (Chief Engineer - Vehicle Performance)

“Today’s sessions have highlighted just how tight the midfield is this year and how a small difference in lap time can make such a big difference to a driver’s final position. In FP3 both drivers showed good lap times and we found that the changes to the car set-up that we’d made overnight were positive. To be fast on this track you need to find a good compromise between the sectors, so this was our main focus before Qualifying. In Q1 Pierre completed just one lap on the option tyre and easily made it through to Q2. On the other side of the garage, Yuki was struggling a bit more with his car and he wasn’t able to enter Q2, missing out by just one hundredth. We had a similar situation in Q2 with Pierre, who narrowly missed reaching Q3 by a few hundredths. Our focus now turns to tomorrow’s race – we believe our long-run pace on Friday appeared competitive, so we hope that we can finish the race in the points.”

Aston Martin F1

Lance Stroll

“It is a shame to have missed out on Q3 by such a tiny margin – just a few thousandths of a second. The positive is that by starting in P11, we have the flexibility to choose our start tyre and that could be crucial because I think tyre wear is going to be a very important factor in the race. It is not easy to overtake here, but if we can have a good start and gain places on the long run into Turn One, we can give ourselves a good platform for points on Sunday.”

Sebastian Vettel

“My final lap in Q2 was not entirely clean and, when the grid is so tight, those small things can make a real difference. I think we had a good chance of reaching Q3 today, but we just found ourselves at the wrong end of the midfield group. Because so many teams have similar pace, it will not be an easy race, but we will hang in there, push hard, and see what we can do. You never know what can happen in a long race and, if we can look after the tyres and use our race pace, we can race for some points.”

Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal

“Lance and Sebastian both progressed smoothly through Q1, duly booking their places in Q2 as they did so. We were therefore slightly disappointed that we were not able to make it through to Q3 with either driver – we will analyse why that was now. Having said that, Lance will start the race from P11, and Seb from P13, which means that both of them will have a free choice of tyres to start on and both of them will have the advantage of a grid slot on the clean side of the track. They should both be in decent shape to race for points tomorrow.”

Alpine F1

Alpine F1 Team will line up with Esteban Ocon in fifth and Fernando Alonso tenth for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix, after the closest qualifying battle of the season around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Esteban secured his best qualifying position since his fifth place in last season’s Styrian Grand Prix with the team putting both cars into Q3 for the first time since the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Fernando required two runs in Q1 to ensure he progressed to Q2 alongside Esteban. Both drivers recorded the exact same lap time with a 1min 18.281secs to finish eleventh and twelfth.

Fernando’s first lap in Q2 was a 1min 17.966secs, good enough for seventh, with Esteban just outside the top ten in eleventh. Just one tenth split fifth place to thirteenth. On their second push laps, the French driver improved to a 1min 17.743secs, whilst Fernando aborted his lap, squeezing through to the top 10 shootout by 0.008secs.

Q3 was finely poised, and with two sets of fresh tyres Esteban went first, stamping his A521 into a superb fourth position with a 1min 17.560secs, with Fernando in ninth on used Softs.

Esteban couldn’t improve on his already impressive lap time on his final run, finishing fifth. Fernando’s final lap was slightly hindered by traffic, crossing the line just in time to qualify in tenth position on the grid for tomorrow’s 66-lap race.

Esteban Ocon

“It feels very good today and I’m happy with how we managed today’s qualifying session. I think this is the confirmation we were looking for, as we’ve repeated the speed we had in Portimao at this track, which is good. The car has been great this weekend and I’m feeling very good at the wheel with the team around me. The factories are working hard to keep finding improvements and their hard work is paying off. Tomorrow will be a hard race and strategy will be interesting.”

Fernando Alonso

“It’s been a good weekend so far as we are in the top ten again, the second time this season. It shows the progress of our car so that’s good. In terms of the session today I think my out-lap in Q3 was a little messy, so there was more time for me to find. It’s very tight and obviously very difficult to overtake in the race, but we’ll try to have a good first couple of laps and see where we end up tomorrow as anything can happen in a race.”

Davide Brivio, Racing Director

“It was a very good qualifying today with Esteban fifth, the best result of the year for us so far and Fernando also inside the top 10. We’re happy to have both cars in Q3 for the first time this year. The drivers are working well with their engineers in setting up the car and finding a good balance and even finding some small, but important, improvements from FP3 to qualifying. It’s a credit to everyone in the team who has done a good job this weekend. We want to keep the momentum going and capitalise on these good starting positions in tomorrow’s race.”

Red Bull

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“From my side it was a good qualifying. I’m pleased with my lap with no mistakes and I feel like I extracted the most out of the car. It was very close, but it wasn’t quite enough and sometimes you have to accept that. Mercedes seem to be a little bit ahead of us over one lap but to be on the front row here, especially compared to last year where we really struggled, we can be very happy with that. We know that the start is very important here and it can impact the race result, so of course we are focused on it, but we want to keep it clean as well as it’s a long race. We will of course give it our best tomorrow and I think we have decent race pace, if it’s enough to beat them I don’t know but we will push them all the way.”

SERGIO PEREZ

“It was a tough qualifying out there and just a bad day in general. I didn’t get a good lap throughout today and I was not feeling 100% in qualifying with some shoulder pain so we did well to progress to Q3 which shows what a good car we have. In terms of pace, we have a very good race car so it’s a shame we are starting out of position as it’s a difficult place to overtake but I’m confident we will be able to fight for a very strong result. Tomorrow is a new opportunity, hopefully we are able to minimize the damage and take some steps forward. I’ll be aggressive as I need to come through the field and catch up to the leaders as early as possible. In general, it’s not been the best weekend from my side but looking at previous races this year, you can see things are coming together and I’m just getting to know the car better which is the key.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal

“It was another very exciting qualifying and a fantastic performance by the Team. Our first front row start in Barcelona for 10 years and Max was once again so close to pole. Being on the front row is very encouraging and there are a lot of positives to take from today. Last year we were 0.7s off pole and this year Max has completed an almost identical lap time to Lewis, so it’s great progress. Checo recovered after having a spin on his first lap in Q3 and will start in P8, but we know how strong he is in the race and despite it being a difficult track to overtake on I’m confident he will make good progress. It will be important to get a good start, the margins are so tight between us and Mercedes at the moment that the small things make a big difference, so the start and that run down to the first corner is going to be important and very exciting to watch.”

McLaren

Daniel Ricciardo

“Overall, a positive day. We did really well to get through Q1 with one set of tyres, which gave us two sets for Q3, but obviously we missed it with the timing and, unfortunately, we couldn’t use them. I do think there’s always a tenth on the table and that could’ve been a P4 if we’d got a really good lap together. But, I don’t want to focus on that.

“Ultimately, I’m still looking at myself and how I can improve, I’m not driving the car perfectly yet. Today was certainly better, but I’ll focus on myself and I know the team will address their part for the Q3 timing. Today was a much better day and we made a really good step from yesterday. So, I’m very happy and thankful that we found some answers and that the updates seem to be working.”

Lando Norris

"Not a perfect qualifying today. We were quite unlucky with some traffic in Q1 run one, so that put us on the back foot as we needed to use a second set of tyres when we should’ve been safe.

"I picked up some damage after my first run in Q3, and the final run wasn’t clean either, which was quite important in the end with how much the track was evolving and the wind was changing.

"I’m not too disappointed, but it is a bit frustrating to start from the position we’re in as it’s a very difficult race to come through and overtake. We know we have a strong car on a Sunday, so we’ll do our best to get some good points."

Andreas Seidl - Team Principal

“We had a competitive car today, but unfortunately didn’t get everything out of Q3. Lando’s car was damaged after his first run in Q3, which he had to do on used tyres after losing one set of new tyres due to the incident in Q1. On Daniel’s side, we didn’t complete the lap before the flag, as cars bunched up at the end of the out-lap and he wasn’t able to get in his second attempt on new tyres. As always, we will analyse, look into the details and learn from it.

“The team here at the track, with support from home and the drivers, did a really good job overnight to understand the upgrades we brought here for this weekend and optimise the car. There was definitely more in it here for us today, but P7 and P9 with a competitive car will allow us to fight for good points tomorrow. Maximum focus now on getting back up the order in the race.”

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc will start from fourth on the grid and Carlos Sainz from sixth in the Spanish Grand Prix that starts tomorrow at 15 CET at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit. Today’s qualifying was in line with the others so far this season, which confirmed Scuderia Ferrari as the third force of the field over a single lap, particularly important here as the characteristics of the Spanish track make it one of the most probing on the calendar.

Very close. Looking at the overall performance, today’s qualifying can even be seen as the best of the season for the Maranello team. For the third time in four races, Charles will start from the second row, behind three cars from the two teams fighting at the front, while Carlos lines up right behind him having missed out on repeating last week’s fifth place in Portugal by just four hundredths of a second. As expected, positions in the midfield are decided by hundredths, with fourth to eighth places separated by less than two tenths.

Consolidation. The race should produce a similar scenario to qualifying, with the cars in the middle of the grid all having very similar performance levels. The Scuderia’s aim will once again be to repeat our qualifying result in the race, getting the most out of the SF21 over a race distance, something that has only happened occasionally so far this season. In Spain, more than ever, it will be important to get everything right, at the start and also during the pit stops, given that the most likely strategy is a two-stopper.

Charles Leclerc

“It was a good qualifying and I’m very happy with the result. Looking at the gap between us and the top three, P4 is a solid result today.

My Q2 lap was very clean and that’s good for the tyres that I will use for the start. I am concentrating on this a lot because tomorrow it will be important to start on a tyre with little degradation.

As a team, we start from P4 and P6, which is positive. Our race pace has been competitive and if we manage our tyres in the same way as we did yesterday, it should look good. Our target is to bring home as many points as possible. Overall it has been a good weekend so far and I hope that we finish it on a high.”

Carlos Sainz

“In general, today was a good qualifying session for the team, on a track where car balance and car performance in cornering are important and the SF21 is performing well. From my side I had a strong qualifying all the way through and I felt I could push the car.

I managed to go through Q1 with only one set and a couple of strong laps in Q2 put us through to the top 10. After a decent first run in Q3, I was looking forward to improving my lap time in the last attempt but due to small details I didn’t quite manage to nail it. Despite that, there are lots of positives to take from today and we are in a good position to fight tomorrow in the race. Let’s go!”

Laurent Mekies Racing Director

“A good qualifying which confirms our third place in the pecking order, at least on Saturdays. Now the priority is to repeat that performance on Sunday, something we’ve only managed to do intermittently. It’s particularly significant therefore that our best team qualifying result from these first four rounds has come at this very challenging track. The gap to pole is half that of last year here, but it is still significant and even if we could have gone a fraction quicker, it would not have changed anything substantially.

Charles and Carlos, the latter racing here in red in his home race for the first time, both did a good job behind the wheel and in working with the team to get the most out of the SF21.
Tomorrow, we can expect a very tough race, given the very small gaps between ourselves and our closest rivals. If our strategy, reliability, teamwork and the drivers’ performance are all at their best, then we can aspire to a good result.”

Mercedes

Lewis takes sensational 100th career pole position with Valtteri in P3 at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya

 Lewis achieves milestone of 100 career poles by 0.036s with stunning lap.
 Valtteri claims a strong P3, with just over a tenth separating the top three.
 The two Mercedes will start on the clean side of the track on the Soft compound tyre.
 Today marked the 129th pole position for Mercedes in Formula One, overtaking Williams as the third most successful team for pole positions.

Lewis Hamilton

I was behind the whole way through qualifying and making small tweaks to find pace. I just can’t believe we’re at 100 - it’s down to the women and men back at the factory who are continuously raising the bar and never giving up. It’s a dream to work with them, what a journey! Who would have thought when we started out together at the end of 2012 that we’d be celebrating 100 poles!? I feel so humbled and very grateful for all their work. It feels just like my first! I’ll always remember that one.

Valtteri Bottas

That was close! It felt like I was there in the battle for the pole but I lost a tenth or so with a snap at Turn 10, and those are the fine margins this year. We’ve got a strong package and we’ll be in the fight tomorrow no doubt - it will be another close one between us and Red Bull. If you can keep the tyres in good condition, you’re going to be more competitive around the pit stops. There’s the possibility to mix the strategy and try a one or a two-stop. We’ll do lots of work tonight and you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to know our strategy.

Toto Wolff

I’m not one for statistics but 100 pole positions is a pretty impressive milestone! I told Lewis on the radio that it was quite an okay lap, but of course it was a little bit more than that. It looked like Max and Red Bull had a big advantage in Q2, but we kept chipping away at it and in the end, the top three drivers were covered by a tenth of a second; exactly how we want it to be in F1, battling for every thousandth of a second. Both Lewis and Valtteri did a fantastic job in those final laps, and when it’s such tiny margins, every detail makes a difference. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we have the advantage of two cars on the clean side of the grid, and both drivers in the top three; that will provide us a strategic opportunity, and we need to make the most of it for the race.

Andrew Shovlin

Well done to Lewis on his 100th pole position - it’s a phenomenal achievement and the whole team is proud of him, and proud to have played a part in him reaching this milestone.

As expected, it was a real scrap for pole and it was good to have both of our cars in the mix today. Having two cars at the front is very also useful from a strategic point of view for the race tomorrow. Tyre choice for the race start was quite straightforward; the hard tyre isn’t working well so everyone in the top 10 opted for the soft and we’d expect most to only use soft and medium tomorrow.

The hot sunny conditions today made it quite difficult to get the tyres to the final sector in good condition, it’s really easy to overheat here and any little slide costs you with a build-up of temperature. Valtteri suffered with this in turn 10 where a snap ultimately dropped him out of the running for pole. The track seemed to peak before the end of the session so the order at the top didn’t change in the final run and, as much as we’d have liked to have taken the front row, having both on the clean side of the grid is not too bad. The race will be interesting tomorrow; we’ll see in the first stint if we have the pace to break away but there are a few options for strategy on the table. We’re expecting it to be a tough fight but one that we are looking forward to.

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