Yuki Tsunoda #22
Third Practice Session – Best lap: 1:43.503, pos. 12, 17 laps
Qualifying – Best lap: (Q2) 1:43.035, pos. 12

“It’s frustrating to drop out at Q2. It’s not what we expected in terms of performance. We were lacking pace and it was quite difficult to drive, but we gave it our all. Tyre degradation seems trickier than usual compared to previous years, so it seems like tyre management will be key tomorrow. The new floor is definitely working here compared to Monza, it feels completely different; the team have done a great job in analysing the data. Other tracks might be a different story, but the next few tracks will be similar to this one, so I’m excited for that. We’ll keep digging into the performance, but we’ll keep calm and do what we can do tomorrow.”

Daniel Ricciardo #3
Third Practice Session – Best lap: 1:43.870, pos. 14, 18 laps
Qualifying – Best lap: (Q1) 1:43.547, pos. 16

“Qualifying was close today. I went in a bit deep at turn four which compromised my exit, so there was some time left on the table there. Otherwise, the lap didn’t feel too bad, and I was surprised we were out in Q1. It was very tight over one lap between everyone, which is unusual for such a long lap at a street circuit. Any Q1 exit is frustrating, but it’s such small margins around here. However, it’s possible to overtake at this circuit. Even seeing the F2 race today, there were opportunities, so that brings us optimism. We’ll try to pick it up for tomorrow, it’s a race where you can make something happen.”

Jody Egginton (Technical Director)

“The tightness of the mid field battle and the importance of achieving clean laps around this technically challenging circuit has, again, been well demonstrated in qualifying today. Yuki managed to extract a good level of performance from the car, but was not quite able to make the cut for Q3 today. Daniel struggled a bit more. Looking at the bigger picture, further running of the floor introduced in Monza has confirmed its performance is in line with expectations, which provides us with confidence. However, the importance of the next planned aero updates is undiminished, as we are in a very close mid field fight where small improvements can bring good rewards. We expect a tight battle and the Safety Car coming into play is not unheard of here, so we will be ready to make the correct calls to not lose out.”