European Grand Prix drivers report from qualifying

Drivers report from qualifying for the European Grand Prix at the Baku Street Circuit in Azerbaijan.

Marcus Ericsson: “It was a disappointing session for me. It was a bit messy, as I had some traffic on the first as well as the second set of tyres. On my last try I was pushing to the maximum, and was a bit over the limit! It is a street track, so you need to be as close as possible to the walls. I was a bit too close and brushed them slightly, so I lost some lap time. It was a disappointing result for me. Nevertheless, I want to say a big thank you to my car crew. They have been working really hard this weekend to get me on track for every session. I will fight hard for them tomorrow.”

Felipe Nasr: “Overall it was a good qualifying. First of all, I want to say a big thank you to everyone in the team. We put everything together today. In qualifying we managed to beat Renault and Manor, which is a good sign. I felt I pushed the car to the limit and the team made a good job timing-wise. We can be pleased that we made it into Q2. It is still far from what we want to achieve, but it is already a step forward. We will keep on fighting tomorrow in the race.”

Sebastian Vettel: “Yesterday we weren’t very strong. However, we came back today, although not yet where we want to be. We also benefitted from the penalty of Perez. Now we have to focus on a good start. I think tomorrow anything can happen for anyone. It will be a long race with a lot of laps. If I started fourth tomorrow I would be more angry. So, I think it is fine this way and that we started on the clean side. I think it’s likely to make quite a big difference on a new track. Maybe I am wrong, but usually we have good starts. I’ve had a good feeling already this weekend, so we’ll see. It’s going to be a long race. We have to stay focused all through the race, it will be tough. I think it is possible to overtake, there is a very long straight. We will see tomorrow how much easy or difficult it will be, but in general I think it is possible. I am always nervous before any race, which is good because it means that I care. It has been a very tough weekend trying to find the rhythm. I believe it is easy to make mistakes. This track is surprisingly bumpy and it is not easy to find the right time and to manage hard brakings and high speed. We are happy but not entirely because the gap with Mercedes is very big, but it will be a long race with plenty of opportunities, I guess. After the weekend we will try to understand where we were losing time, but for the moment let’s focus on the race, because we have all the chances to do a good job.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “It hasn’t been an easy weekend, but today in qualifying we managed to make the car nicely balanced, the feeling was good and obviously it was a lot faster than earlier this weekend. I felt I could drive it as I wanted and it was a good feeling. In my last run in Q3 I had fitted a new set of supersoft tyres, but then the red flag came out and I was not able to improve my lap time. After that, with only two minutes in the session, everybody tried to rush out and do a last lap, but there was traffic in the out lap and the timing was very tight. I’m sure that if we could have run smoothly it could have been better, but if you look at how tricky the weekend was so far, we can happily take this result. Obviously we are not here to finish fifth and today I felt there was more to come from the car. In many ways it will be a long and tricky race for everybody, we just need to do our best, make the right choices and see what will happen.”

Fernando Alonso: “That was quite a tricky qualifying session: Q1 was very stressful, in fact, as it wasn’t easy to do a clean lap as there were a lot of incidents, yellow flags and traffic. It was tough. While we didn’t quite have the pace to get into Q3 today, because other teams are able to turn up their engines, we didn’t maximise our potential either, as I believe we could’ve qualified a little bit better than 14th. On my final Q2 lap, there was a yellow flag at Turn Three for around 15 seconds, which meant I couldn’t open the DRS, so I lost a couple of tenths. I also think we probably didn’t get everything right ourselves – we were a bit unlucky, because we encountered traffic and were out of sequence with the cars around us. So, 14th position isn’t ideal, but we saw how many incidents there were, and how many people went off during qualifying, so there’s still everything to fight for tomorrow. A safety car or an incident could quickly put us in a position to score points – so that has to be our aim. Whatever opportunity comes our way, we’ll be there, focused and ready, to take it.”

Jenson Button: “In Q1, I locked up into Turn 15 – we’d fitted new brakes ahead of quali, which we always do, but they were a bit more ‘grabby’. It’s a real shame because I’d been seventh or eighth all weekend – and while I’m not sure we’re that quick, we’re definitely not 19th either. It isn’t easy around here because of the traffic, but after I’d flat-spotted, I did a donut to spin the car back around, and that isn’t usually the best thing for these tyres, so we should have come in and fitted a fresh set of tyres for the rest of Q1. We thought we’d have more of a margin – but that wasn’t quite the case. We just need to have some fun tomorrow.”

Carlos Sainz: “A bit of a disappointing day for me – it’s a shame, because we had a decent Friday and I was feeling good. We had new brakes on the car today and unfortunately I wasn’t feeling as confident as yesterday under braking. Maybe this could be a reason why in qualifying I just didn’t manage to extract the most out of the car… and if you also add the fact that there was a lot of traffic, in the end it wasn’t possible to get into Q3. Let’s see what we are capable of doing tomorrow, hopefully we can do another good comeback – it can be a very crazy race here, so I’m convinced that with a clever strategy and quick pit-stops we can manage it! All in all, we need to stay optimistic because tomorrow can certainly be a better day.”

Daniil Kvyat: “It was a good day, I’m quite happy! We managed to get some clean laps, something which isn’t easy to do here in Baku and a trouble-free qualifying session is definitely what I needed. It was tricky out there as the track was changing all the time and you had to go in line with the evolution, but we managed it well and did a good job. We will now try and do the same tomorrow – there will definitely be plenty of opportunities and we will have to be very alive and make sure we take them. I have to say I enjoyed today’s quali quite a lot. I’ve been feeling more and more confident with the car and to start tomorrow’s race from P7 is a positive result.”

Romain Grosjean: “Pretty good result at the end of the day. It was the best we could’ve hoped for. Being just outside the top-10 is actually quite good for our strategy and the tires tomorrow. I struggled with the grip and the braking in Q1. I was blocked a couple of times and I was a bit worried. The second run I needed a clean lap and we did that. The car felt great in Q2 and I managed to get some good grip from the tyres, which helped a lot. We still have to investigate our brakes a bit to make sure the car is performing better. Generally, it was a good performance from the team. All weekend long it’s been working well, so I’m happy with that.”

Esteban Gutierrez: “Today hasn’t been a good day for me. I’ve been struggling a bit with the brakes. On the last lap I took a few risks and I made a small mistake. Unfortunately, I didn’t have another chance after that. Overall, I think sometimes you have to take risks and these things happen. In racing you have to try to make the most of every opportunity and, occasionally, it comes out like this. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we will try to advance as much as we can and get the best out of our performance. The track will allow for some overtaking so it will be a great race to watch.”

Pascal Wehrlein: “I’m a bit disappointed with qualifying as Q2 was definitely possible today. The DRS was disabled on my quickest lap when the yellow flag came out in turns 3 and 4, so I lost a couple of tenths there. My second lap was better from that point of view but I lost a couple more tenths due to tyre degradation. We had good pace for sure and our package is working well here. That’s how it is today but tomorrow is a new day and I’ll give it my best shot. The most important thing is to finish the race, as I’m sure there will be some good opportunities tomorrow after seeing how GP2 went today. With Safety Cars, and a strong performance for us, a really good result is possible.”

Rio Haryanto: “It was a good lap for me today so I’m really pleased. We made some changes on the car for FP3, which worked well. We were also very close to Q2 but unfortunately I only managed one timed lap on the second set of tyres and when I tried to go again there was a yellow flag. We need to be very focused now for tomorrow; although the GP2 race showed that anything is possible, we have to make sure we have a good start and a strong, clean race without any mistakes if we’re to take advantage of opportunities. We will try our best and hope everything goes our way but for now this is a nice moment to enjoy.”

Valtteri Bottas: “I think we were unlucky today. Missing FP3 definitely made qualifying more difficult. It’s hard to say how much it affected us, but I don’t think our pace was too bad. I didn’t put a perfect lap together in Q1 or Q2, so I think to get through how we did shows that we had good pace. Q3 was tough because I was heavily affected by traffic on both of my runs and I think there was definitely about half a second to be found in the car. For tomorrow, we have a good race pace so I’m sure we can have a good day.”

Felipe Massa: “I’m happy with the result in qualifying. It was much better than I was expecting because I had been struggling with the car all weekend. In qualifying, I was able to improve the way I was driving and improve the car at the same time. We were a little bit lucky at the end of Q3 because I managed to set a time before the red flag, but this is part of the game. I’m still not one hundred per cent happy with the balance and I made a little mistake in the last corner, so it could have been maybe two tenths quicker. I hope we can have a good race tomorrow but it will be very tough, this track could be one of the most difficult to finish. We’ve seen only half the GP2 grid finish their race, so we need to be very clever with everything that could happen tomorrow.”

Kevin Magnussen: “The session was pretty straightforward with the simple factor that we’re not fast enough here. In FP3 we realised we didn’t have the relative pace with the car even if it was feeling quite good to drive so we tried something different with the set-up. Ultimately, it was good to try and it improved the car in some areas but didn’t in others. We knew this season would be tough at some moments, and this is certainly one of them! We have a plan for the future and that’s what we’re all working for. Yes, today didn’t look great but we’re learning all the time and this is bringing rewards.”

Jolyon Palmer: “The potential is there for a huge amount more but it wasn’t to be today. I had a really, really good second run but it had to be aborted due to yellow flags. Unfortunately I made a mistake on my final timed lap which lost me about half a second, and I had no tow over the start/finish line which is worth another few tenths. We could have been a lot quicker. It’s a tough track; it’s really fun to drive and I’ve enjoyed it so far. We have it all to do tomorrow so let’s see what happens.”

Sergio Perez: “That was a special qualifying session. In Q3 I did one of my best laps in Formula One – maximising every corner and kissing the walls. As a team it’s been a very strong performance. At the same time I’m still angry with myself because of what happened at the end of final practice and the grid penalty for the gearbox change. I should be starting from the front row of the grid, but I now have to drop back to seventh. Tonight I need to try and clear my mind, put that frustration behind me, and focus on moving forward in the race. I need to say a big ‘thank you’ to my team for the amazing job they did to fix my car in time for qualifying. I hope I can give them a special result to celebrate tomorrow. It’s not going to be an easy race because the track is so challenging and it’s easy to make mistakes, but at the same time this can open up opportunities to make up ground. I still have a good feeling about the race.”

Nico Hulkenberg: “A very disappointing qualifying session for me. The car has been quick this weekend, but starting from P12 means we’ve got a big job on our hands tomorrow. The main problem in Q2 was spinning on my first run because I was on a mega lap that would have easily put me through to Q3. I just lost the rear at turn 16 and spun. Because I had not set a time yet, it meant I was under pressure and it all came down to the final few minutes. Unfortunately I had some traffic on my second run and I just didn’t feel the same grip with the car – and that’s how quickly things can slip away from you. It’s very frustrating and annoying because the car has good potential and we should have been much higher up. So it’s a bitter feeling, to be honest, but I’m determined to make up the lost ground tomorrow.”

Daniel Ricciardo: “It’s my third front row of the season so that’s really nice, I owe a big thanks to the team for getting me to the start of that queue (in the pit lane), that was a crucial part of it and allowed me to get a clean lap. My first lap in Q3 I went wide and made a few mistakes so we needed that last run and I’m glad I was able to execute a good one. We learnt a lot from yesterday and were able to connect the dots overnight which led to a strong day. The race tomorrow is going to be really interesting, I would be very surprised if it’s a dull and boring race. If anyone hasn’t watched the GP2 race from this morning I suggest they do. Judging by it you need to survive, be smart and pick your opportunities to be fast using the slipstream well. I think it could potentially be race of the season so it’s going to be fun. On average we have been having better starts than Mercedes, so if I get a good start it won’t be too tactical, just aim to get good track position and then figure it out from there. I have been handed second place on the grid by Perez’s penalty so we’ll take what we get and see how we go tomorrow.”

Max Verstappen: “I think today we could have been P3; when the red flag came out I was already five-tenths up on my lap from Q2 so a 1:43.9 was in sight, easily. It’s just unfortunate I got ruined by Bottas in Q2, and then after the red flag in Q3 with two minutes to go, he did exactly the same thing, so again, very unfortunate, but the pace is there. I don’t need to have a chat (with Bottas), I’ll just focus on tomorrow. We know from GP2 there will be a lot of action and overtaking, so it will be a very interesting race for sure. It will be interesting to have Lewis behind me, he’ll be very quick. There are a lot of opportunities on this track – there are a lot of straights, but even in the turns you can overtake, so I’m very happy with the performance we showed today. It was all coming together and we have a good shot tomorrow. You have to find a compromise with setup, our rear wing is small so we lose a bit of down force where we are usually very strong but still we are up there, so I think the car is performing well.”

Nico Rosberg: “That was a very exciting qualifying session today. In Q3, Lewis went down the escape road in front of me on his first run, so I had to back down and abort that lap. I therefore only had one quick lap at the end – but I got it all together and felt pretty confident that it was enough to get pole after I heard that Lewis was out. It’s a great feeling to start from P1 as I have the best chance for tomorrow. It’s a very demanding track here and you are not allowed to make a single mistake, so it will be a long race with a lot of things going on. It’s definitely a good track for overtaking and there will be Safety Car moments for sure as we have seen in GP2, so I must be prepared for that. I expect a fast comeback from Lewis even though he’s starting P10, as we have seen recently that he’s finished P2 even coming from the back. It’s going to be an exciting race to watch. I’m looking forward to it.”

Lewis Hamilton: “It’s a fine line between being on it and not being on it – and I just wasn’t on it today. I had a fantastic rhythm yesterday but none whatsoever today. There’s no specific answer or excuse. I wasn’t hitting the right apexes or the right braking zones… it was just one of those sessions. Sometimes it happens. It was my fault, so I’ll apologise to the team and try to make up for it tomorrow. It’s always difficult to come back from this kind of position so it’ll be damage limitation tomorrow. I highly doubt I can challenge for the win – but I’ll give it my best shot and try to bring home as many points as I can. The car is good here and we’ve got more pace than most of the others. I’ve just got to make my way through any tangles at the first corner and see where I go from there.”

Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247