Ricciardo: There would have been more
“It’s pretty good on paper,” said the Australian after P6. But: “It hurts a bit because I think almost everyone did two laps in front of me. And I only had one because of the red flags.”
“With the improvements in the second lap, I think I could have finished a lot further up the field,” he says angrily. “But that’s okay, I’m happy that we had good pace,” said Ricciardo.
P6 is “a good position” for tomorrow’s sprint.
Also the Norris departure…
… is here again in the video. Incidentally, the crash is not a problem, the broken front wing can of course be exchanged for tomorrow’s sprint despite Parc Ferme. Before that, there is also FT2.
Another formality: Albon didn’t set a lap time in qualifying and thus missed the 107 percent mark. However, he will be allowed to start with a (mandatory) special permit.
Sainz: “I apologize to the whole team”
“Today is very difficult to digest,” admits the Spaniard and explains: “I apologize to the whole team and the fans. I didn’t even push that hard because we had more than enough pace to get into Q3 comfortably.”
“Positive” is only that the weekend is not over yet. “I still have the sprint race and the race on Sunday,” says Sainz combatively. His departure is shown here again in the video:
Albon: Problem with the braking system
That was already to be expected, but Williams has now officially confirmed it. Dave Robson explains: “Alex had a brake problem because a switch was set incorrectly when changing to slicks.”
Unfortunately, he doesn’t go into detail, and Albon himself only explains: “Unfortunately, we had a problem with the braking system, which ended our qualifying prematurely. These things can happen.”
You have to “investigate the problem now so that we understand what went wrong and how we can solve it.”
Red Bull: Reliability issues fixed?
“We know we’ll do that on Sunday,” says Helmut Marko on “Sky” and explains with regard to Verstappen’s Melbourne failure: “There was a small problem, a line made of titanium, and it got a hairline crack.”
“That was a high-pressure line and then […] this crack opened up immediately and the petrol poured out in masses. So that was actually a small cause with a big effect,” says Marko.
The problem shouldn’t repeat itself this weekend.
What was going on at AlphaTauri?
Both cars out in Q1. How could that happen? “I don’t know exactly what happened today. The track was the driest on our last lap, but we still got kicked out. That’s very disappointing,” admits Gasly.
Jonathan Eddolls adds: “Our performance in the wet was good but we struggled to warm up the intermediates. […] We didn’t have the pace we expected in these conditions.”
This is a “big disappointment” mainly because Imola is the team’s home race. After all: Tomorrow in the sprint it can’t get much worse…
Magnussen takes responsibility for mistakes
We just mentioned it: P4 is the best qualifying result ever for Haas. But that almost didn’t happen. “I lost the car completely and slid into the gravel bed. I thought it was over,” says Magnussen about his spin in Q3.
The Dane was able to prevent an impact and continue. Incidentally, he takes complete responsibility for the incident. “I ran out of talent,” he says, explaining: “I touched the white line and that was it.”
P4 was of course “unexpected”. “The car is great,” he cheers on ‘Sky’ and explains: “It’s not a miracle from me, it’s just a great car.” With a wink, he explains that tomorrow’s goal is a top 3 result.
Realistically, however, he is already satisfied with a top 8 result and thus with points. “That would be great,” says Magnussen, who admits: “I don’t think we’re fast enough for P4 in the dry.”
Vettel: No real lap in Q3
Even the second German in the field could have done better today. “I had the first lap where I just rolled around and then I wanted to attack on the second when I knew the tires were in the right window,” he explains to ‘Sky’.
“But of course it was great until then,” he says happily and explains: “We don’t actually belong [in Q3].” Basically, he still lacks the right “feel” in the cockpit. “I can’t really feel the car yet,” he explains.
Speaking about the sprint, he adds: “Right now we don’t really know where we are in terms of pace for the weekend. Q2 was obviously great. There were a few surprises, so I don’t know why Mercedes was so slow to Example.”
But he expects it to be “difficult for us [wird]to hold the place.”
Record!
There were a total of five red flags in qualifying today. Our colleagues took a look: That’s a new record! The previous record was four reds in Hungary in 2016 and Baku last year.
But is this record positive or negative…?
Red Bull: Don’t be afraid of Verstappen penalty
The Dutchman had a yellow flag on his fastest lap. But Helmut Marko explains on ‘Sky’: “He lobbed, clearly lobbed, and that’s why he was only in the third sector [die] third fastest time. Nothing can come of that.”
Speaking about tomorrow’s sprint, he explains: “I think the balance of power has stayed the same as it has been in all three races so far. […] With the exception of Melbourne, I would say that in the race we were always on par with Ferrari.”
So it will be exciting!
The most important thing for Friday…
… you can of course find it again today in our own photo series!
Norris: First row would have been fine
“Of course I’m happy,” says the McLaren driver after P3, who said it was “a surprise”. But he also reveals: “There was a lot more in the round.” That’s why he ended up “pushing too hard on the outlap”.
“It was a shame because there was a chance to attack at least Charles,” he says. In his opinion, P2 would have been within the realm of possibility. “The car felt good,” said the Briton.
Conclusion: “It’s a shame it ended like this. But it’s a good position for tomorrow.”
Schumacher: “Much more” would have been possible
The German reports on ‘Sky’: “In the end I made a mistake on my lap and we were still twelfth, which of course means that we could have been a good bit further up.”
“But in the end it was my own fault. Of course, the red flag didn’t help, but that counts for everyone else too,” he admits self-critically and explains that “a lot more” could have been done.
That was proven by teammate Magnussen, who got the best qualifying result in Haas’ history with P4.
Mercedes: It wasn’t the rain’s fault
At least that’s what expert Nico Rosberg says on ‘Sky’, where he explains: “It wasn’t the rain’s fault, they were just too slow. I mean, they were two seconds slower per lap, that’s incredible, that’s okay nothing right now.”
The biggest problem is still the bouncing. “When they drove down the straight, you get a headache just watching,” smiles Rosberg and explains: “It’s a big challenge and I don’t know when they’ll have a solution.”
You don’t know that at Mercedes either…
Russell: Can only get better
Hamilton’s team-mate is also hoping that things will go a little further tomorrow. However, he explains: “Normally, not that much happens in these sprint races.” There are simply “not enough laps” to really get ahead.
The opponents this weekend are therefore “not the two top teams,” Russell clarifies and adds: “Let’s see what we can do. We still have Sunday. It can only go forward.”