26/03/2022
NEWS STORY
Pierre Gasly: "I'm really happy to make it through to Q3 again today. It wasn't that easy, as we suffered some damage to the floor during Q1, we managed to tape this during the session and get through to the top 10, but we'll need to go away to analyse the data and see how much this impacted our performance. It was a really tight Quali today, with only a few tenths separating P5-P10, so I'm pleased with where we are. We'll fight for everything we can tomorrow but it's going to be a long race and considering the tyre degradation we've already seen in the practice session I think there will be a lot of different strategies tomorrow; we'll be working hard tonight to decide what will work best for us."
Yuki Tsunoda: "It's been a disappointing day, with the issue in Qualifying meaning we couldn't set a time. I didn't feel anything in the car, but the team told me there was a problem and I had to come in. It's such a shame I wasn't able to run, as I was feeling quite confident in the car this weekend and our aim was to get through to Q3. It won't be as easy to overtake here as it was in Bahrain, with most corners being high-speed, but I'll try my best to make my way forward."
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "Although we have been reasonably quick here in every session, we have not had a very smooth event so far with both drivers. This has meant the progress has been very disjointed on both sides of the garage and the workload has been higher than ideal. Frustratingly for everyone, Yuki had a suspected water system issue during Q1, meaning he was unable to capitalise on the good form he has shown so far here. Pierre suffered a disrupted FP3 but recovered well and navigated Q1 without any fuss. In Q2, when the session resumed, he put in a very clean lap, allowing him to progress to Q3 without too much trouble. The Q3 strategy was based around two runs, but unfortunately the second run was not perfect, and we have ended up P9 in what was a very tight Qualifying battle for fifth to 10th. In summary, although the AT03 has shown some reasonable pace so far in this event, as a team we have not managed to maximise the grid position with one car, so achieving this remains a key point to address for the next event. The focus now shifts to the race and the strategy group are flat out preparing for tomorrow's race, seeing how we can try to get both drivers moving forward."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Jeddah, here.