27/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Daniel Ricciardo: "Today I felt good and thought we would be better than thirteenth; I'm disappointed with this result but happy with the session and the pace we had, as I generally think we were a Q3 car.
"In Q2 the rain started to come down a bit more, so we chose to set the time a bit earlier in case it got worse. At the time we felt it was a good decision and we were able to improve our lap time a little bit, but it didn't work out for us as the rain stabilised enough when we were at the garage, and everyone was able to improve. I'm comfortable with the dry conditions we're hopefully going to have tomorrow; here it's normally a one-stop race, but with the bad weather we had today maybe the track will have poor grip which might create a two-stop race. In this case, there might be more opportunities with the strategy."
Yuki Tsunoda: "It wasn't a normal qualifying for me as I have an engine penalty for tomorrow, so it was about getting a lap in and seeing how the car feels. The car is quite different from yesterday, so it was good to make sure I'm happy with everything and gather more data. Together, we'll focus our efforts on tomorrow because overtaking won't be easy in the race as DRS trains often form here. We'll try to maximise the car and our strategy to make it work as a team, and hopefully score some points."
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "Qualifying started with a damp track meaning inter tyres for the entire session, but both cars set solid times within the top 10 on their first runs. Yuki struggled a bit more with variability in grip across the lap on his second set and consequently did not progress, but either way will be starting the race from the back due to his PU change. The second run was good enough to put Daniel back into the top 10, but some drivers were going quicker later on, which is frustrating as the underlying pace in these conditions was good enough for Q3. We need to understand what we could have done better to have secured the place in Q3, but the focus now shifts to the race and scoring points tomorrow. The midfield is likely to remain very tight, so we will be focused on moving both our cars forward."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spa here.