30/11/2024
NEWS STORY
Yuki Tsunoda: It wasn't an easy day.
"In terms of performance, I think we were quite similar to yesterday. In Q1 we found traffic and we were on the edge with the lap time, but luckily we managed to get through, and after that, we had a clean Q2 where I felt I gave all with my lap. Unfortunately, it just seems we didn't have enough pace and P14 was pretty much the maximum we could reach today. We'll look at the data overnight from the Sprint and qualifying to try and understand where we can improve for the race. It won't be easy tomorrow, but we'll do as much as we can and will try to maximise everything."
Liam Lawson: "There was a bit of traffic when I started my last lap, and when the margins are hundredths of a second, it's frustrating. My tyres weren't quite ready, which compromised the start of my lap. I couldn't improve on my first lap time, which has put us out of position. Tomorrow's going to be tough, and we struggled in the Sprint today. We'll work as hard as we can as a Team for tomorrow, and find opportunities on track."
Tim Goss (Chief Technical Officer): "Friday's promising Sprint Qualifying grid position for Liam was unfortunately badly compromised on the first lap of the Sprint. A lack of grip and dirty tyres from running wide made defending position very difficult. Coupled with this the floor became badly damaged meaning there was little chance of recovering lost places. Qualifying was very tight. We couldn't repeat our performance of Friday's Sprint Qualifying performance. The combination of cooler temperatures and hard compound tyres meant tyre preparation proved to be a major feature of the session with teams trying various different combinations of preparation laps to varying success. Fundamentally the car balance remains good, and we are confident both drivers can fight for points positions in the race."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Qatar here.