21/03/2025
NEWS STORY
Pierre Gasly: "It's a frustrating outcome today and I am disappointed for the whole team with the result to be out in SQ1.
"The car felt good, it had pace and we just had some traffic at the start of our push lap, which cost us some lap time. These fine margins can be very costly as has been the case today. We made good progress between Free Practice 1 and SQ1 and I really feel we should be fighting for SQ3 as it is very close amongst a number of cars in the midfield. Tomorrow, we will give it everything and just try to maximise what we can. It will be hard to make progress in the Sprint Race but we will give it our best and really focus on getting it right in Qualifying when it all counts. I am confident we can put it in the mix tomorrow and we will stay positive and aim to do just that."
Jack Doohan: "It was clearly not the result we wanted today but I am pleased with how the car felt. In the end, a combination of factors fed into the frustrating outcome in Sprint Qualifying, particularly traffic on track during the push lap, but we will keep our heads down and aim to maximise what we can from the Sprint Race in the morning. Fortunately, I completed the majority of our run plan in Free Practice 1 before the issue on track and it was important to get up to speed at this track in F1 machinery, especially with the new track surface, which provided plenty of grip. The car felt good across the day so we will look into the data and see what we can improve tomorrow in Qualifying and hopefully put ourselves in a much better position for the Grand Prix."
Dave Greenwood, Racing Director: "Looking at the timesheets after the session and having both cars out in SQ1 isn't a fair reflection of where we are with the performance of the car this weekend. Both Pierre and Jack had traffic on their final flying laps, which cost them a lot of lap time. With only one hour of practice, we managed to make some positive steps forward with the balance and set-up between sessions. The team also did a great job to turn around Jack's car after stopping on track with a technical issue this morning. With our starting positions, it puts us slightly on the back foot for the Sprint tomorrow, however we will try to make progress up the field and see where we end up."
Check out our Friday gallery from Shanghai here.