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Abu Dhabi GP: Qualifying team notes - AlphaTauri

NEWS STORY
11/12/2021

Yuki Tsunoda: "It's been a good weekend so far but I'm of course a little frustrated today, it's such a shame about the track limits in Q3 as I think it was a good lap especially without a tow. My confidence has really returned this weekend and it shows on track, it's the most confident I've felt in the car since the first race in Bahrain, so that's really positive. I'm really pleased with my Q2 lap and it means I'll be starting the race on the Mediums, which is a really strong position to be in. It's definitely a good way to finish the season, with a strong Qualifying, and I just have to put it altogether when it counts tomorrow."

Pierre Gasly: "We were just too slow for Q3 today. Since the start of the weekend we've struggled, I've been losing a lot compared to Yuki and we've just not managed to find a solution to this problem. The whole season we've been incredible in Qualifying, so we need to go away and look at the data to better understand what's happened today and try to fix it for tomorrow. I will get to choose my starting tyre, which is for sure a positive, and we'll see what we can do to make our way forward."

Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "Following the various set up directions investigated yesterday, and a useful number of laps completed, there was plenty of data to go through overnight, in order to improve the car. I think it's fair to say that a reasonable step-up has been taken with car balance and performance on both sides of the garage, with both drivers confirming improvements in FP3, following some fine tuning of aero balance early in this session. This good start today meant the car changes made ahead of the last Qualifying session of the season were pretty much limited to ensuring that the cars were rebalanced for the change in track conditions associated with the later Qualifying here in Abu Dhabi. These adjustments were well anticipated and both cars looked reasonably well balanced in Q1, making the cut without any fuss. As expected, Q2 saw quite a few cars, including both of ours, move from the soft to the medium compound for the first run. Yuki managed to close a clean lap whilst Pierre was unfortunate with a snap at T9, which compromised this corner and the remainder of this lap. Both cars made a second run on the Mediums in Q2, with Yuki completing a solid lap which put him in the top 10, while Pierre unfortunately struggled with out-lap traffic and could not execute a clean lap. This meant he missed out on Q3 on this occasion, ending the session in P12. Yuki's first run in Q3 was very good, but an excursion beyond the track limit at T16 saw this lap deleted, however his second run was clean seeing him line up for tomorrow's race in P8. The grid positions we have for tomorrow provide us with options and our strategists will be working hard tonight, crunching the numbers, so that we are best prepared for a race which, in addition to deciding the 2021 Championships', is also likely to provide another tight midfield battle. Our aim will be to add as many points as we can to the season total, building on what is already the highest total points score in the team's history."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Yas Marina, here.

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