04/09/2021
NEWS STORY
Pierre Gasly: "I'm extremely happy getting P4 in Quali today, as it hasn't been that easy up until this point here, we've struggled a bit and lacked some pace in practice. We managed to find some extra time and put a really strong lap together when it counted and it's great to be able to say we will start tomorrow's race from the second row. We knew how important Quali was on this track, as it's going to be quite tricky to overtake during the race, and we were able to do a very good job today. The team gave me a great car and starting tomorrow in such a strong position, I'll give it all to bring home a good result."
Yuki Tsunoda: "I'm pleased with the progress I've made this weekend, I've been building up the lap steadily and this approach has worked really well for me. This is a really fun track to drive and I really enjoyed the Qualifying session, I was feeling confident in the car and it was good to make it through to Q2. It's unfortunate that there was no opportunity to put a lap altogether in the end with my new tyre, due to the red flag, but it is what it is. The pace is definitely there, I think it might've been possible to make it through to Q3, so there are mixed feelings about this afternoon, but overall I am happy with how today went from my side."
Claudio Balestri (Chief Engineer - Vehicle Performance): "After Friday's session we were not fully satisfied and we knew that we could still improve our package. For this reason, we decided to change the setup of the cars overnight, trying to work on the tyres and the overall performance, especially in the corners where we were struggling. After the morning session we made further little changes and it paid off, we matched our best Qualifying of the season with Pierre, with a very competitive P4. Yuki was doing well, but he was unlucky in Q2, due to the red flag he didn't get to use the new tyres, so couldn't complete a final push lap. Now we are looking forward to tomorrow's race, we believe it will be difficult to overtake, meaning the starting position on the grid is very important."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Zandvoort, here.