Pascal Wehrlein
“I’m very happy with my qualifying; I was very close to Q2 and we’re ahead of the Saubers, who are our main competitors at the moment. We knew we could be competitive against them here, because of the long straights where you need more power. But you also need good braking and good traction, and we seem to have all that, which is positive for us. On the first set of tyres the track was completely fine but then it started to rain halfway through and the track became more slippery, so we couldn’t improve. I’d say we exceeded expectations a little here today, so I hope we can do the same in the race tomorrow.”
Rio Haryanto
“Today was very disappointing for me. The pace wasn’t great and there was some spots of rain when I went out on the second set of tyres, so I lost control in turn 4 and hit the wall on the outside. I think looking at Pascal, we can see that the car is competitive and the pace is there; I just didn’t get the chance to show that myself. Tomorrow it seems like it will be wet, so I will try to do my best during the race.”
Dave Ryan, Racing Director
“A day of mixed fortunes for us. Pascal did a great job and has been quite measured all day, making good progress through FP3 and into qualifying. His first push lap was very strong and he was pretty close to a place in Q2; everything just came together for him. I think he can be pretty happy with where he’s starting tomorrow. Rio also had a good morning and was doing a good job in qualifying, then the rain came and unfortunately he lost the car in turn 4. There’s a bit of damage to the right rear corner that will keep us occupied for a little while yet, but I’m sure he’ll come back fighting in the race tomorrow.”