The Saturday in F1 Spanish GP was weather-affected and so it did gave up few surprises with certain names getting knocked out early.
Amid all the things happening around him on Saturday of F1 Spanish GP, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen reign supreme with a solid lap at the onset of Q3 and it stayed as such where he even aborted his final run to take a storming pole for Sunday’s race.
Contrast to his teammate Sergio Perez who barely made it in Q2 and eventually had a small off at the start of Q2 due to kerb moment which ended his Q3 chances as he couldn’t set a lap time enough to make it in the Top 10 in another disappointing end.
There was disappointment at the Ferrari camp too where Charles Leclerc couldn’t even get out of Q1 after he complained of an apparent issue with his rear especially at the left hand corners. He is on the last row but likely will see loads of changes made.
His teammate Carlos Sainz did well enough eventually to land a front row start, but he is wary of Verstappen’s pace to challenge for a F1 win. His Spanish counterpart Fernando Alonso did not have a sound session in a damaged Aston Martin.
He had a gravel moment in Q1 which seemingly disturbed the floor and he could only manage ninth eventually whereas teammate Lance Stroll had a decent enough lap to be sixth in a much better show from the Canadian after a tough Friday.
The surprise of the pack was McLaren’s Lando Norris who found pace to be third where he beat Aston Martin, Alpine and Mercedes in the process. The Brit was surprised with the pace after Friday, as teammate Oscar Piastri also made it in the Top 10.
The Mercedes side had a wild Q2 when Lewis Hamilton and George Russell came together on track, but where the latter didn’t know that the former was beside him. The tough didn’t end in a larger disaster but Russell didn’t make it in Q3 due to an average lap.
Verstappen: “I think overall, you know, the whole weekend it has been really enjoyable to drive the car. It was really hooked up. Of course you always try to find little improvements on the car. But yeah, it’s been really good. Of course, qualifying started off a little bit tricky. You needed to be on the track at the right time, not making mistakes. But we did that. And of course going into Q3 I knew there was quite a bit of potential left in the car, so I could finally push it to the limit in that first run and the car was really quick. Then, of course, we went out again for the second run and that would have been even better. But, yeah, I think GP got a bit excited! He told me to abort. I was just to save the tyres. Maybe we need it tomorrow, you don’t know. So we already said that in the garage that if they wouldn’t, of course, be in front of me then maybe we wouldn’t complete the lap.
“So that’s what we did. And yeah, unfortunately, the last corner wasn’t flat for me. Never really got to try it. Maybe I would have tried on the last lap. Who knows? It sometimes just comes up when you get into the corner you’re like ‘maybe it’s flat’. But I think FP2 was quite close. Unfortunately we can’t try that tomorrow. Well, I mean, we can try it but then you won’t make the corner. But you want me to try that one? Yeah, over time cars are improving so I think next year, if we come back, then probably it’s flat. I think wear is always high around here so, for sure, with another two fast right-handers that won’t help the wear – but it’s a lot more enjoyable to drive. I mean, going into that last corner brings a smile on my face because that’s where an F1 car really comes alive.”
Sainz: “It feels very good as you can imagine, especially because today I really felt like we extracted everything out of the car. And it’s been a bit of a tough weekend, you know, getting used to the new upgrades, getting them to work in the sweet spot of the car. We’ve had some trickier sessions, some easier ones but finally hooked it up in Quali, all through Q1, Q2, Q3. It felt really good progress, still not where we want to be because it’s quite a big gap to Max, especially when you can see that he was coming even faster on the second lap. But at least it’s our first step and we’re focusing on understanding this new car. I wouldn’t have minded if Lewis or Lando would have out-qualified me, because here the clean side is probably a bit better for the start but at the same time it’s all about also the tow and how lucky you get, if you can get a tow or not in the run down to Turn One.
“I don’t know. Obviously we’ll try to give it all into Turn One and go and get that podium. And if Max does something strange, then get a win. I think it will be still tough to get, especially Checo coming from P11 with a Red Bull. But as soon as I get back to the engineers, I think they will tell me that the simulation suggests that the Red Bull should still finish ahead of us and then it will be a fight with Lando and Mercedes, the Astons that I don’t know exactly what happened to them today, but they normally have really, really good race pace. So yeah, I think it’s still going to be a tough, tough call to get a podium tomorrow. So we put ourselves in the best possible position to achieve that but I still think it’s going to be a good fight for it tomorrow.”
Norris: “I think after FP1, we said it was probably one of our worst FP1s of the season, in terms of pace. So to be sat here today, I think it’s quite a big surprise for all of us. I think the conditions – the cooler conditions – things just started to come our way a little bit. So yeah, just feels a bit odd. I definitely wasn’t thinking at all to be in the top three today. But I’m very happy to be here. So, good day. I’m shocked to be here. We haven’t really brought anything to the car this weekend. No, the last upgrade we had was Baku with the different floor. And even that didn’t give us a lot of performance, just kind of different direction to go in. So yeah, we’ve not really brought too many big things, just some very, very small things that always help little bits. But the whole field just seems very close this weekend, since FP1 already. The distance to Red Bull has been – let’s say from a midfield point of view, closer than it has been.
“And then just everyone, you know, with the Haas, the Alpines, the Astons. And then I guess we’re a bit of a surprise today. In a good way. I’m happy – but like I said, we didn’t really change anything this weekend. It’s the same car that we’ve been struggling with. So nice to see some good points from it. The pace could be mega and I could catch Max and overtake him. Hopefully he doesn’t hold me up like in Monaco – but we’ll see. It’s a new day, like we didn’t expect to be as good today as we were and, like Carlos said, we’re on the clean side of the grid. I let him have this one because I want to make it out of the track alive tonight. So yeah, we’ll do our best for tomorrow but the aim is just to get some good points for both myself and for Oscar.”
Hamilton: “It was interesting because during the session I was thinking, ‘Damn, yesterday I said I wasn’t going to get into Q3 or into the top 10, and basically I was eating my words. It was a really, really great session and massively encouraging to us to be competitive. I couldn’t believe I was fighting for the top three at one stage. Of course, my last lap wasn’t the dream lap, I was second basically all the way until Turn 10 and I had a snap and lost two-tenths. On one side I’m gutted, but one side of me is really grateful just to be up there, up in the fight and have that pace. My goal is to win somehow. I’m going to try and drive the wheels off the car and try and get up as high as I can.”
Russell: “I hope that wasn’t part of the plan, because it’s not a good plan if it is! No, I think it was just a big miscommunication, a lot of traffic on the out-lap, I was just looking ahead trying to take the slipstream from Carlos [Sainz], and the next thing [I know] Lewis was there. Fortunately, nothing big happened, but I’m just a bit disappointed to be out in Q2. I was really struggling with the car the whole session, wasn’t feeling the same as it was in practice, and that was kind of the maximum I could get out of it. Not ideal, but it’s a long race tomorrow. I think there were cars on fast laps behind us. I had to let Sainz past at Turn 13, you can’t really see that far in the distance. Maybe Lewis was starting his lap… I don’t even know if he was starting his lap or finishing his lap. Obviously it’s not ideal for the both of us, but that didn’t really contribute towards the lack of pace.”
Leclerc: “I don’t have the answer for now. The only thing I can say is that the left-hand corners were undriveable, and with the right-hand corners, the feeling was very similar to this morning. But there’s just something off in the left-hand corners that we need to analyse and understand, because it was very far off what I expected. It was on the rear tyres… I mean on the rear tyres, I thought it was the tryes on the first set, but then we went on the second set and the feeling was exactly the same. I just had no grip at all in the left-hand corners from the rears, so we’ll check well the car and I’ll be very surprised if everything was fine. I had so many moments. Even during the first red flag I nearly lost it and put it in the gravel in a left-hand corner and this was just very, very weird behaviour, so we’ll have to check the car.”
Alonso: “It was not the easiest qualifying, everything was a little bit compromised by the out-lap of Q1 where I went off in the last corner, touching a damp part of the circuit. After that we had a bit of damage on the car and we didn’t seem to pick up the pace from that moment. Not our best Saturday, let’s hope for a good Sunday. I think we have more pace than P9. So, we’ll see what we can do. Some fast cars also behind us, Checo [Perez] and Russell, I think it’s going to be an interesting race, could rain too so anything could happen.”
Perez: “It hasn’t been a straightforward weekend, the conditions were quite tricky and I wasn’t that comfortable in qualifying. I’ve been trying to modify my driving style quite a bit this weekend and as soon as we had some variable conditions it put us on the back foot and I just couldn’t get the full potential out of the car. Going into turn 5, the track was a little bit damp and I just lost the rear and went into the gravel, so we ended up losing a bit of time which was very costly for us. That incident meant that the tyres were too hot on my final lap and it was hard to come back from. However, I think anything is possible tomorrow and we will try everything we can to recover the position and progress through the field. I am looking forward to the race and I think we should be able to get some good points and hopefully get on the podium.”
The Top 10 also had the Alpine pair with Pierre Gasly ending up fourth and Esteban Ocon in seventh, but double impeding penalty has left the former only in 10th. Despite that both the drivers were pleased with how the F1 qualifying went with both cars in the Top 10.
There was contrast for Haas where Nico Hulkenberg made in eighth, while Kevin Magnussen was knocked out in Q1. The Dane felt that the German’s high downforce set-up was a better choice, as once again set-up differences cost the latter.
For Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, it wasn’t the end he was hoping for where teammate Zhou Guanyu finished ahead of him. The Finn also had a gravel moment in Q1 as he didn’t feel same in the car as he was feeling in the practice sessions.
There were moments for AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries too, but the Dutchman did well to be in Q2 and ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who had his best lap time deleted due to track limits. For Alexander Albon, the gravel moment didn’t help which cost him a Q2 place.
Gasly: “I’m very pleased to qualify in fourth place in Qualifying today, my best result with Alpine this season. It was very close out there, very fine margins between many cars, and in the end we’re just less than one tenth of a second from being on the front row. We built up our session well, kept finding improvements and then we finished with a very good lap in Q3, which was really enjoyable I must say. It’s a real pity we will not start from the second row tomorrow after the penalty for impeding. I think it was very unfortunate with the traffic, cars so close together and the high-speed final corners. We have to accept it, move on and keep our heads down for tomorrow where I know we can still have a strong race.”
Hulkenberg: “That’s our best qualifying of the season so far, clean and well executed by the team and myself. It’s positive and a very decent position to start the race from tomorrow. Track position is pretty valuable here in Barcelona, so we’ll take that and get ready for a tough fight. It’s not going to be an easy race, it’s going to be a tyre degradation race with strategy, and we have to play our cards well, but the car has been performing and I feel within the midfield we’re definitely competitive.”
Bottas: “We can take one positive from today: the upgrades we brought in last week appear to be working, I could feel the difference during practice. Unfortunately, qualifying didn’t really represent where we are really standing with our car: it’s been quite tricky today, I never found the same grip I had in practice, and I didn’t feel as comfortable as earlier in the weekend. I felt a lot of sliding, which was a shame because I really thought we had good potential here. The changing weather conditions didn’t help, either: during the last run, in the out lap, I had to stop for over ten seconds after Turn 12, to let some cars on a flying lap through, and I think we lost a bit of tyre temperature there. Hopefully, qualifying has just been an outlier and we’ll have better pace tomorrow. I am confident we can put up a fight and make some progress, and possibly reach the top ten.”
De Vries: “It’s been a positive weekend, but I am disappointed with the outcome of qualifying. I had two spins at the exit of Turn 11 so I wasted two sets of the soft compound and had no new tyres left for Q2. There was a wet patch that I did not see but clearly felt, so my confidence got the best of me in the end. It’s a shame because we had good pace, so I hope we can carry that into the race tomorrow. It will be a long race and a lot of focus on tyre degradation, with rain possibly creating even more opportunities, so let’s see.”
Albon: “I really like the conditions we drove in qualifying, I normally tend to do well in them. But I just got caught out on my first lap and the damage affected the rest of the session, which is a bit of a shame, but we’ve got some pace. I feel like we’ve used this weekend as a bit more of a test session because of us being a bit more off the pace than normal. I think we’ve focused a little more on the Sunday car which should hopefully put us in a good place tomorrow.”
Here’s how F1 Spanish GP qualifying panned out