The Saturday in F1 Spanish GP saw a good fight between Ferrari and Red Bull, with Mercedes getting in the mix for podium spot.
The Saturday in F1 Spanish GP saw Charles Leclerc take pole despite his spin on the first flying lap in Q3. He upped his pace massively and a DRS issue for Max Verstappen cost him pole with the Dutchman surrounded by two Ferrari cars.
The Monegasque talked about his spin and how it happened, while the Dutchman also added on the DRS situation which cost him front spot. But for the race, both are on a 50-50 note with regards to the long run pace of the car due to the conditions.
At the same time, Carlos Sainz was happy that he had a bit better balance in qualifying to end up in Top 3. Behind him, the Mercedes duo were extremely with an improved performance where they are in line to challenge Ferrari and Red Bull.
Leclerc: “On the incident, I have pushed a bit too much on the lap before, so I just took it a bit easier in the entry. On the lap before, I locked a little bit the rear, so I arrived a bit too long into the corner and tried to do an aggressive turn-in – but the rear… I just lost the rear. So, I tried to brake a little bit earlier, take it a bit easy. I knew I was on a good lap. So yeah, maybe there was a little bit in there, but not too much. I think I was pretty happy with all the lap, to be honest. I felt like there was a lot more grip compared to the laps before I had done, because I didn’t have a new set since Q1.
“So the track evolution was quite big. And I just tried to go for it in the last corner. But yeah, the overheating was quite bad – but I don’t think there are any excuses. I just tried to do too much and I lost it – but yeah, no big deal. As for the race, we’ve done a bit of a long run this morning, which was much better compared to yesterday. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any other references because we were the only ones doing long runs this morning. But it feels like we found something. Whether it’s going to be enough to challenge Max and Checo, I don’t know, but the feeling was better. So this is positive, but I don’t know whether it will be enough or not.”
Verstappen: “It’s difficult to tell. I mean, a lot of people, of course, improved on the second run, which is quite normal, of course. But yeah, my DRS didn’t open. So it felt of course like a loss of power because of the drag. But yeah, it’s a shame. Otherwise, of course, you have at least an opportunity to see what you can do, right. But I think overall for us this this whole qualifying and weekend I think it was a bit more difficult for us to really find a good balance in the car. Probably also, they brought updates that probably helped them a bit in a lap time.
“So for us, not really bringing anything it was a bit a bit more tricky. But, yeah, let’s see tomorrow. I think our long runs were quite decent. So hopefully, tomorrow, you know, we can at least be a bit close. I do think what we improved over one lap won’t hurt our long run. Just the way we balanced the car. There was just a bit more potential for the one lap performance, I think. We definitely didn’t do that well yesterday and this morning, I think. So it was a bit more tricky for us to really find a connected car, and I think we have that. So normally when you have that in qualifying, normally it’s also better for a long run.”
Sainz: “It was very good. I mean the car had definitely some lap time in it, but I’ve been struggling a bit with the balance all weekend, getting the high-speed to low-speed balance correct and tuning the car bit to my liking but overall we managed to squeeze in a decent lap at the end of Q3 after fighting the car quite a lot in Q1 and Q2 and I think P3 tomorrow with a long straight here is still a decent spot to start. For the race, obviously try to get a good launch and then it’s all about, yes, slip-streaming and braking into Turn 1. I think it will be good fun if we all get there at the same time. But it’s what Formula 1 is about, no? These kind of moments that… It makes it fun and I think we could have a good show.”
Hamilton: “The team have done such a great job, so a big, big, big thank you to everyone for continuing to push back at the factory. We don’t have bouncing in a straight line, which is a huge improvement for us, and the car has generally been nicer this weekend. We do have some bouncing through the high-speed corners like Turns 3 and 9, so we just need to keep working on that and improve it and see if we can gain more downforce elsewhere.
“I’m a little bit gutted because I wanted to be further up ahead and you’ve obviously seen George is able to put it further ahead than I, but I’ll keep pushing. Yesterday was like the best race pace we’ve had so if we can start racing with the Ferraris for example, that would be amazing. I think the Red Bulls look like they might be quickest, but we might be able to compete with the Ferraris, maybe, tomorrow. That’s a big step for us.”
Russell: “It wasn’t actually our most perfect qualifying session; we didn’t really have the tyres in the right window and I felt like there was a lot more lap time on the table, yet we still came home in P4 with our best qualifying of the season. And looking at the pace on Friday, we had a better race car than qualifying car, so I think we’ve got a real chance against Ferrari. But Red Bull, especially Max [Verstappen], seem a little bit faster than the rest, so all to play for. I don’t feel quite as fatigued after that session as what I’m used to, so I can chill out tonight, get a good sleep and go for it.”
The best of the rest saw Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas in the space beating both the Haas pair who also made it into the Top 10 where Mick Schumacher came back from a fire in FP3 to his first-ever Top 10 via some luck through lap deletion for Lando Norris.
The Brit’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo made it in too with the likes of AlphaTauri getting knocked out in Q2. The biggest surprise came via Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who was out in Q1 due to miss-communication, while both the Aston Martin were out in Q1 too.
Bottas: “I am happy about today’s result, we had a strong qualifying and we are in a really good place for tomorrow. In theory, we didn’t expect this track to suit us too well, but I think the upgrades gave us a good step forward in terms of performance. We had a solid FP3, which allowed us to make up some of the ground we lost yesterday, and we were quite consistent in each run throughout the day. I am glad we qualified well as I don’t think it will be easy to overtake on this track: I think P7 was the best result we could get today so I am happy we have achieved it – actually, the gap to the cars in front is not that big! Our car is usually better in the race, so we could be in for a good Sunday.”
Schumacher: “They did a great job, and you know being able to jump into Q3 without having driven in FP3 is definitely great and great effort by everyone else in the team. Starting P10 we are already in the points so it’s just a matter of staying in it, if not maybe gaining a few positions through the front. I’m sure Barcelona already in the past has always been quite eventful, and not… because of the chance of overtaking but actually because it’s so difficult to overtake, so people risk a lot. We will see what will happen tomorrow.”
Magnussen: “You always say it could have been better but this time I’m pretty sure. [The DRS] was working but only after like five clicks, and then you are already a couple of hundred metres down the straights, so there was maybe a tenth in it or something which have just put me right there with P6 and P7. So, who knows. It was a good day anyway so looking forward to tomorrow. As for everyone, I think it’s going to be the hot tyres, the track temperature. It’s going to really cook the tyres, but it seems that we are on the good side of that maybe. Our cooling has been pretty good this year and it doesn’t seem like we are overheating the rear tyres and the front tyres that much, so let’s see if that’s true. We will get an answer tomorrow.”
Norris: “It’s been a frustrating end to what was otherwise a quite promising day. From what I could see in the cockpit, I thought I was inside the line but unfortunately I wasn’t, and so I had the lap deleted. It is frustrating, because we had good pace in the car, and we could have been two or three positions higher. Overtaking is difficult in Barcelona and it’s not going to be an easy race – but hopefully we can make up a few positions and have a good Spanish Grand Prix.”
Alonso: “We had a bit of a misunderstanding on my final lap of Q1. I thought we had a one or two-second margin to get across the line, but we actually had a 20-second margin in the end. It’s a high price to pay here because as we know it’s very difficult to overtake on this track. Let’s see tomorrow, because in the last few races, people who have started towards the back of the grid have had a well-timed Safety Car and then are inside the top 10. We need to hope for one of those tomorrow and maybe we get some luck and take some points. Today the car was not as fast as yesterday, and we need to understand why that was the case.”
Gasly: “We’ve been struggling all weekend and then we had the issue in FP3 on the out-lap which meant we couldn’t run at all that session. I want to say a big thank you to all the mechanics that put the car back together in time for Quali today, as there was a lot of work involved. We’ve lacked pace on this track, so we wanted to try some things this morning but unfortunately that wasn’t possible. So, we thought we would try something different for Quali, aiming to get some extra speed from the car, but it just didn’t work and it was a difficult session. It didn’t pay off, but tomorrow is another day and ultimately where we score points. It’s going to be a pretty long race, particularly with the degradation as we think there will be a lot of stops, so I think there will be opportunities to move forward and head towards the points.”
Vettel: “We were looking stronger in free practice and I honestly thought we would do better in qualifying. This afternoon, however, I struggled with the balance: I had a lot more oversteer and could not really carry speed into the corners without losing the rear. Still, the team has done an incredible job to bring two all-new cars to this race – that was a huge effort. The reward of all that effort is not showing quite yet, but I am sure it will come. Tomorrow is a new day and we will be pushing hard. It does not help when you start farther back, but I think we should be able to make up some ground in the race.”
Here’s how F1 Spanish GP qualifying panned out