Yuki Tsunoda (AT04-02, Car 22)
Third Practice Session – Best lap: 1:30.797, pos. 19th, 20 laps
Qualifying – Best lap: (Q1) 1:29.939, pos. 16th
“We ended up P16, one-hundredth of a second from P15. It is definitely a shame, but I’m happy with the lap I put together and how we progressed throughout qualifying. As for the car itself, we have to find some more grip and performance to consistently get into Q2 and Q3. Overall, I think we could benefit from what we learnt over the last couple of days, so the team did a good job there. Tomorrow is a new day and I hope the race pace will be good. My main target will be to focus on myself, give one hundred per cent, and score some points!”
Nyck de Vries (AT04-03, Car 21)
Third Practice Session – No Time Set
Qualifying – Best lap: (Q1) 1:30.244, pos. 18th
“Jumping into qualifying without driving any laps in FP3 made it a tricky day. Given the unique layout of the circuit, getting the tyres into the right window for a flying lap is difficult, so I heavily locked up the rears going into Turn 1. My last run was pretty decent though, but we lost a lot in the last sector. It’s a shame we missed that, and I am disappointed because the potential to make it into Q2 was there. We want to be further ahead, and the team is working together closely to extract the most out of the car.”
Jody Egginton (Technical Director)
“Today has not been as straightforward as it should have been. We identified an issue with Nyck’s car during the fire-up today and, being time-limited, we elected to change the PU meaning he missed out on FP3 running, which is far from ideal as it’s his first time here. However, all credit to his mechanics for getting the car turned around efficiently. Yuki completed his programme but struggled a bit more than yesterday with grip and balance in FP3, meaning both sides of the garage went into qualifying on the back foot for one reason or another. Nyck pushed hard in Q1 from the very beginning and came unstuck with a spin on his first run, but the car was undamaged and he recovered very well on his second run. Unfortunately, he only lost out on Q2 due to hitting the energy limit a bit early, so we need to look into this. Yuki ran the planned qualifying programme without too much fuss and was also super close to making the cut, missing out by only 0.01 seconds to Bottas. In the end, no matter how close we may have been, we haven’t made it into Q2 in what is a very tight midfield. As such, the aero updates for R03 are eagerly anticipated to start moving the car’s performance forwards. Our thoughts now shift to the race where we will focus on getting both cars moving forward to take advantage of any opportunities which might present themselves.”
SESSION RESULTS - FULL CLASSIFICATION
POS DRIVER TEAM TIME 1 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 1:28.265 2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.420 3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 1:28.730 4 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.857 5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:28.931 6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 1:28.945 7 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 1:29.078 8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:29.223 9 Oscar Piastri McLaren Mercedes 1:29.243 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault 1:29.357 Q2 11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas Ferrari 1:29.451 12 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1:29.461 13 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:29.634 14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1:29.668 15 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 1:49.953 Q3 16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri Honda RBPT 1:29.939 17 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 1:29.994 18 Nyck De Vries AlphaTauri Honda RBPT 1:30.244 19 Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 1:30.447 20 Logan Sargeant Williams Mercedes 2:08.510
