Nyck de Vries (AT04-03, Car 21)
Third Practice Session – Best lap: 1:14.693, pos. 12th, 18 laps
Qualifying – Best lap: (Q1) 1:13.581, (Q2) 1:14.083, pos. 14th

“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.”

Yuki Tsunoda (AT04-04, Car 22)
Third Practice Session – Best lap: 1:14.659, pos. 9th, 16 laps
Qualifying – Best lap: (Q1) 1:13.862, (Q2) 1:14.477, pos. 15th

“The team did a good job and my lap was good, but I made a mistake just going outside of the track and my time was deleted. I’m very frustrated with myself. I knew I had to give it everything to make it to Q3, so I don’t have any regrets, but at the same time, it was just so close. The conditions were tricky going from damp to dry, which made things interesting. My expectations for tomorrow aren’t too high, but anything can happen, and I’ll be prepared for every scenario in order to maximise our chance for points.

Guillaume Dezoteux (Head of Vehicle Performance)

“After a positive Friday during which we completed our programme on both cars, the main target was to extract more performance from the soft tyre over the first lap. On Yuki’s side of the garage, we were also targeting car setup adjustments to increase stability. The changes applied worked well on the few laps we were able to do under dry conditions at the start of FP3. After a few minutes, rain hit the track and provided the possibility to test the intermediate tyres. The qualifying session has been intense. The track was almost dry at the beginning but the last sector was still slippery. A light drizzle started immediately and the low grip caught out many drivers, including Yuki and Nyck, who damaged their tyres and couldn’t close a lap before the red flag from Bottas in Turn 12. From this point, the rain stopped and we could see the track improving significantly. Both drivers did a good job to make it through to Q2.
Q2 was looking difficult because we had no more new tyres available and on such a severe track, tyre performance tends to drop fast. Yuki’s last lap in Q2 was very strong, but unfortunately, it was deleted for track limits at the exit of Turn 5. It was a frustrating end for him but he can be happy with this lap after having struggled with balance yesterday and this morning. In regards to the race, we are expecting tyre degradation to play a decent role, so we will analyse all the possibilities tonight to make up ground and bring home points tomorrow.”