Pascal Wehrlein believes it might be possible for Manor Racing to make it through to the final top ten shootout of qualifying at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza this weekend.
The German, a protégé of Mercedes-Benz in his rookie season in Formula 1, felt the team could have done something at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend had they had a new set of Supersoft Pirelli tyres available to him after making it through to Q2 for only the second time, but revealed they have more of the Supersoft tyres available this weekend in Italy.
Wehrlein, as well as his Manor Racing team-mate Esteban Ocon, has seven sets of the Supersoft compound available to him this weekend, which is on par with the majority of other drivers, with only Nico Hülkenberg, Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez having more.
“In Spa I was P9 in Q1, but then unfortunately we didn’t have new [super-soft] tyres left for Q2,” said Wehrlein to Autosport.
“I felt in Spa I could go into Q3, so if it’s similar to Spa or even a bit better, then it could be possible.
“The problem in Spa was that we only had five sets of super-soft tyres, whereas here we have seven, so we are already in a better position.”