Pascal Wehrlein made it through into Q2 for a fourth time in 2016 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and admitted it was a confidence boost for the team after a few tricky rounds.
The Manor Racing MRT racer qualified sixteenth, but felt with a set of new tyres in Q2 that a better result could have been possible, but even so the team exceeded expectations in Mexico by progressing into the second segment of qualifying.
Wehrlein believes he can fight with those ahead of him on race day, and is looking to maximise the performance of his MRT05 on Sunday.
“I’m really, really happy,” admitted Wehrlein, “especially for the team; we needed that. My fourth time in Q2 this year and that’s where we want to be. Everyone did a fantastic job all weekend and we’ve improved the car every step. After that, I just drove my heart out.
“It’s a really challenging track – always a lot of understeer and oversteer through the lap – but we just seem to have found a way through to get the car right and we’ve exceeded our own expectations here. It could have been even better though; we didn’t have new tyres for Q2, whereas others did, so I wasn’t able to improve my lap.
“P16 on the grid is great. I need a good start tomorrow, then I will push as hard as I can. We’ll be challenging the guys in front of us and I believe that everything is possible. Bring it on.”
