Paddy Lowe felt satisfied with the result of Qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix for the Williams Martini Racing team, with Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll sharing row six in eleventh and twelfth respectively.
The Chief Technical Officer of the Grove-based team knew before the session that getting into the top ten would be tricky, particularly as both the Sahara Force India F1 Team and Renault Sport Formula 1 Team had been strong in practice.
When Brendon Hartley stopped on track early in Q2 with a mechanical issue, both drivers were forced to abort their first runs, which put extra pressure on them in their final runs, so it was pleasing for Lowe to get so close to Q3.
“We knew from the running in FP3 this morning that it was going to be very tight to get into Q3 with the Renault’s and Force India’s looking particularly quick relative to our pace, and so it proved to be,” said Lowe.
“We had good runs in Q1 and got safely into Q2 with both cars with two runs each. Unfortunately, our first run with both cars in Q2 was disrupted by yellow flags because of Hartley, so we aborted. We went out and had only one attempt in Q2 which got us P11 and P12.
“I’m happy with those positions considering how tight it is. We have a free choice of tyre and I think our race pace may play in our favour relative to the cars ahead. We’re definitely in the hunt to score points with both cars in the race tomorrow.”
