Brendon Hartley was pleased with his performance in Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday as the New Zealander qualified twelfth around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda driver felt the position was about as good as it was going to get and making it through to the top ten shootout was always going to be a difficult proposition, and he was just under three-tenths of a second shy of advancing into Q3.
“I was really happy with the job I did today, and how we’ve worked as a team throughout the weekend to get the car in the right place,” said Hartley.
“I think twelfth was more or less where we’ve been this weekend, there was probably another tenth in the car on that last lap, but to move much further up the grid and into Q3 was a bit of a tall order today.”
Hartley feels there is a possibility of moving forward and securing only his second top ten finish of the season on Sunday, particularly as the race pace of the STR13 appears to be stronger than the Qualifying pace.
“I’ve really enjoyed driving the track here, it’s got a lot of character, bumps, kerbs, you’re close to the walls… I felt strong all weekend in Monaco as well but Q1 was a bit of a mess and we missed Q2, so it was nice to get a better result in Montreal,” said the New Zealander.
“I’m quite optimistic for tomorrow! The upgrade performance in qualifying was good, and we think the bigger step is in the race trim which is where we have been struggling recently.
“Hopefully we can battle it out and try to muscle our way into the top 10 – everything has been really positive so far and we’ve seen races in the past here where a lot can happen, so I’ll keep focussed and do my best to bring home some points.”
