SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team made it through to the second qualifying session, seeing Lance Stroll take thirteenth in qualifying and Sergio Pèrez take eleventh but will both start a place higher at the 2019 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Stroll commented on the session as he qualified in thirteenth place, saying he felt he put in a good performance. Stroll added that he was not impressed with himself during the first qualifying session, despite the fact it was the first time Stroll had made in out of the session in Formula 1. He will start from twelfth place, as AMG-Mercedes Petronas driver Valterri Bottas will start take grid penalty.
“We didn’t quite make it to Q3 tonight, but I think it was still a good effort by the team. I wasn’t happy with my Q1 performance, but I still made it through to Q2. To be starting from P12 gives us a good chance of a solid result tomorrow.“
The Canadian, went onto explain that he will work as hard as he can with the team on the strategy for the race, as he gets free choice of tyre after only making it into Q2. He added that he was in a good position heading into the race and that he felt confident after his qualifying.
“We can think hard tonight about the strategy and we’ve got a free choice of tyres for the start tomorrow. There were maybe a few tenths of improvement I could have found in Q2, but I’m quite happy heading into tomorrow knowing that we have a good car in race conditions.”
Pèrez suffered frustration as he struggled in his second session as he explains that he lost the rear of his car, and this led him to miss out on the third qualifying session. The final qualifying saw, Pèrez qualify eleveth but will start in tenth.
“Unfortunately I lost the rear end in Turn 1 on my last run, which meant that I missed my final chance in Q2. I don’t really know what happened.“
Pèrez conveyed that he was happy, as he will get a free tyre choice even though he will be starting within the top ten of the grid. He added that he felt, that in the RP19 he would be good with race pace. He also added, he was wanting to finish his season positively.
“With the penalty for Bottas, we should start from P10 tomorrow, which is not a bad place to be with a free tyre choice. I think we can move forwards from there because our race pace should be stronger. We just want to end the season on a high note.”
