Both Nicholas Latifi and Williams Racing had a fantastic qualifying, both cars making it into Qualifying 2 for the first race since the Hungarian Grand Prix last year. After Williams going on record to state that they were targeting specific races, it is safe to say that the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is one of them.
Latifi is very pleased with his performance today, it was chaotic almost not making qualifying by virtue of having a little touch of the wall in Free Practice 3. Even though the team managed to get the Canadian out for the end of the last practice session, but there were still some issues that needed to be checked. Yuki Tsunoda’s crash in the first session of Qualifying which brought out the red flag allowed the team to fully complete all of those repairs and get the car out on track.
“I am very pleased with today’s performance. We nearly didn’t make it out for qualifying due to my little bump with the wall in FP3. Even though we did get back out on track we still had some residual things that the team needed to check over.”
In Qualifying 1 Latifi put in an excellent lap, out-qualifying team-mate George Russell and ending that session in twelfth place, but in the second qualifying session the Canadian left the track a little disappointed as he made a mistake on his final lap of Qualifying-2.
“We had a good Q1 and I was really pleased with the lap. Q2 I was a little disappointed as I didn’t get the improvement I needed to due to a little mistake at the beginning of my second lap.”
However, Latifi is really happy with the result and is expecting the car to be quick on race-pace. Even though the track is notorious for being difficult to overtake the Canadian driver is still hoping for a good race which will see him move up the order.
“Overall, I am really pleased with the result. I am expecting the car to feel good in race trim. It is a notoriously difficult track to overtake on, but fingers crossed for a good one.”
“The car is looking quick in a straight line which is going to help us tomorrow” – George Russell
George Russell felt comfortable in the car, but was personally off the pace all weekend with Latifi being faster than him in every session except the final qualifying session they both took part in.
“The car has been feeling good this weekend, personally I was off the pace all weekend and Nicholas was faster than me in every session. I was struggling and I didn’t have the confidence, but in Q2 we made it work.”
Russell only managed to just get through Qualifying-1 but did a good job when it mattered in Qualifying-2 so he is happy with a tweflth place start in the Grand Prix. The car is looking good going into the race tomorrow but the Briton believes that it will be an exciting race.
“We got through Q1 by the skin of our teeth and then did a really good job in Q2 when it mattered. I am really happy with P12, the car is looking quick in a straight line which is going to help us tomorrow on a track that is difficult to overtake. I think it’s going to be an exciting one.”
