Sebastian Vettel will start from tenth place for tomorrow’s first-ever Qatar Grand Prix after an excellent qualifying at the Losail International Circuit, team-mate Lance Stroll starts twelfth after narrowly missing out on a spot in final qualifying.
It was a good day’s work by the four-time world champion, the German managed to out-qualify Sergio Pérez, Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc, with times at the circuit being incredibly close between the midfield. Vettel was denied the opportunity to improve on tenth place, after Pierre Gasly suffered a puncture at the end of qualifying, resulting in a yellow flag temporarily in the final sector.
Nevertheless, tenth is a strong place to start for Vettel, who feels much more competitive this weekend.
“I think we are feeling a bit more competitive this weekend and I had a good day overall. We managed to beat a Ferrari, a McLaren and even a Red Bull in Q2 so I think we can be happy. Unfortunately, during my final run in Q3, I encountered traffic and then the yellow flags prevented any chance of improving, which was a shame. Overall, it was a decent qualifying session and we will see what we can do in the race. Overtaking here is difficult but not impossible and it will be a new experience for all of us.”
“We could have got a bit more from the session” – Lance Stroll
The Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team came so close to both cars appearing in final qualifying, with Lance Stroll missing out by just a tenth of a second. Despite the disappointment of missing out on a spot in the top ten, twelfth place does give Stroll free tyre choice for the race on Sunday, and with tyre degradation being predicted to be high, starting on fresh tyres could present opportunities.
Stroll is enjoying the flow of the Losail International Circuit and is expecting it to produce a great race.
“The car felt really good today but, overall, after missing out on Q2 by one tenth, I came away from qualifying feeling we could have got a bit more from the session. The benefit of starting from P12 is that it gives us a free tyre choice for the race. We will see how we can benefit from that because it offers us more options. The track is a lot of fun to drive: it is similar to Mugello and Suzuka, very fast and flowing, so it should make for an interesting race.”
