Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

The weekend has been enjoyable so far. The car has been really performing well but of course we always try to find improvements here and there. Qualifying started off tricky, you needed to be on the track at the right time, not making any mistakes. Going into Q3 I knew there was good potential left in the car so I could finally push it to the limit. The first run was really quick, then of course we went out again for the second run, that would have been even better, but I was told to abort the lap to save the tyres. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we’ll need to watch out for the tyre wear but going into that last corner brings a smile to my face because that’s where an F1 car really comes to life.

I’m happy with my qualifying today. The conditions were not at all easy out there, but we managed to put together some good laps and I think we extracted everything from the car. I left nothing on the table this afternoon.
However, the weekend is not done and now we need to execute the best race possible. The time gaps have all been very tight the entire weekend and it won’t be an easy one but we will go for it.
I want to thank all the amazing support from the grandstands! It really makes a difference and I hope we can put on a good show tomorrow.

After a very different track in Monaco, it took me a few laps to get back into the swing of things here in Barcelona. We struggled a little bit with the car from the off, but we improved in FP2. We have a lot of things to look into tonight to try to unlock some more pace from the car. It’s not bad, we just need to work on driveability and take a step forward ahead of tomorrow’s sessions.

I was a little bit surprised to see us so far up today and ultimately competing for the front-row of the grid. We did some great work overnight with our analysis of yesterday; we all did a lot of work trying to figure out where we could find more lap time. I knew when I woke up this morning that I was on a mission, although I didn’t expect we would be fighting for P2. On my final lap, I think I was on the front-row all the way until turn 10. I got on the power and the car just snapped into oversteer; I will have to check but I think that’s where I lost two tenths. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed driving the car today and I’m really encouraged to see where it is at. A big thank you to everyone at the factory as it shows we are progressing.

We had a solid qualifying session today and found a strong rhythm on track. The car was feeling good – a big improvement from yesterday – so I’m pleased with the set-up changes that we made overnight. The field was incredibly tight though and there are a few cars that are out of position across the grid which will make for an interesting race. I think tomorrow is a big opportunity, so we’ll be working through the data and strategy plans tonight to ensure we’re ready to make the most of it.

It’s been another positive day for us. A big shoutout to Enstone and Viry as the car has been strong again this weekend and the updates we have brought have been working well. We had both cars into Q3 which was the aim today so well done to the team for that achievement. We performed well all of Qualifying up until the last run in Q3 where I did not quite nail the lap and lost some valuable lap time. That said, seventh on the grid tomorrow is not a bad place to start and we will give it all to finish with some strong points. I also have to say it’s great to see a bit of a mix up on the grid ahead of the race. It’s great for the sport and I think we’ll have an exciting Sunday and of course we’ll be pushing for some good points.

That’s our best qualifying of the season so far, clean and well executed by the team and myself. It’s positive and a very decent position to start the race from tomorrow. Track position is pretty valuable here in Barcelona, so we’ll take that and get ready for a tough fight. It’s not going to be an easy race, it’s going to be a tire degradation race with strategy, and we have to play our cards well, but the car has been performing and I feel within the midfield we’re definitely competitive.

I made a mistake on my out lap in Q1 and ran wide at the exit of the last corner which damaged the floor. This cost us some crucial lap time today. It’s a shame as I think we had the pace to be fighting at the front. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow as I felt like the car was still competitive even with the damage. If we can put it all together, I'm still optimistic we could score some good points tomorrow. The fans have been amazing, so we’ll be trying to put on a show for them in the race.

It felt like a decent Friday on track, I made some good steps forward from FP1 to FP2. I think there's a bit of work for me to do on the one-lap pace, but our long runs looked reasonably competitive, so all-in-all, we can be pretty happy with today’s running. We’ll try to make some improvements overnight, and I’ll take some learning from the data ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session.

I’m very pleased to qualify in fourth place in Qualifying today, my best result with Alpine this season. It was very close out there, very fine margins between many cars, and in the end we’re just less than one tenth of a second from being on the front row. We built up our session well, kept finding improvements and then we finished with a very good lap in Q3, which was really enjoyable I must say. It’s a real pity we will not start from the second row tomorrow after the penalty for impeding. I think it was very unfortunate with the traffic, cars so close together and the high-speed final corners. We have to accept it, move on and keep our heads down for tomorrow where I know we can still have a strong race.

It hasn’t been a straightforward weekend, the conditions were quite tricky and I wasn’t that comfortable in qualifying. I’ve been trying to modify my driving style quite a bit this weekend and as soon as we had some variable conditions it put us on the back foot and I just couldn’t get the full potential out of the car. Going into turn 5, the track was a little bit damp and I just lost the rear and went into the gravel, so we ended up losing a bit of time which was very costly for us. That incident meant that the tyres were too hot on my final lap and it was hard to come back from. However, I think anything is possible tomorrow and we will try everything we can to recover the position and progress through the field. I am looking forward to the race and I think we should be able to get some good points and hopefully get on the podium.

It was an odd qualifying session today. It was clearly tricky for everyone out there and it was quite a mixed-up order. Straight out of the box, I felt like I had no grip from the tyres, and I was really struggling with the car. It was starting to bounce a lot in the high-speed turns so I couldn’t go flat out through corners we were able to in FP3. I wasn’t surprised to be knocked out in Q2 because the car was off the pace. I didn’t have a good feeling with it so it’s disappointing.

I’m not too sure what happened in the incident with Lewis. It was all quite surprising. I was starting my push lap and getting the slipstream from Sainz ahead. Next thing I know Lewis was alongside me. We’re fortunate nothing more serious happened and it was clearly a big miscommunication from all of us in the Team. It didn’t contribute to the lack of pace though and that was the main problem for me. We’re starting quite a few positions lower than we should be, but I’m sure tomorrow will be a better day.

I had a clean lap in Q2, probably the best I could, and I only missed out on Q3 for a couple of tenths. I gave it all, but we didn’t have any new set of softs after the red flag in Q1: when you’re fighting for such small margins, that was enough to put us out, so that was it. The experience I had with the car was a lot better today and I hope to carry this feeling onto tomorrow, to make up some ground. I expect us to be a lot closer to a few of the cars ahead of us, who had new tyres today. I feel we’re in much better conditions this weekend than the last, but we still need to push and improve more to be even further up the grid. We will need to do a good job tomorrow and grab any chance we can.

It’s been a positive weekend, but I am disappointed with the outcome of qualifying. I had two spins at the exit of Turn 11 so I wasted two sets of the soft compound and had no new tyres left for Q2. There was a wet patch that I did not see but clearly felt, so my confidence got the best of me in the end. It's a shame because we had good pace, so I hope we can carry that into the race tomorrow. It will be a long race and a lot of focus on tyre degradation, with rain possibly creating even more opportunities, so let’s see.

The team did a good job and my lap was good, but I made a mistake just going outside of the track and my time was deleted. I'm very frustrated with myself. I knew I had to give it everything to make it to Q3, so I don’t have any regrets, but at the same time, it was just so close. The conditions were tricky going from damp to dry, which made things interesting. My expectations for tomorrow aren’t too high, but anything can happen, and I'll be prepared for every scenario in order to maximise our chance for points.

We can take one positive from today: the upgrades we brought in last week appear to be working, I could feel the difference during practice. Unfortunately, qualifying didn’t really represent where we are really standing with our car: it’s been quite tricky today, I never found the same grip I had in practice, and I didn’t feel as comfortable as earlier in the weekend. I felt a lot of sliding, which was a shame because I really thought we had good potential here. The changing weather conditions didn’t help, either: during the last run, in the out lap, I had to stop for over ten seconds after Turn 12, to let some cars on a flying lap through, and I think we lost a bit of tyre temperature there. Hopefully, qualifying has just been an outlier and we’ll have better pace tomorrow. I am confident we can put up a fight and make some progress, and possibly reach the top ten.

It’s disappointing, the other car showed what’s possible and we haven’t got it right this weekend. With the field being so tight, it’s just a massive penalty when you miss that window. Nico went to the higher downforce set-up and it seems that it’s working well, so a good job done by the team and I’m happy to see the car performing. Unfortunately, it’s P17 for us tomorrow but we’ll try again and hopefully our car set-up is good for the race.

I really like the conditions we drove in qualifying, I normally tend to do well in them, but I just got caught out on my first lap and the damage affected the rest of the session, which is a bit of a shame, but we’ve got some pace. I feel like we’ve used this weekend as a bit more of a test session because of us being a bit more off the pace than normal. I think we’ve focused a little more on the Sunday car which should hopefully put us in a good place tomorrow.

We will have to check the car and look at the data as there was clearly something really odd about the way it behaved and it felt very different to the way it had throughout the weekend up to that point.
I basically had zero rear grip. The car was extremely oversteery and unpredictable. The car would be okay and suddenly it would snap away. It was something to do with the rear right corner. At first I thought it was something to do with my first set of tyres, so we changed for a new set, but there was still this very strange behaviour from the rear tyres.
It’s obviously very disappointing but it will be a long race tomorrow, overtaking is possible and degradation is a big factor so we will see, but of course we will be starting from very far back.

Firstly, grateful to the team for turning the car around for qualifying. The first lap back out wasn’t too bad. Everyone wants to get in front starting the last lap, and I had a comprised outlap with the tyres a bit out of the window for that last push, which was frustrating. I’m disappointed but I put us on the back foot earlier on today. Tomorrow’s going to be tricky, but we’ll see what we can do.