Nasr praises team to get car ready in time
Sauber F1 had a difficult run up to qualifying as the team rapidly needed to repair damage incurred on Felipe Nasr's car as he crashed in FP3 due to mistakenly opening DRS during his tyre warm-up. Still, they managed to complete the job in time, allowing Nasr to qualify 15th. Team mate Ericsson qualified 3 places higher up.
Marcus Ericsson, Sauber C34-Ferrari (Chassis 04/Ferrari), 13th: “It was a decent qualifying. Unfortunately I got a bit of traffic on my best lap, which cost a few tenths. After FP1 we made progress, and I felt comfortable in the car. We know we have a strong race pace, so our aim is to score points tomorrow, which I think is realistic.”
Felipe Nasr, Sauber C34-Ferrari (Chassis 03/Ferrari), 15th: “First of all, I want to thank the team for getting the car ready for qualifying. It did an amazing job, and I am really impressed with the work it has done. P15 in qualifying is still a position from which I will be able to fight for points tomorrow.”
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “A big compliment to the team as it was able to fix Felipe’s car in such a short time after a violent impact. Qualifying itself did not run satisfactorily. There are still things that we could improve - at least a little bit better. The starting positions are ultimately not bad for scoring points in the race - and we have to focus on that.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “With a bit more luck we could have made it into Q3 in this difficult qualifying. On the other hand, the team has done an excellent job as it managed to get Felipe’s car ready for qualifying after the incident in the third free practice. All in all our starting positions are not bad, so we can be optimistic for the race.”
