Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team Principal and CEO Otmar Szafnauer says that it was clear by their qualifying result that their car did suit the characteristics of the Jeddah Corniche circuit as Sebastian Vettel starts the race 17th while Lance Stroll starts 18th.
Speaking about the action, Szafnauer said:
“It is pretty obvious that the unusual characteristics of this very fast circuit did not suit our car in qualifying today. However, Sebastian and Lance did their best. This race will be a tough one for us, because overtaking is unlikely to be easy here, but we will crunch the data this evening in an effort to come up with an optimal race strategy all the same, and do our level best tomorrow.”
Sebastian Vettel commented saying:
“I was a little surprised that we were unable to make Q2 because I felt my last lap was good – even though I was held up at the end of the second sector, which cost me a few tenths and a chance to progress. There was a lot of traffic out there, especially at the end of laps, which complicated things further. I think it is clear that this track does not suit our car in qualifying trim, but the positive is that our race pace has traditionally been stronger this season, so we will see what we can do tomorrow. It hurts to qualify in P17 but, if we have an eventful race tomorrow, we can try to make our way up the field.”
Lance Stroll was really disappointing following qualifying saying:
“I am really disappointed to have ended up in P18 because traffic at the end of the session ruined my qualifying. It was like a parking lot and there was nothing I could do. As a result, I was not able to put in a flying lap when the track and tyres were at their optimum and it proved very costly. I think we would have had enough to make it into Q2 otherwise. We will go away and review to see if there is anything we could have done differently. We have never raced here before, so we will have to see how the Grand Prix plays out tomorrow and try to make up some places.”
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