Brendon Hartley has qualified his Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 car in 15th while his team mate Pierre Gasly will start in 17th position for the Chinese F1 Grand Prix…
“We had a little issue on my car yesterday but we solved that overnight, both of us have been struggling on this track compared to Bahrain,” commented Hartley. “There’s a number of contributors; the temperature is very different and the wind is very high here.
“We saw it in Melbourne as well, we seemed to suffer more when the wind picked up compared to the other cars. In Bahrain, we had a stronger car and now we have to figure out why it wasn’t the same story here, but that just shows how competitive this midfield battle is.
“I think this track can promote some overtaking and a bit of racing and I believe the temperature will be warmer tomorrow as well. In the race, things could completely turn around just because of the change in temperature and wind – that’s how sensitive these modern Formula 1 cars are.
“I’m staying positive and I think points are possible from P15. All in all, I was pretty happy with the job I did today.”
“It was a tough day today,” commented Gasly. “Yesterday was quite positive for us finishing 11th and 12th, but we changed the car and since this morning I’ve struggled to find pace which made it difficult to put everything together.
“We didn’t have much time to change the setup between FP3 and Qualifying, and in the end it was a difficult qualifying session.
“I’m still learning a lot about the track, I think in the long run yesterday we looked OK in terms of degradation – so that’s positive – but starting 17th we will have to find a way to come back.
“Hopefully we can understand what went wrong and find the pace again tomorrow. Yesterday we struggled a bit with the front of the car and today there were problems with the rear.
“I would say we know in the long run we’re usually pretty good with the degradation, but tonight we need to understand why the changes we made didn’t work. We’ll try everything to come back tomorrow.”
Starting Grid
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’31.095 –
2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’31.182 +0.087
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1’31.625 +0.530
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’31.675 +0.580
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1’31.796 +0.701
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1’31.948 +0.853
7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1’32.532 +1.437
8 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1’32.758 +1.663
9 Carlos Sainz Renault 1’32.819 +1.724
10 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1’32.855 +1.760
11 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1’32.986 +1.891
12 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1’33.057 +1.962
13 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 1’33.232 +2.137
14 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 1’33.505 +2.410
15 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 1’33.795 +2.700
16 Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 1’34.062 +2.967
17 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 1’34.101 +3.006
18 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1’34.285 +3.190
19 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 1’34.454 +3.359
20 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1’34.914 +3.819
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