With both Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers having to take grid penalties for the Russian Grand Prix, the focus in qualifying for Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly was on maximizing track time with their updated Honda engines in preparation for the race. Hartley qualified 16th fastest but will start from 18th while Gasly got through to Q2 with the 13th fastest time and will start from 17th on the grid.
“We didn’t put a lot of emphasis on Qualifying today because of the penalties we will incur tomorrow,” commented Hartley. “Yesterday was a big exercise for Honda introducing a new power unit, but the decision was made not to use it for the rest of the weekend.
“It is definitely quicker, there’s no question marks there, but we want it to be perfect for Japan and make sure everything works as it should. What also makes it a tough race for us is starting from the back. Our long run pace yesterday looked promising on the Soft tyre, so I think there could still be a bit to play for tomorrow. We’ve seen a few incidents here in the past, it’s a tricky first corner because it tightens up after the long straight off the start line, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow – we will still aim to do our best.”
“I think it’s been really positive since we introduced the new engine yesterday, there was some noticeable improvements and we decided to switch the engine back for the rest of the weekend to save some mileage for the end of the season,” said Gasly. “I’m really happy with the car, this weekend in Sochi I have a great feeling but it’s a shame we need to start at the back of the grid tomorrow after the engine penalty.
“Looking at last year’s race it seems it might be difficult to overtake here but, with the chassis the way it is, I’m still feeling confident. Tyre degradation will be key tomorrow, so hopefully we can make something with the strategy, I’ll give a big push and you never know, maybe we can fight our way through for a good result!”
“We had a clean final practice session with both cars which allowed us to complete our programmes,” said Guillaume Dezoteux (Head of Vehicle Performance). “Given our situation, we decided to dedicate some more time to long runs which is something we usually don’t do in the Saturday practice session.
“This allowed both drivers to get a better understanding of their fuel and tyre management in race trim which is our main focus this weekend. Our competitiveness down the straights made a bit of a step back compared to yesterday as we reverted back on the PU specification. This is because there is still work to do in some areas of the new specification, such as calibration and matching the PU to the chassis.
“We fully support this decision as we will anyway start from the back of the grid here. Our Qualifying session went to plan, and it was good to see Pierre going through with his first attempt. He had a tow from the car in front which helped a bit, but generally we showed we had the pace to easily progress to Q2.
“We decided not to take part in Q2 as our positions on the grid are defined by the penalties anyway. Brendon’s Qualifying session was a bit more complicated and unfortunately his first lap was not quick enough to pass through to Q2. In his second attempt, he got a yellow flag from Sirotkin that compromised his lap.
“Now we will evaluate different options for the race and we are looking forward to fight in the midfield, especially against the cars that will have to start on the softest tyre.”
Starting Grid
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m31.387s –
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m31.532s 0.145s
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m31.943s 0.556s
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m32.237s 0.850s
5 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m33.181s 1.794s
6 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m33.413s 2.026s
7 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 1m33.419s 2.032s
8 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m33.563s 2.176s
9 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m33.704s 2.317s
10 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m35.196s 3.809s
11 Carlos Sainz Renault – –
12 Nico Hulkenberg Renault – –
13 Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 1m35.612s 4.225s
14 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 1m35.977s 4.590s
15 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m36.437s 5.050s
16 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 1m35.504s 4.117s
17 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda – –
18 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 1m35.037s 3.650s
19 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault – –
20 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault – –
Comments