Challenging Qualifying at Zandvoort

The day started with a drying track for the third Free Practice session, enabling our drivers to complete their single lap work ahead of Qualifying.

With a short lap time, and a competitive order in FP3, Qualifying was set to be a tight affair and so it proved.

Both drivers made it successfully through Q1 but Q2 was more of a challenging, with Kimi unfortunately being eliminated in P11.

Such was the closeness of the field, he was just 0.16s shy of his team-mate and a few hundredths off progressing in P10.

With two new sets of the Soft tyre, George was aiming to fight for the second row of the grid with the McLarens looking set for a front-row lock out.

On his final effort, he suffered a few minor snaps of oversteer which cost him time and ultimately led to him starting P5 tomorrow.

George Russell

I am a bit disappointed with P5 today. That said, the field has been really tight since the beginning of the weekend, and we couldn’t take anything for granted. We didn’t put the lap together at the end of Q3 and, whilst we could have fought for the second row, it is where we deserved to be. Isack (Hadjar) did an amazing job to get ahead of us so congratulations to him.

We will see what we can do tomorrow. Our long run pace felt good in FP3, and I am therefore hopeful that we can be in the fight for the podium, irrespective of our starting position. We know that our battle remains with the Ferraris and the Red Bull of Max (Verstappen) given the Constructors’ standings. Hopefully we can have a good Sunday and add some solid points.

Kimi Antonelli

I am disappointed after today's Qualifying. I missed out on Q3 by a small margin; on my final lap in Q2 I made a small mistake into the chicane and that proved the difference between getting through and being eliminated. We knew that we would have to execute well given how tight the field was; little mistakes would make a huge difference and so it proved. Losing track time in FP1 did not help with that as it cost me some learning that I could not use in Qualifying. I need to make sure I cut out these errors.

On the positive side, I was feeling good in the car in both FP2 and FP3. That bodes well for tomorrow’s race. We did some long run work in FP3 and that was competitive, so I am looking forward to the Grand Prix. It is a difficult circuit to overtake at and starting from P11 will not make it easy. However, I will reset tonight and be ready to give it my all tomorrow.

Toto Wolff, CEO & Team Principal

We have struggled to consistently unlock the pace of the car so far this weekend here in Zandvoort. The windy conditions have made it a handful for both George and Kimi and, whilst there have been flashes of performance, we knew Qualifying would be tricky. That proved to be the case with Kimi unfortunate to be eliminated in Q2. George was able to progress to Q3 but some snaps of oversteer cost him a place on the second row.

Starting P5 and P11 at a circuit that is notoriously difficult to overtake means we will have our work cut out tomorrow. Our long run pace in FP2 with George and FP3 with Kimi did look solid though. Hopefully that can provide some opportunities for both to make up positions. The weather can also be unpredictable here in Zandvoort too and, with rain forecast for the morning, that may also add another layer of jeopardy.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We lacked a bit of pace today and ultimately that cost both drivers places on the grid for tomorrow. We had two clean sessions in both FP3 and Qualifying so there isn't really anything we can point to that we should have done differently. With that said, the grip hasn't been amazing and in the windy conditions the car has been a bit of a handful. George's final lap went towards oversteer after a snap at Turn 9. Once that happens it's difficult to improve but realistically a second-row grid slot was the best we could have achieved.

Kimi had four decent runs, improving each time but he missed out on Q3 by a couple of hundredths. It was therefore not a great day, but both have opportunity to move forward in the race tomorrow. Our long run pace from practice looked solid so hopefully we will finish tomorrow in a better position.

FP3 Result

Qualifying Result