Eventful Qualifying Sees George Russell Start P3 for Sunday’s Race

FP3 was all about single lap work and evaluating both the Soft C6 and Medium C5 compound, something that would play out later in the day.

An eventful Q1 saw two red flags after sizeable accidents. The first saw Yuki Tsunoda roll his car before Franco Colapinto found the barrier; both drivers walked away unharmed.

In a competitive session, both drivers progressed through to Q2. Kimi however was unable to improve sufficiently on his final effort in that segment, ending P13 but only half-a-second from fastest driver Oscar Piastri.

In Q3, George set an initial time on his final set of the Soft tyre before opting for the Medium compound on his final run. A strong effort put him P3, just 0.137s shy of Piastri’s pole position time.

George Russell

I am happy with P3 today. The car felt really strong out there and I know I could have done even better if I did not make a small mistake on my first lap of Q3. The team made a great call by choosing the Medium tyre for our second and final effort. Everything just came together on the lap, and I was able to put the tyres in the right window. There may have been a little more time out there, but I don’t think enough to challenge the two drivers ahead of us.

This circuit is one of the narrowest tracks on the calendar and it will be really tricky to overtake tomorrow. Fighting with the McLarens ahead will not be easy but we showed solid pace on our long runs in practice. If we’re able to perform in a similar manner in tomorrow’s race, then there is every possibility we can fight for the podium.

Kimi Antonelli

I am obviously a bit disappointed to qualify P13 for Sunday’s race. I really struggled to put everything together in my single laps on the Soft tyre and it just did not feel quite right. It was really tricky to get the tyres in the right window; I didn’t quite have enough grip, and I really struggled to get into a good rhythm.

It is a real challenge to overtake on this track so P13 is not ideal. From what we experienced in practice though, I know that our long runs are strong. Hopefully we can utilise that pace to make up some positions and get into the points. We will be looking for any opportunities that may fall our way too. If we can take advantage of them, then we can still have a good afternoon. It is a shame to end today outside of the top 10 but the atmosphere has still been incredible. We will work hard overnight and come back stronger tomorrow.

Bradley Lord, Team Representative

We have mixed feelings after today's qualifying session. George delivered a smooth session and a really impressive final lap on the Medium tyre to take P3; without a compromised outlap, and therefore cool tyres in the opening corners, he could have fought for pole. We went into qualifying thinking that the Medium was a possible Q3 tyre, and the Aston Martins' performance in Q2 confirmed it was the way to go, with George using it to great effect.

It was a more challenging session for Kimi. He never felt the grip he wanted from the tyres and was also losing a little on the straights owing to a slightly higher downforce setup than George - but not seeing the expected gains in the corners. It was a tough pill for him to swallow to qualify P13 at his first home race, but we always say that these difficult moments are the ones where we learn the most, and no doubt that will be true for Kimi today as well; this is all part of the learning curve in his first season. The silver lining is that his race pace was very strong in FP2, so we can expect him to gain positions from where he is starting.

Imola is traditionally a one-stop race, owing to the significant pitlane loss, but the softer tyre compounds this year mean that isn't a certainty in tomorrow's race. We will be running the simulations this evening to see where we have opportunities to move forward tomorrow, and the race will be a good gauge of how much progress we have made in managing the tyre temperatures on the long runs.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

It's obviously disappointing for Kimi that he didn't make it through to Q3 in Qualifying, but we'll look at why he's struggled for pace here more than at some of the recent tracks. He's not had the same confidence in the car that he had in Miami, but he at least had strong long run pace yesterday. Unfortunately, it's not an easy circuit to overtake at so we'll review all our options with the view to how we can get him into the points. We will stand ready to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way.

George fared somewhat better, eventually securing P3 on the grid. We decided to try the Medium compound for the final run of Qualifying as it was looking strong on the Aston Martins. It also seemed to be working pretty well for us, and George was able to find a couple of tenths improvement and gained a place in the process.

It's difficult to know how the race is going to pan out tomorrow. The tyres will need a fair bit of management to avoid overheating and there is also a high risk of incidents as the track is quite narrow and there are so many gravel traps. We'll be doing everything we can to stay in the fight for a podium.

FP3 Results

Qualifying Results