British Grand Prix: Sprint Qualifying Recap

Bearman and Ocon were both left chasing pace in their VF-26s in SQ1 – neither driver able to advance beyond SQ1 in knockout qualifying. Running the mandatory Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tire, Bearman’s fastest SQ1 lap was a 1:31.083 for P17 – with only the top 16 advancing into SQ2. Ocon was one spot down on his teammate taking P18 on a 1:31.714 lap.

Prior to Sprint qualifying, Friday’s only practice session of the weekend saw Bearman and Ocon run identical programs with baseline stints on the White hard and Red soft tires. Bearman produced a best lap of 1:31.373 on the softs for P14, with Ocon P16 on the same compound clocking a 1:31.684.

Ollie Bearman:

“It’s a shame as I think if everything went well, we would’ve been through, but I started the lap with low battery – only by 10 percent, but still at this track where it’s so sensitive, that more than covers the gap to get through. Unfortunately, we’re battling Williams to get out of SQ1, which is not where we were a couple of months ago, so it shows that we need to keep working to make a big step forward. We brought an updated rear wing, and it seems to be working as expected, but everyone around us that we’re competing with has brought more, and that’s it – it’s a sign of where we are. We don’t have any big updates coming before summer break, so I expect the next few races to be a big push. It’s a shame, but it’s how it is.”

Esteban Ocon:

“It was a difficult session. In FP1 we started to see that we were lacking pace overall, and I think it was slightly worse in terms of the overall classification in Sprint qualifying. It's difficult to assess exactly where we're losing at the moment, but this is the performance we've got, and now we need to keep pushing. This is what the whole team is going to do this weekend, and we'll try to get the maximum out of the car. Hopefully tomorrow we can improve further to qualify closer to the points.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“Obviously, it’s been a tough day with a tough result, but unfortunately, it’s reflective of where we are with this car, at least today. In Austria, we struggled, but in low-speed we were competitive, but when we got to high-speed we were missing performance. Here, if you look at Q1, it wasn’t a bad lap from our drivers. On the out-lap, we struggled a bit with traffic, therefore energy deployment wasn’t the best, but putting that aside, we’re not quick in any speed of corner here. We know some of the reasons why, and we’re working in the background with the team at the factory on it. The trackside team, following on from last weekend, did a decent job, so we just need to focus on what we can do best with what we’re given. Meanwhile, at the factory, we’re trying to improve the car as quickly as possible. It’s a tough time, but that’s racing, and it’s Formula 1 – it’s not easy. We have to go through this tough period by sticking together and improve the car, as we have done the last two years.”