Singapore Grand Prix: Sprint Quali Recap

Bearman and Ocon translated their practice pace into SQ1 – the opening round of Sprint knock-out qualifying. With only the top 16 progressing, Bearman led the way with a fastest lap on the mandatory Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tire of 1:34.950 – good to place the Briton P13 and into SQ2. Ocon accompanied his teammate in progressing into the next stage, the Frenchman setting a best effort of 1:35.004 to take P16.

Running another fresh set of the medium rubber in SQ2, both drivers banked early runs and subsequently bettered their times on their second and final tours under the lights around the Singapore track. Bearman produced a 1:33.423 lap to claim P13, with Ocon P16 on a 1:34.368 – their Sprint qualifying session concluding at the checkered flag.

Prior to qualifying, Friday’s only practice session of the weekend saw Ocon and Bearman run identical programs with baseline stints on the White hard and Yellow medium tires. Ocon delivered a best lap of 1:34.331 on the mediums for P11, with Bearman P13 on the same compound clocking a 1:34.481.

Ollie Bearman:

“The car’s been feeling really good. We wanted to try something a little bit different, and based on what I felt so far in the car and the numbers, it didn’t seem to be ideal, but the feeling I had out there today was good. I felt a lot of confidence, and I could really push it, and that showed in the lap time as we were very close to SQ3. We had a very disrupted session in SQ2, with the first lap having to readjust from SQ1, where there were a few issues with the car. I think we can be happy with that result, and with a bit of fine-tuning, I think we can creep up there a little bit. Our target is the main race on Sunday and we’re close to the points there, so there’s every opportunity tomorrow afternoon to put ourselves in the best place.”

Esteban Ocon:

“We had a lock-up on the last lap that prevented us from a better qualifying. I was up quite a lot on the delta, so it’s a shame, but I've been having to push the car a lot this weekend. We’re on different specs to Ollie, so we’re just trying a few things which didn’t really work this session, and we changed a few parts on the car as well. We seem to have made a step backwards compared to FP1, where the feeling was good, so not a completely bad session – there are positives to take – but it’s not the way I wanted it to go in the end. It’s going to be tricky, but we take these learnings for the race, and the aim is to maximize qualifying tomorrow and start close to the top 10 on Sunday.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“It’s a Sprint weekend in Singapore, which is very exciting but hugely challenging as it’s a street circuit, and I think we did a good job in FP1. In SQ1, with the yellow and red flags, it was really challenging, but we did a good enough job to get out of SQ1. In SQ2, I think we left some performance out there. Esteban, before he had a lock-up, was close to Ollie, and overall, as a team I think we’re close to where we should be. We missed out on SQ3 by two and a half tenths, so there is a gap, but we know we need to improve and where. It’s actually disappointing not being closer, but there’s lots to be encouraged about. We'll learn a lot tonight and tomorrow in the Sprint, to then have a better car for qualifying tomorrow.”