Qualifying Notes
Nicholas Latifi qualified 18th for the Emilia Romagna Sprint, whilst Alex Albon will line up at the back of the grid after failing to set a time
Nicholas set his fastest time on the last lap of Q1, posting a 1:21.971 on the soft Pirelli tyre
Alex suffered a rear brake system issue on his first flying lap, ending his Qualifying session prematurely
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: The combination of mixed conditions and the Sprint format is very tricky and today we did not rise to the occasion. Alex suffered with a brake issue due to an incorrect switch position when switching to the slick tyres and Nicholas struggled to find full confidence in the car in the difficult conditions, but he did well to start ahead of Ocon. Our attention now moves to preparing the cars for the Sprint and Grand Prix, which are expected to take place in quite different conditions to today.
Nicholas Latifi: It was definitely a tricky session. With FP1 being full wet conditions and Qualifying being mixed it was challenging but it’s a challenge for everyone. My issue is still not having the feeling to really push the car; I don’t always have it in full dry conditions and mixed conditions usually only make it more difficult. It was good though to get the opportunity to drive the FW44 in full wet conditions as I am sure we will have other wet sessions throughout the year. Hopefully we can move forward in the F1 Sprint tomorrow and secure a better starting position for the race on Sunday.
Alex Albon: Unfortunately, we suffered a brake system issue which ended Qualifying early for us. These things happen, and we’ll go away and investigate tonight so we understand what went wrong and how we resolve it.Thankfully, tomorrow’s Sprint event should offer us some opportunities to improve our position on Sunday’s starting grid.
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