Carlos Sainz (STR11-01, Car 55)
Third Practice Session - Best lap: 1:15.324, pos. 7th, 26 laps
Qualifying - Best lap: (Q1) 1:15.467, (Q2) 1:14.805, (Q3) 1:14.749, pos. 7th
He will start the race from P6
“I’m very happy with my qualifying and very optimistic for the race tomorrow! To qualify in P7 and then gain an extra position because of Kimi’s penalty – which means we start P6 – is a great position for a track like Monaco. I’m very pleased because to complete a good qualifying lap around Monaco means that you have a lot of confidence in the car and that you are pushing the limits… I’m definitely feeling very comfortable with the car and in the team and performances like this one confirm it. We’ve been quick all weekend and we have a very good car, so we can look forward to a very promising race tomorrow.”
Danill Kvyat (STR11-03, Car 26)
Third Practice Session - Best lap: 1:15.259, pos. 6th, 23 laps
Qualifying - Best lap: (Q1) 1:15.384, (Q2) 1:14.794, (Q3) 1:15.273, pos. 9th
He will start the race from P8
“I’m not happy with my qualifying today. I think I hit a curb hard in the third sector during my last run and I don’t know if this is maybe the reason why we lost a bit of time in Q3. The car certainly behaved differently compared to Q2, so we now have to analyse this, because we could’ve finished in a higher position than P9. It’s quite disappointing as we know we have a strong car with huge potential. Having said this, I’m confident for tomorrow, we have a good chance of scoring points and we will fight hard for them.”
James Key (Technical Director)
“This is more a chassis track than a straight-line speed one, so we were hoping that it would suit our car and this has proved to be the case. We’ve been inside the top ten consistently this weekend so far, normally within the P5 to P7 region, so we felt that we had a high chance of getting into Q3 without too much trouble and qualifying well, which is critical here in Monaco. We got through Q1 on one set of tyres and both drivers did well in Q2 to get us into the top ten. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the best out of Q3, our last laps were a little compromised and we ended up P7 and P9. We were hoping to get at least one car on the third row of the grid but didn’t make it this time. We seem to have lost a lot of lap time in the last sector with Daniil and we need to understand why – the data analysis is going on now for this – up until then his lap was very competitive. Regarding Carlos, his lap was good and he lost just a little bit of time in the first sector compared to his best, which we need to understand at this stage, but the qualifying times were so tight that we missed P5 by just a couple of hundredths of a second. However, no amount of analysis will change our starting positions! So we look to make the most from where we are tomorrow and hope to progress in the race. I’d also like to congratulate Daniel Ricciardo for his first pole position today!”
