Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Australian GP qualifying - Fight for top positions tomorrow 01.04.2023: Australian Grand Prix Albert Park, Melbourne 31 March - April 2nd 2023 Saturday, April 1st 2023 "We are ready to fight for the top positions tomorrow"

Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park, Melbourne
31 March - April 2nd 2023
Saturday, April 1st 2023


 


"We are ready to fight for the top positions tomorrow"



In Numbers




Fernando Alonso
FP3    P02   1.17.727    26 Laps
Q1      P05   1.17.832    11 Laps
Q2      P02   1.17.283    07 Laps
Q3      P04   1.17.139    08 Laps


Lance Stroll
FP3    P09    1.18.198    22 Laps
Q1      P04    1.17.873    11 Laps
Q2      P05    1.17.616    09 Laps
Q3      P06    1.17.308    06 Laps




Soundbites




Fernando Alonso


“I am happy with fourth position today after a busy qualifying session. The circuit was difficult to judge at times, with changeable temperatures and weather. We seemed to improve in every session though and the car felt good to drive.


Overall, I think it was probably our best qualifying session so far this season and our closest gap to pole position. We will see what we can do tomorrow because our race pace seems to be one of our strengths.


We are expecting it to be difficult to overtake, but in these cooler conditions it will be an interesting race with lots of unknowns. The target is to score as many points as possible.”




Lance Stroll


“It was fun out there today; it is a great track to push hard at and the car was handling well. I think the team put in a good performance to qualify fourth and sixth despite fairly challenging circumstances.


It was tough to understand at which point the tyres would be in their peak operating window given the changing temperatures and we only had one set of tyres left for Q3, so there may have been a little more lap time in there.



That being said, the field is incredibly tight and so we are lining up in a strong place to fight hard for the top positions tomorrow.”





Mike Krack, Team Principal


“It was a tricky session with the threat of rain present throughout the whole of qualifying and especially during the final moments of Q3. We also saw an incredibly close field with every tenth of a second making a difference in Q1, Q2 and Q3.



That was why we had to try and find the balance between saving tyres and making sure we did not miss the cut with quite significant track evolution.


We were sensible and played it safe to ensure we progressed with both cars, but it meant Lance had just one set of new Softs for Q3. He made the best of them with two timed laps and starting from sixth gives him a great opportunity to score well tomorrow.



Fernando’s session was strong, too, with clean and tidy laps putting him on the second row. We head into tomorrow’s race feeling confident with our race pace and ready to fight once again.”





Will Hings, photos Aston Martin