Vasseur: The result does not reflect our potential

On Saturday in Baku, the Alfa Romeo drivers got no further than the second qualifying session, in which they showed just 14th and 15th results, with Guanyu Zhou ahead of his much more experienced team-mate for the first time this season.

Frederic VasseurTeam Leader: “We did not expect to be in these positions, but we know how events developed during the session and we understand that this result does not reflect our potential.

Both cars advanced into the second session, with Zhou finishing 5th on the first run and 9th on second in the first, but those were the only two laps that could be considered representative.

Unfortunately in the second session we didn’t have the opportunity to show a normal time and we had to settle for 14th and 15th position. Before the start of the last attempt we tried to beat the cars, and we succeeded, but unfortunately because of the yellow flags we couldn’t show what we were capable of.

Now we have to focus on the preparation for the race: we know the car has speed and on this track you can overtake, so we are sure that both drivers can fight for higher places. We foresee that the Grand Prix will be event-rich and anything can happen.

Valtteri Bottas (15th): “Qualifying was strange and of course we weren’t where we want to be. This afternoon one of the main factors was the temperature of the rubber and it was difficult for me to get the soft tires to work well in one lap. In the second session the feeling was much better, but unfortunately at the end of the second session yellow flags came and I didn’t even have time to start the attempt.

I think I could have made improvements, but I didn’t. Nevertheless, we showed good speed in training and on top of that a lot can happen in the races because we have something to fight for. I have a positive attitude, I am sure that tomorrow we can show some nice overtaking and push forward.

Guanyu Zhou (14th): “Over the course of the weekend we made very significant progress and I think we have the potential to fight for higher positions. It is possible that it was possible to reach the final of the qualifier, although the results are tight, and it cannot be contested.

The tires allowed us to put in a good second fast lap – we saw that they deserved the most at this point, but because of Tsunoda yellow flags appeared on the track, which prevented us from improving the result.

Overall, I’m happy with our progress and I hope we can compete for points tomorrow.”