In Melbourne, a driver from the Alpine team qualified for the second part of qualifying for the first time this season. It was Esteban Ocon who recorded the fifteenth fastest time.
His teammate Pierre Gasly finished the race in the first session and will start 17th in Sunday’s race.
Esteban Ocon (15th): “We are going in the right direction, but we cannot be satisfied with this result and our form at the moment. However, today the car is in its best shape since the start of the season and we made the most of it.
Today I pushed as hard as I could and even hit the wall on my first attempt coming out of the last corner. I was lucky that the car was not damaged. I kept attacking to qualify for the next part of qualifying. This result is our maximum for today. We know we have to improve even further to take the next step.
We have seen in the past that anything can happen during the race in Melbourne, so it is important to stay out of trouble and seize opportunities to move forward.”
Pierre Gasly (17th): “The qualifying went quite well until the last attempt. However, on the decisive lap I had some problems with downshifting, so it’s a shame I couldn’t get into the second part.
I did good laps until the last one, which was decisive. Not everything turned out in my favor, so we have to analyze a lot. The team tries to get the most out of the car under difficult circumstances. We must continue to find an approach to the technology that is now available to us.
A difficult race awaits us due to tire degradation. Opportunities may arise and we will do everything we can to achieve the best possible result.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
