In Hungary, Valtteri Bottas reached the qualifying final for the first time since May’s stage in Barcelona, where he set the eighth fastest time. His teammate Guanyu Zhou qualified twelfth. Given the starting positions, Alfa Romeo expects to earn points in Sunday’s race.
Frederic Vasseur, team leader: “The team did a good job and achieved a good result. Valtteri made it to the final and Zhou just missed the top ten – less than a tenth. We almost got the result we had hoped for before the start of the session – a good starting point.
Both cars showed a fast pace, so we are confident that we can perform well and earn points. One of our cars starts in the top ten, the second just outside – we have a reason to wait for the race.
It is difficult to overtake on the Hungarian circuit, but we are ready to fight and will do our best to earn points.”
Valtteri Bottas (8th): “It’s great to be in the top ten again. Finally managed to get all the parts together and show the result. It’s been a while since I last made it to the final, but it’s great to be back in the positions we think we should be.
We were closer to Alpine than we thought, which is positive. Apparently we managed to make progress compared to the last stage. When we talk about the long-term pace, I think it’s practically the same for the leading teams in the middle group, so tomorrow should be an interesting fight.
It’s hard to overtake on this track, so it’s good that I start the race in the top ten – this allows me to fight for the points from the start. Tomorrow it is important to start well and choose the right strategy. I’m looking forward to the race.”
Guanyu Zhou (12th): “I’m quite happy with the progress of today’s qualifying, especially considering the weather conditions in the third practice. In the end we managed to return to the second part of qualifying with two cars, but the battle turned out to be very close again.
I am impressed with our pace today – apparently the team returned to the level of a few weekends ago. The final proved unreachable for me – on the lap of leaving the pits I came into traffic and couldn’t prepare the tires for the attempt. However, I put in a good lap and I’m happy with it.
According to the weather forecast, tomorrow will not be warmer than today. I hope this will allow us to compete for high positions in the race and earn points.”
Source: F1 News
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