Qualifying in the European Grand Prix on the Baku city circuit in Azerbaijan saw Nico Rosberg take pole as Lewis Hamilton crashed out in Q3.
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“There was a bit of reorganising because in Q3 Lewis had an off in front of me and I had to abort that lap and do one more at the end”.
“After the crash, you lose some confidence and to get it back, get back in the rhythm, it’s great”. Ultimately, it was only me, nothing to do with the team or auto.
Perez admitted that the auto was faster than expected: “Yes, definitely”. Q3 was tough because I was heavily affected by traffic on both of my runs and I think there was definitely about half a second to be found in the vehicle.
“All weekend, we have been building towards this and qualifying was really optimum”. He had trouble posting a clean lap in during the session, and ultimately put his auto into the wall in the 3rd session, drawing a Red Flag with just 2 mins left. He’d had a scrappy session anyway, spinning off in all three of the qualifying stints, and he’ll be starting the race from tenth place.
Nico Rosberg (centre) celebrates next to second placed Sahara Force India’s Sergio Perez (right) and third placed Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo after the qualifying session of the European Formula One Grand Prix at Baku on Saturday.
The auto was damaged and returned to the garage while marshals placed a traffic cone in front of the hole. “Unfortunately, it happened to me in the worst possible time in P3 and yeah, so I think we have to look forward to tomorrow and do a strong race”. “I was not able to brake in the same places as I was, and I didn’t adjust for it, so it was my mistake”. Then obviously I thought I had one more chance but then the red flag came out.
“The vehicle was a little bit different yesterday, not as good today, and I wasn’t able to brake in the same places I was yesterday”.
“The lap has been one of my best in such a hard place to get 100% out of the auto”.
“It was nothing to do with anyone else, it was just me not doing quick laps”.
Rounding out the first 10 places in the grid are Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and finally Hamilton.
Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr was on 13th, just ahead of McLaren-Honda’s Fernando Alonso and Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez, who went off at Turn 7 on his final flying lap.
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Behind them, Swede Marcus Ericsson of Sauber was 20th ahead of the two Renaults of Dane Kevin Magnussen and Briton Jolyon Palmer.
