Oracle Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash App RB quotes from the sprint race and qualifying at the Lusail International Circuit.
November 30, 2024
Oracle Red Bull Racing’s newly crowned four-time Forumla 1 world champion Max Verstappen bounced back from a difficult Sprint race finish to secure pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix in the final moments of qualifying at the Lusail International Circuit.
Verstappen, who secured his fourth consecutive world title at last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, struggled for speed in the sixth and final Sprint race of the season and could finish no better than eighth. He turned that around spectacularly in Q3 however, when he bested the time of Mercedes driver George Russell by just 0.055s to claim his first pole position since the Austrian Grand Prix in June.
Sergio Pérez endured a difficult day in the second Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20. Changes made to his changes to his car under parc ferme conditions meant that the Mexican started the Sprint from the pit lane and finished 20th, while he recovered to qualify for Sunday’s Grand Prix in ninth place on the grid.
Visa Cash App RB’s Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda both suffered difficult days on track, finishing in 16th and 17th in the Sprint race. Tsunoda fared better in the qualifying sessions, ending the session in 14th, while Lawson will start from 17th on the grid.
QUOTES
Oracle Red Bull Racing
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Sprint 8th/ Qualifying 1st
“I’m very happy with how we turned it around today. The Sprint was quite shocking, we had a lot of oversteer and struggled with the balance throughout, and couldn’t fight at all. We changed the car, but we also surprised ourselves with the turnaround and the performance in Qualifying. It felt much better and the car felt more consistent. Once we were in a better window I could drive more on the limit. I’m very pleased, it has been a while since we’ve been on pole. I’m very proud of everyone to make those changes and to be in this position. Tomorrow we are in the fight and hopefully will have a bit of fun on track as well.”
SERGIO PÉREZ – Sprint 20th/ Qualifying 9th
“Looking ahead to the rest of the weekend and to understand what to do with both cars, we decided to take my car out of parc ferme for the Sprint. That was to prioritise trying some different setups and take learnings. It compromised our Sprint, but ultimately was beneficial for qualifying and hopefully the race. We made some good improvements, the main thing has been the tyre and the first sector was still on the difficult side, but it was a good step from where we were earlier. The pace was a lot better in Qualifying and the main thing is we found the balance. The main race is tomorrow, I’m hopeful we will have good pace, we are looking better on the long runs and I think it is coming to us. The target will be to go with the leaders and try to get through the field, I think we can be competitive. I think we have made some good progress today and that’s really positive.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER – CEO and Team Principal
“We changed a lot of things on the car and we have given Max a car that he’s been able to go out and deliver the pole in. That’s our first official pole since Austria, so that is fantastic for everyone and a great team effort. Checo made similar setup changes to Max, his were a little less aggressive and it was good to see him in Q3. It was an important qualifying for the team and it’s great to be starting from the front for the race tomorrow. Hopefully the changes we made to the car for qualifying can play out in the race as well and we have a successful Sunday.”
Visa Cash App RB
YUKI TSUNODA – Sprint 17th/ Qualifying 14th
“It wasn’t an easy day. In terms of performance, I think we were quite similar to yesterday. In Q1 we found traffic and we were on the edge with the lap time, but luckily we managed to get through and, after that, we had a clean Q2 where I felt I gave all with my lap. Unfortunately, it just seems we didn’t have enough pace and P14 was pretty much the maximum we could reach today. We’ll look at the data overnight from the Sprint and qualifying to try and understand where we can improve for the race. It won’t be easy tomorrow, but we’ll do as much as we can and will try to maximise everything.”
LIAM LAWSON – Sprint 16th/ Qualifying 17th
“There was a bit of traffic when I started my last lap and when the margins are hundredths of a second, it’s frustrating. My tyres weren’t quite ready, which compromised the start of my lap. I couldn’t improve on my first lap time, which has put us out of position. Tomorrow’s going to be tough and we struggled in the Sprint today. We’ll work as hard as we can as a team for tomorrow and find opportunities on track.”
TIM GOSS – Chief Technical Officer
“Friday’s promising Sprint Qualifying grid position for Liam was unfortunately badly compromised on the first lap of the Sprint. A lack of grip and dirty tyres from running wide made defending position very difficult. Coupled with this the floor became badly damaged, meaning there was little chance of recovering lost places. Qualifying was very tight. We couldn’t repeat our performance of Friday’s Sprint Qualifying. The combination of cooler temperatures and hard compound tyres meant tyre preparation proved to be a major feature of the session, with teams trying various different combinations of preparation laps to varying success. Fundamentally the car balance remains good and we are confident both drivers can fight for points positions in the race.”
