The weather conditions this morning were sunny, but cold at Paul Ricard for Qualifying 1.
Yesterday we had found it difficult to get the tyre to come on and therefore opted to run the one set of tyres throughout the session. Whilst I continued to get quicker throughout the session, unfortunately I didn’t find a real peak of the tyre which toward the second half of the session grained very badly. As a result I qualified in P15, which is not where we expected to be starting from.
We made a few changes to the car for the race, and I got away to a really good start to move up to P11. Later in the lap I dropped a spot to P12, and after some good battles throughout the middle of the race, I ended up in this position. For the last 6 laps it was a matter of hanging on as the left rear went away quite badly from that point, but the changes the team made to the car were definitely an improvement, so we are moving in the right direction.
So it was very positive to have pushed forward in the race, but I know we have further time to find for tomorrow. I have assessed where there is time I can find in myself, so now all the focus is on Qualifying back up the front for Race 2!
Thanks as always to Mick Kouros and the whole team for today, and looking forward to the morning.
