We've travelled back to Europe this weekend as Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain plays host to round 10 of the 2024 Formula One World Championship. Get the thoughts of Lance and Fernando after Sunday's action.
Underneath the Spanish sunshine, Fernando and Lance finished P12 and P14 at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Sunday round-up and reaction
Fernando began the Spanish Grand Prix in P10 while Lance started P14. Both opted to begin the Grand Prix on the Soft compound tyre.
Both drivers were on similar strategies. They made their first pit stop for Mediums. Later in the race, both drivers pitted for Hard tyres which they continued on until the end of the race.
Fernando finished his home race in P12 while Lance classified P14.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Race
"We knew today was going to be a challenge, but it was still a tough race out there. We went for the two-stop strategy and, as expected, a lot of the race was spent managing tyre degradation. We weren't competitive enough this weekend, so we have work to do ahead of Austria to find some more performance."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Race
"It was disappointing not to score any points this weekend in front of the home fans. The whole weekend we have struggled with our pace, and we suffered with high tyre degradation in today's race. It's likely to be tough over the next few race weekends, but we will get our heads down, work even harder and look to improve. We have Austria next weekend and then the team's home race at Silverstone."
Mike Krack | Team Principal
"A frustrating weekend for the team but not an entirely unexpected one. It was a race to forget at a track which exposed our known weaknesses. We understand the areas to remedy but we must be patient as they won't come overnight.
"Lance and Fernando did the best with what we gave them today. I would like to thank the fans support we've had this week and rest assured we are working hard to bring more performance."
Next up
We make our way to Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix, which takes place 28-30 June.
Saturday
Fernando qualified P11 for the Spanish Grand Prix while Lance will line up tomorrow from P14.
Fernando was only 0.019 seconds away from getting through to Q3.
Earlier in the day, warmer weather hit the weekend's final Free Practice session, allowing the drivers to gather data on how the tyre compounds perform in higher temperatures.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Qualifying
"We knew this was going to be a tough Qualifying, so I think two cars in Q2 was the most that was possible today. The car is just lacking the pace to fight with the top teams on this track. We got caught in a little bit of traffic in Q1, but we chose to go early and had a fairly clear track for my final Q2 run. Our long run pace looks a little stronger than our qualifying pace, so we'll see what we can do in the race tomorrow."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Qualifying
"It was very close in Qualifying today with just a few tenths between several cars. We were slightly pessimistic heading into the session, so I think we have to be quite pleased with tenth position for tomorrow's race following Sergio's [Perez] penalty.
"The support from the home fans has been amazing and I'm very thankful for this. While we would love to be fighting for something more, we'll see what we can do tomorrow starting inside the top ten and try to maximise our race to score some points."
Mike Krack | Team Principal
"Getting both cars into Q2 is the best we had in the car today. As we have been saying all year, it is incredibly close – Fernando was only a tenth away from P6 but will start P10 with Sergio's penalty. We will work on our prime objective of trying to get both cars into points scoring positions tomorrow; it is potentially going to be a challenging race day.
"There is a possibility of mixed weather conditions which will add another factor to our plans. The home support has been incredible this weekend so we will do our best to reward our fans tomorrow with a strong performance from Lance and Fernando."
Friday
Friday's Free Practice sessions focused on gathering data across different tyre types.
Fernando classified P9 in FP1 and P14 in FP2, while Lance concluded the sessions in P14 and P18.
Fernando lost a piece of bodywork at Turn Nine in FP1, but the team's swift work meant Fernando could get straight back out to set some more laps.
After working on long runs, we'll be analysing the data to draw the correct conclusions and put ourselves in the best position for the weekend.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Free Practice
"It was a challenging day on track for us. We don't have the pace we need, so there’s a lot of work to do ahead of tomorrow.
"This circuit is always high degradation, especially in the heat, so Sunday’s race will be about managing tyres. There’s some rain on the radar, so that could mix things up."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Free Practice
"It's good to be back racing in Spain and seeing the passion of the fans here. It was quite a challenging day with low levels of grip out on track.
"We haven’t found the right window for our car yet, so we definitely have some work to do overnight to try find some more performance ahead of Qualifying tomorrow."
Welcome home, FernandoWelcome home, Fernando
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