Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team’s Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel both narrowly missed out on Q3 in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix in an ultra-close midfield battle.
Throughout practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the field has been closely matched and it continued in the same vein on Saturday morning in FP3.
The hour-long session was spent working on the Soft and Medium tyre to refine set-up for qualifying.
Qualifying would then be delayed for 10 minutes as the FIA examined potential track damage before giving the green light for the session to begin.
Lance
Lance began his opening Q1 run on the Soft tyres to lap in 1.19.077 as he competed for clear air on a busy track, which included the sight of a traffic jam at the final chicane.
He would then return to the garage and soon headed back out on a new set of Softs to significantly improve his time.
Staying free of traffic, he was able to lap in 1.18.241 to move well clear of the battle to make Q2 by placing eighth.
Q2 would prove to be a more challenging affair. Lance was one of the first drivers to set a time in the session and initially shot up to third due to his 1.17.974 effort.
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While Lance had been able to improve his lap time on each effort in qualifying, he was unable to do so on his second run in Q2.
It proved crucial as the incredibly tight midfield battle told. Lance was bumped out of a Q3 slot in the last moments of the session.
Lance will start the Spanish Grand Prix from 11th, but he will have the benefit of starting on the clean side of the grid and with a free tyre choice that could further boost his chance of points on Sunday.
"It is a shame to have missed out on Q3 by such a tiny margin – just a few thousandths of a second.
"The positive is that by starting in P11, we have the flexibility to choose our start tyre and that could be crucial because I think tyre wear is going to be a very important factor in the race.
"It is not easy to overtake here, but if we can have a good start and gain places on the long run into Turn One, we can give ourselves a good platform for points on Sunday."
Sebastian and Lance were closely matched throughout Q1 and like his team-mate, Sebastian headed out on a new set of Soft tyres to begin Q1.
He initially lapped in 1.18.895 to place comfortably inside the top 10 and he would find further time on his second run on Softs.
Sebastian’s new best lap of 1.18.289 was more than enough to make Q2 as he picked up momentum.
In Q2, Sebastian was able to continue to improve his pace and would post a time of 1.18.079 to put himself firmly in contention for a Q3 spot.
A wave of late improvements in the extremely close midfield battle would prevent Sebastian from making the top 10 shootout as he was unable to find further time on his second run.
Sebastian will start the Spanish Grand Prix from 13th and, like Lance, has the benefit of both a free choice of tyre and a starting spot on the clean side of the grid.
"My final lap in Q2 was not entirely clean and, when the grid is so tight, those small things can make a real difference.
"I think we had a good chance of reaching Q3 today, but we just found ourselves at the wrong end of the midfield group.
"Because so many teams have similar pace, it will not be an easy race, but we will hang in there, push hard, and see what we can do.
"You never know what can happen in a long race and, if we can look after the tyres and use our race pace, we can race for some points."
Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal
"Lance and Sebastian both progressed smoothly through Q1, duly booking their places in Q2 as they did so.
"We were therefore slightly disappointed that we were not able to make it through to Q3 with either driver – we will analyse why that was now.
"Having said that, Lance will start the race from P11, and Seb from P13, which means that both of them will have a free choice of tyres to start on and both of them will have the advantage of a grid slot on the clean side of the track.
"They should both be in decent shape to race for points tomorrow."
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