Sebastian and Lance completed plenty of laps in FP3, but both drivers were unable to make progress during a rainy qualifying.
Free Practice Three was a productive session, with Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team's drivers completing 51 laps.
For qualifying, the rain arrived shortly before the session and both Sebastian and Lance were unable to progress to Q2 in the tricky conditions.
Sebastian
Sebastian spent the early part of FP3 testing out the Medium-compound tyres.
Rain was anticipated later in the session and this meant that a switch to Soft tyres came early on.
Sebastian spent nine laps on the set of tyres and his best time was 1.30.491.
He switched to a second set of Soft tyres as the rain never materialised and improved to 1.29.593 to go 12th fastest after completing 25 laps overall.
Practice report by Aramco
FP1 was interrupted by persistent rain showers that meant few laps were completed, while Lance was the fastest of the two Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team drivers in FP2.
The Intermediate tyre was the preferred option for qualifying as rain arrived shortly before the session. Sebastian was one of the first drivers out on track, but abandoned his first flying lap to return to the pits.
He finished on a new set of Intermediate tyres, setting a best time of 1.42.666, although this wasn't enough to progress to Q2 and he finished in 18th position.
"A Saturday performance like this makes Sunday really difficult. But all we can do is turn the page and see what we can do tomorrow.
"We did not have the pace today and we know we can do better. We need to learn our lessons, understand where we are losing out, and improve for next time."
Lance
After doing two very short runs on the Medium tyres at the start of FP3, Lance switched to the Soft tyres for the remainder of the hour of running.
On his first set of Soft tyres, he did a best time of 1.30.387.
With his second set, he improved to a 1.29.892 to finish 16th with 26 laps on the board – the most of any driver in the session.
As the track was hit by rain for the start of qualifying, Lance ran the Intermediate tyre throughout Q1.
On his first set of tyres, he put in a best lap of 1.44.009. He returned to the pits late in the session for a second set of Intermediate tyres and improved to 1.43.430. He will start the race from P20.
"At the end of the session, we tried a new set of Intermediate tyres, but I had a terrible out-lap getting caught in traffic and it was really difficult to generate enough temperature at that point.
"With only one push-lap at the end of the session, my tyres were not warm enough to be able to put in a respectable qualifying time.
"I am disappointed to be starting at the back of the grid, but hopefully the weather will improve and we will have a more successful race."
Mike Krack, Team Principal
"Today we did not do a good enough job. The rain made things tricky, but that was the same for everyone.
"To qualify 18th and 20th for our home Grand Prix is a big disappointment, especially as the team had worked so hard to ready our aero upgrades in the short time available.
"Tomorrow it will be difficult to score points, obviously, but we will do our very best."
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