Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Q1 produced mixed results for Bearman and Ocon – the opening stage of knockout qualifying. Both drivers were in search of pace following a frustrating final practice earlier in the day. An early run on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires was followed by two new sets of Red softs to attack the session. Bearman banked a best lap of 1:16.571 for P11 – the British racer progressing into Q2. Ocon’s final hot lap – a 1:17.073, left the Frenchman P17 and out of qualifying.

Q2 saw Bearman clock a 1:17.500 on scrubbed softs before bolting on a fresh set of rubber to log a faster lap of 1:16.389 for P15 – with only the top 10 advancing to Q3.

Sunday’s front-row is an all-British affair after Q3 wrapped with George Russell of Mercedes (1:14.679) claiming pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the Scuderia Ferrari (1:14.743).

Ollie Bearman:

"It's been an incredibly tough weekend. I felt like we made progress between FP1 and FP2, but overnight we've taken a step back and FP3 wasn’t good – this morning was incredibly tough. We reverted back to a known baseline and honestly I don't think we could've done more today. I was happy with my lap in Q1 where we were a bit more competitive relative to the others, but they only used one set of tires, some two, whereas we used three. In Q2 everything was a bit more equalized. I'm quite positive for tomorrow though as we had good race pace yesterday and I think in the race we can be more competitive."

Esteban Ocon:

"Today was supposed to be much better than what we achieved. We had a deployment issue on the second run which put us on the back foot as we were actually fast on the first. On the third run when you get the references that you're faster in some straights and slower in others, it's not going to go super well as you can't really optimize the last lap. Even though we did a good job with the car, it’s a shame we couldn’t get more. Anything is possible tomorrow though, it's going to be a long race and there will be a lot of pit stops, so we’ll see what we can do."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

"It's been a pretty tough day. I think on Ollie's side of the garage we managed to come back from the issue in FP3 where the car wasn't very good. Some of it we understand, some we don't, so that's an issue. From FP3 to qualifying both cars were better, which is good, but the bad thing is that the drivers now had a new reference to learn. Everyone knows that these tires are just a one lap tire, which is why we did three runs in Q1. Esteban in his Q1 run had the exact same issue as he did in FP3 in terms of out lap procedure where he didn't get the energy, so as a team, it's not good enough.

“We shouldn’t be having deployment issues on Saturday, we can have it in FP1 but by the end of FP2 everything should've been sorted. That's why in his second run in Q1 Esteban had no reference time. Ollie did a very good job considering everything. His second run in Q2 was a very good lap, but unfortunately, as you can see, the car isn't fast enough. We got the best out of what we could in qualifying, but I don't think we got the best out of the package. We've got lots to review to make sure we get the most out of every session."