Losail International Circuit, Saturday 20 November

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and Team Principal Andreas Seidl after Qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix.

LANDO NORRIS, #4

FP3	1m23.895s (+1.585s)	16 laps	13th
Q1	1m22.839s (Softs)		14th
Q2	1m22.216s (Softs)		9th
Q3	1m21.731s (Softs)		6th

"Very happy with today. We made a good amount of improvement from FP3 into qualifying and we weren’t expecting P6. I'm definitely pleased with that, especially because it wasn’t an easy P6, but it was done with probably one of the best laps I’ve done in qualifying for quite a long time. I'm satisfied with my job and what we did as a team as well. That helped us out today. So, a positive day overall. We didn't get through on the Medium tyre, which is the only negative – that's going to make our life a little more tricky than we want tomorrow, but we still have a good opportunity to score some solid points."

DANIEL RICCIARDO, #3

FP3	1m23.711s (+1.401s)	14 laps	11th
Q1	1m22.688s (Softs)		12th
Q2	1m22.597s (Softs)		14th
Q3	-

“Obviously not a great session in terms of position. I’d have loved to have been more competitive, but I just struggled to find those last few tenths. It felt like if I tried to find it, I’d gain a little bit here, but lose it in the next part of the corner. I got to a little bit of a stalemate with where I could improve. So, still some things to look at and work on and see where the time is. I think it’s just a little bit everywhere. No big mistakes or errors, just lacking that extra half-a-tenth in some corners. We’ll try to do something tomorrow from where we are. We’ve got strategy choice, but obviously we’re quite a long way out. We’ll see what we can come up with tonight.”

ANDREAS SEIDL, Team Principal

“Mixed feelings after our first qualifying session at Losail with P6 and P14 on the grid. Lando managed to improve run-by-run through qualifying, nailing the final lap which gave us a good P6 to start the race from tomorrow. Unfortunately, on Daniel’s side we couldn’t manage to find that last tenth in Q2, which meant P14 for him.

“We’ll work up different strategies for both drivers to advance in what promises to be an exciting first Formula 1 race here in Qatar.”

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