Reb Bull Ring, Friday 8 July 

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and Executive Director, Racing, Andrea Stella after qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.

FP1	1m09.915s (+3.613s)	14 laps	20th
Q1	1m06.330s (Softs)		8th
Q2	1m25.847s (Softs)		15th
Q3	-

“Tough qualifying. We should’ve been in Q3 but we had a few problems today that haven’t allowed us to be pushing anywhere near as much as we should have been, which is disappointing. I had a braking issue in qualifying that meant I couldn’t confidently push and set a representative lap. Technical issues got us down today, but that happens sometimes. We’ll work hard to fix them, come back stronger tomorrow and try and make up a few positions in the Sprint before the Grand Prix on Sunday.”

FP1	1m07.743s (+1.441s)	25 laps	17th
Q1	1m06.613s (Softs)		16th
Q2	-
Q3	-

“Being out in Q1 is never nice, and not what we wanted here. We had a few things we had to solve after a disrupted FP1, but not enough to put us out in Q1, so I don't want to use that as an excuse. We’re simply still a bit off the pace, and on such a short lap, with everything so close, it costs you. 30 milli-seconds would have put me in Q2, the margins are that small. The lap times are what they are. We’ve got to work on it now. We’ve got a long weekend ahead, so my focus moves to taking opportunities as they come. We’ll have a chance tomorrow in the Sprint to make up some spots and then a chance on Sunday where most of the points are handed out. We’ll look to the rest of the weekend and get after it to make it better.”

ANDREA STELLA, Executive Director, Racing

“The first day of this Sprint event has been difficult, with many issues impacting both our preparation for qualifying, and our qualifying performance itself. Fortunately, this is a long event. On Daniel’s side, we had a compromised FP1 that disrupted his preparations for qualifying. With very fine margins determining progression to Q2, and elimination in Q1, every tenth of performance we can extract from the car can make all the difference. Before experiencing a problem with his braking system, Lando demonstrated that our car had the pace to be in Q3 and fighting at the top of the midfield, so we’ll do our best this evening to solve our issues and be ready to fight for points tomorrow in the Sprint and on Sunday in the Austrian Grand Prix.”

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