What the teams said – Qualifying at the 2024 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

Mercedes

Mercedes cut up methods in Q1, sending Russell out on mediums and Hamilton on the softs. However Russell quickly swapped to the softs, and that left the duo needing to run on used softs in Q2. Each have been in bother with the clock ticking down, however managed to scrape via to Q3. As soon as there they simply didn’t have the tempo to battle for the entrance rows, though Russell got here agonisingly near Sainz – winding up simply 0.001s again on the Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton, eighth, 1:15.504

“The automotive felt actually good on Friday however right this moment, I used to be struggling to seek out that very same degree of grip. It was irritating and I feel the small modifications we made going into Qualifying had fairly a big effect. George did a terrific job although and for him to be solely 4 tenths off pole is clearly a superb step ahead for us. Sadly I used to be simply missing some tempo so couldn’t fairly match that.

“Tomorrow we’re probably taking a look at attempting to make up a couple of positions. We’ll do some work tonight to see if we are able to enhance something but it surely’s very arduous to overhaul right here so, except one thing out of the bizarre occurs, we are going to solely be capable to make small features.”

George Russell, sixth, 1:15.234

“I used to be very pleased with my closing effort in Q3. It was a extremely robust lap and general, it was a superb session from my viewpoint. It’s clearly annoying if you find yourself one millisecond behind certainly one of your rivals, however I feel that was the utmost we had right this moment. I feel P6 is due to this fact a good end result. It is rather tough to cross right here so sadly, I’m not forecasting a number of overtakes tomorrow. I hope to be confirmed incorrect although and we are able to achieve some positions.

“The automotive is feeling significantly better than it has carried out in current races. After all it’s all about lap occasions, so we simply have to maintain working away and enhancing. We’ve seen how others have progressed and that provides us encouragement.”

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

“Once you take a look at the hole to the entrance, and our closest rivals round us, you may see progress. P6 and P8 usually are not the positions we need to be. We’ve been saying that for some time, however we are able to see the benefit others have closing. It takes time to try this, so we have to be affected person and that’s the truth in the meanwhile.

“We all know now we have developments within the pipeline that may enhance the steadiness of the automotive. Although our positions right this moment usually are not ok, we’re pointing in the precise course. Tomorrow, we will likely be targeted on maximising the bundle we at present have and aiming to attain some first rate factors.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“We have labored arduous to attempt to shut the hole to the entrance over the previous couple of races. Encouragingly, there are indicators we’re making progress, however we all know we’ve nonetheless acquired a protracted method to go. Neither driver had two new units of the Mushy tyre left by Q3. This may increasingly have value every a spot on tomorrow’s grid whenever you take a look at how shut the gaps are to the automobiles forward. In the end although, P6 and P8 are about the place our present tempo is. It’s encouraging that the automotive’s steadiness across the lap has been improved this weekend.

“We’ll now have to attend and see the place the tempo falls out within the race tomorrow. There did look to be some tyre degradation on Friday, so that ought to assist create some alternative. It’s tough to overhaul right here at Imola although so it is going to probably take some luck for us to be difficult for the rostrum spots.”