Canadians Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi were unlucky on Saturday in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix. Eliminated from the first part of the qualifications, with respectively the 18e and 19e time, they will have to start at the back of the peloton.
Posted at 7:18 p.m.
Yet well placed the day before during free practice, Stroll fought at the wheel of an Aston Martin that was literally undriveable. “It went well yesterday [vendredi] and again this morning, but everything had changed in Q1, explained the driver at a press briefing. We had no grip and, in addition, there was a yellow flag at the end, but I don’t think that would have really made a difference. It’s hard to understand. »
More directly, the German Sebastian Vettel, Stroll’s teammate at Aston Martin, did not hide his anger after his 17e square. “It’s very disappointing because I think we could have had a great result in his conditions, even better than we did in the dry. [quatrième, samedi]. We will first have to try to understand what happened. We did well on Saturday in free practice and nothing was working today. I don’t know where we went wrong, maybe in the preparation of the tyres, but we really couldn’t do better today with this car and it’s hard to accept.
“I’m a little calmer now and you have to think about the race. We’re probably faster than the cars just in front of us, with a good strategy we can come back and maybe get some points. But first we need to understand what happened today! »
For her part, Latifi did not hide her disappointment. Stayed almost two seconds behind his teammate Alex Albon in Q1, he was never in a position to progress. To make matters worse, he had lost precious time on the track during the last free practice session after hitting a groundhog!
Photo David Kirouac, USA TODAY Sports
Nicholas Latifi
“It’s frustrating, of course. I would have liked to do better here in front of the Canadian fans. The conditions were very difficult with little visibility and not much grip. I gave the maximum, but it was really difficult due to the lack of balance of the car. We will work on the car, try to find good settings for the race. We’ll see… ”
Stroll and Latifi should move up at least one place on the starting grid, due to the penalty imposed on Charles Leclerc, but they will still have a heavy task on Sunday to try to obtain a good classification in the Grand Prix.