Tag: george russell

Russell leads wet first Hungarian GP practice as Perez crashes out

George Russell topped a wet first practice hour at the Hungarian Grand Prix after Sergio Perez spun into the barriers just three minutes into the session. Perez was two laps into his run plan when he dipped his left wheels onto the grass getting on …

George Russell topped a wet first practice hour at the Hungarian Grand Prix after Sergio Perez spun into the barriers just three minutes into the session.

Perez was two laps into his run plan when he dipped his left wheels onto the grass getting on the brakes at Turn 5, sending him sliding out of control towards the outside barrier on exit. His upgraded Red Bull Racing car crunched its left-front corner into the wall, forcing a red flag to retrieve it from the circuit.

“I cannot believe this,” the distraught Mexican said over team radio, acknowledging his rookie error.

A red-flag suspension of around eight minutes was long enough for the dark clouds surrounding the Hungaroring to make good on their threat of rain, with a light shower turning suddenly into a heavy downpour that prevented even intermediate-tire running in the waterlogged conditions.

Drivers began sampling the slippery circuit at the half-hour mark, but it wasn’t until the final 15 minutes that the majority of the field took up a set of intermediates and set some meaningful laps.

The treacherous conditions almost immediately caught out Carlos Sainz, who spun his Ferrari backwards getting on the power out of Turn 3. The car gently brushed the barriers with its left-side tires, damaging his front wing, but he then beached his car on the curb, causing a second red flag. It took a platoon of marshals to push the slick car off the gutter to get the session restarted after less than five minutes of interruption.

The times improved as the session went on and the track gradually dried. Russell was among the last over the line, capitalizing on the best conditions to top the time sheet with a 1m38.895s.

Oscar Piastri was next best for McLaren a meaningless 0.359s adrift, with Lance Stroll completing the top three.

Lando Norris headed Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Charles Leclerc, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant and Nico Hulkenberg to round out the top 10.

Kevin Magnussen was 11th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who ended the session with a damaged front wing, and Alex Albon as the last of the drivers to complete a timed lap.

None of the cars of Daniel Ricciardo, Sainz, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton set a lap time in the conditions, while Perez was unable to rejoin the session owing to his crash.

Russell apologizes to Mercedes for costly Canadian GP error

George Russell apologized to his Mercedes team for the costly error that took him out of fourth place in the Canadian Grand Prix. Mercedes had the ability to split strategies with its two drivers as the only one of the front-running teams with both …

George Russell apologized to his Mercedes team for the costly error that took him out of fourth place in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Mercedes had the ability to split strategies with its two drivers as the only one of the front-running teams with both cars in the top 10 in Montreal, and was running second and fourth with Lewis Hamilton and Russell respectively when the latter hit the wall at Turn 9. Russell admitted he had been caught out by how much the curb unsettled his car after a mistake, and that he cost the team significant points as a result.

“I don’t know if it was obvious from the TV; I just went a bit wide into Turn 8,” Russell said. “I knew I was going to hit the curb, but I wasn’t expecting the sausage curb to have such a violent response, and next thing I’m in the air, I landed and lost the rear, and I’m in the wall.

“It all happened really quite suddenly. Sorry to the team. For sure there was P3, P4 on the cards for us both, but positives to take away that the car was reasonably competitive.”

Russell was able to limp back to the pits and Mercedes checked the damage, replaced his front wing and sent him back out, much to the driver’s surprise.

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“Yeah, I did (think it was race over) to be honest. I was quite surprised that we managed to continue. I was very close to pulling up. I learned from the Silverstone experience (in 2022) not to stop too early. For sure, it’s a difficult pill to swallow. But that’s how the sport should be — one small mistake, you should be punished for it.

“It didn’t feel 100 percent perfect after that, but it was absolutely good enough to drive. I think the rear toe was a little bit out. We could have got home in P8. But we were in a lot of traffic, and the pre-race predictions, we weren’t obviously expecting to be in that position, hence why we got the brakes in the wrong place.”

The issue with the brakes eventually forced Russell to retire, and he believes it wasn’t an issue that Mercedes was likely to be able to have addressed during the race.

“I need to look into it with the team, but I’m pretty sure it was just because I was in so much traffic we weren’t planning to be, and the brakes weren’t in the right spot.

“It was all quite sudden when it was too late. I think the thing with brakes, once you go over a certain oscillation threshold, there’s no recovering. It does’t matter how much you nurse them. They’re just on a rate you can’t recover.”

Hamilton leads Mercedes duo atop extended Canadian FP2

Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have topped the mostly dry second practice at the Canadian Grand Prix. Dark clouds descended on Montreal, but rain held off until the final five minutes of the 90-minute session, allowing teams to …

Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have topped the mostly dry second practice at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Dark clouds descended on Montreal, but rain held off until the final five minutes of the 90-minute session, allowing teams to complete dry qualifying and race simulations uninterrupted.

The track was declared wet in the final 10 minutes in anticipation of the thunderstorm crawling towards the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, leading to the bizarre scenes of most of the field fitting intermediate tires but lapping a still-dry track.

Most drivers completed only one lap on the wet-weather rubber before returning to pit lane and calling it a day — only for heavy rain to lash the circuit just a few minutes later.

Aston Martin, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo sent their drivers back onto the wet track, as did McLaren with Lando Norris, but the intensity of the downpour quickly exceeded the capacity of the intermediate tire.

Bottas came close to disaster after aquaplaning off the track and onto the grass at the hairpin, where he almost collected Charles Leclerc before getting his wayward Alfa back under control.

He wasn’t the only driver to slip and slide his way around the track in the heavy weather, and the drivers who had braved the tricky conditions all returned to pit lane as the session ended.

Hamilton ended the day quickest on his soft-tire run early in the session, clocking in at 1m 13.718s. Russell followed just 0.027s off the pace, with Carlos Sainz completing the top three for Ferrari at 0.126s adrift.

Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest in his upgraded Aston Martin car, the Spaniard 0.326s down on Hamilton time but 0.05s faster than Charles Leclerc, who appeared to have rediscovered confidence in his Ferrari after a difficult weekend in Barcelona.

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Title leader Max Verstappen was only sixth fastest and 0.424s off the pace, but both he and teammate Sergio Perez, who was eighth, set their fastest laps on the medium tire.

Perez had in part scotched the team’s first runs when he clobbered the curbs and came close to the barrier at the exit of Turn 7, forcing him to abandon his lap and prompting Verstappen just behind him to likewise call off his lap.

Their second attempts were then curtailed by a red flag for Esteban Ocon, who stopped on track with a water pressure loss.

Verstappen also complained of problems with his downshifts early in the session.

The combination of problems opened the door to Valtteri Bottas slotting between them in seventh for Alfa Romeo.

Lance Stroll was ninth, his car having spent most of the session in flo-viz paint to assess the team’s upgrade package, while Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.

Oscar Piastri avoided disaster late in a brush with the wall of champions out of the final chicane but was able to continue to 11th ahead of Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

Zhou Guanyu was 14th ahead of AlphaTauri teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck dr Vies.

Alex Albon was the sole operator of the Williams upgrade package, which he took to 17th in the standings ahead of the stopped Ocon and teammate Logan Sargeant.

Nico Hulkenberg was last in the order after his engine failed just 11 laps into the session, which was stretched to 90 minutes to compensate teams for the written-off FP1 earlier in the day, which was abandoned due to CCTV issues.

Hamilton collision ‘a massive miscommunication’ – Russell

George Russell says a “massive miscommunication” was to blame for his collision with Lewis Hamilton on the pit straight during qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix. Hamilton was on the racing line starting a timed lap when Russell pulled to the …

George Russell says a “massive miscommunication” was to blame for his collision with Lewis Hamilton on the pit straight during qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton was on the racing line starting a timed lap when Russell pulled to the right to pick up the slipstream from Carlos Sainz on the run to Turn 1, but Russell then moved back across to the racing line to pass the Ferrari. With Hamilton already alongside, the pair touched and Hamilton lost part of his front wing. Russell says he was unaware his teammate had approached so quickly.

“Just a massive miscommunication,” Russell said. “I was looking ahead trying to get the slipstream from Carlos, and next thing Lewis was there. So, we need to talk internally how that happened because two teammates, that should never happen. It wasn’t either one’s fault; Lewis probably just didn’t know I was starting a lap too.”

Russell had needed to back off and start a lap again at that point and ended up dropping out of qualifying in 12th place, saying he was really struggling to get the Mercedes working on a low temperature and greasy track surface.

“Well, the car wasn’t feeling OK every single lap of the session — we made some small changes from FP3 to qualifying; the car was bouncing a lot in the high-speed corners. The corners that were easy flat during practice, I couldn’t take flat, couldn’t get the tires working.

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“It kind of all went wrong — from the first lap in Q1 I knew we weren’t going to be having a good day. It was strange, we should be capitalizing from conditions like that, and we usually do, as a team we’re usually good when it’s challenging, but today, on my side, it wasn’t there.

“I think it was pretty telling the first lap in Q1, (Nico) Hulkenberg P1, 1.5s quicker than what we could achieve. I was trying all sorts with the out-lap, all sorts with pressures, probably just got ourselves a bit lost and confused.

“The second change we made into quali definitely was directionally wrong for those cold, damp, greasy conditions. Which is a shame, especially as I think we have a fast race car. In FP2 we probably had the second-quickest car after Max (Verstappen) ahead of the Ferraris.”

Despite the frustrating day, Russell believes he can make progress in the race as the Mercedes showed encouraging race pace on Friday.

“Not all is lost, just need to be patient tomorrow and try and come back through,” he mused. “Yeah, definitely more hopeful, unless we have any incidents we should move forwards; but as I said, just a bit disappointed we are where we are.”

Hamilton fears he’s facing Q2 exit if Mercedes can’t find speed

Lewis Hamilton believes he will need to find a step forward with his Mercedes overnight or he could struggle to reach Q3 in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix. Mercedes was able to gather data relating to its upgraded car during Friday’s two …

Lewis Hamilton believes he will need to find a step forward with his Mercedes overnight or he could struggle to reach Q3 in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Mercedes was able to gather data relating to its upgraded car during Friday’s two practice sessions but Hamilton ended up 11th overall, over 0.6s off the pace of Max Verstappen and behind the likes of Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas. With teammate George Russell only around 0.15s quicker in eighth, Hamilton believes it’ll be tough for both drivers to reach Q3 if Mercedes doesn’t make improvements.

“I think from the pace that I had today it’s a struggle for me currently to get into the top 10, but hopefully we’ll do some changes overnight,” Hamilton said. “I think it’s very, very close between us and that middle bit, after P5 back to kind of P10. It’s really close between us all.

“It’s impressive to see the improvements that everyone seems to have made all around us. You look at (Esteban) Ocon — the Alpines are doing great, you saw the Aston Martin was second just right behind the Red Bull which is really, really impressive. So it’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure.”

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Although a number of changes were made to the Mercedes in Monaco, Hamilton hints there are still familiar characteristics relating to the car’s limitations.

“Yeah, it’s OK. I mean, we’re fighting as hard as we can. I would say it was a difficult FP1 and FP2, just getting on top of the tires and the deg. The car feels like the car.

“It’s so different from last week, of course. I think the long-run pace didn’t look terrible, and we’ve just got to work on trying to figure out how we can extract more over a single lap.”

Hamilton was a fan of of the new track layout, however, with the chicane in the final sector removed.

“Ah, it’s awesome! It’s very fast. I definitely prefer it to the small chicane that we had in the past. It’s much more fun. I’ve not followed anyone through there so I don’t know how that’s going to be in the race, but definitely going to make it tough on deg.”

For Russell, the underwhelming start to the weekend is no cause for concern given what he believes is a Mercedes’ tendency to become more competitive as a weekend progresses.

“I think firstly it was fun to drive around this new version of the Barcelona circuit,” Russell. “It’s gone from one of the worst corners in Formula 1 to one of the best corners in Formula 1. So that’s really enjoyable.

“It’s only Friday so we’ve not learned a huge amount, but we will dig into the data tonight. We know that we are not Friday specialists and we often take a step forward on Saturday and Sunday, which is the right way round for it to be. But we are where we are. A lot of people are bringing updates to their cars and we weren’t expecting to be setting the world on fire. We just need to learn what we can from the info we have and try to move forward tomorrow.”

Russell ruing mistake that cost him ‘a comfortable P3’

George Russell was left kicking himself after his mistake in the Monaco Grand Prix cost him a podium he felt was all but certain after his pit stop. Mercedes opted to start with Russell on the hard compound tire in Sunday’s race and ran long in case …

George Russell was left kicking himself after his mistake in the Monaco Grand Prix cost him a podium he felt was all but certain after his pit stop.

Mercedes opted to start with Russell on the hard compound tire in Sunday’s race and ran long in case rain fell or there was an interruption that would allow a quick pit stop. It was the weather that intervened and Russell was running third when it was time to fit intermediate tires, doing so at the same time as Esteban Ocon and Lewis Hamilton and emerging still ahead of both. However, Russell instantly lost both positions after going straight on at Mirabeau and came home fifth.

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“Exceptionally boring race until the rain came down,” Russell said. “Kinda came outta nowhere as it wasn’t on the forecast. Really kicking myself because P3 was almost guaranteed after not pitting. I came out, there was a yellow flag, I backed off and as soon as I touched the brakes I locked up and followed Stroll up the escape road.

“That’s probably a lesson when you’re not on it and you’re not focused you make those mistakes. If there wasn’t a yellow flag there I would have been focusing more and wouldn’t have gone off. Cost the team a comfortable P3.”

Team principal Toto Wolff took to the radio to try and calm Russell down later in the race, but the driver says he was still in control of his emotions just trying to find a release behind the wheel at the time.

“Probably I was venting my frustration at myself. Nothing more than that. As a driver you sometimes want to get the frustration out of your body.

“Not necessarily easy for everybody to understand why and I actually learned my mistake wasn’t actually shown on television until a replay after the race. I don’t think it was actually clear to people that we were effectively P3 on track and lost it. A lot of people text me saying ‘well done on P5’, not realizing I made a big mistake and cost us P3.”

Recovering from his error, Russell reversed out of the escape road but into the path of Sergio Perez who ran into the Mercedes, earning Russell a five-second time penalty that he took full responsibility for and says could have been a race-ending incident.

“Definitely damaged the car a bit. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to continue but it sorted itself out as the lap progressed. I think the toes got bent at the rear end. I felt really uncomfortable in the car but we were the quickest on track during that period so I don’t really know what was going on.

“As soon as I knew we were safe to Charles (Leclerc) I brought it home. But it’s very disappointing when you do everything right for 98 percent of it but that one tiny mistake costs everything.”

Russell leads Mercedes sweep of opening Miami GP practice

George Russell topped a slippery first practice session at the Miami Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes duo left their soft-tire runs until the final two minutes of the session, when the circuit was at its cleanest, with …

George Russell topped a slippery first practice session at the Miami Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes duo left their soft-tire runs until the final two minutes of the session, when the circuit was at its cleanest, with Russell setting the pace at 1m30.125s to pip Hamilton by 0.212s.

It was a strong return for Russell, who spent most of the first 30 minutes having his steering rack changed after rejecting an experimental new part following just two opening laps in the car.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the 2022 Miami winner, was 0.324s off the pace, while Max Verstappen, who set his fastest time shortly after the halfway mark of the hour-long session, was fourth and 0.424s adrift in his Red Bull.

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New surface, but a similarly slippery story. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images

The times were almost a second quicker than they were during first practice at last year’s event in part thanks to a freshly laid track surface. The surface has been repaved following complaints about grip by drivers, but early running has shown the new tarmac to be very greasy offline, with several drivers losing control of their cars when they ventured even marginally wide.

The low-grip conditions bit Nico Hulkenberg particularly hard through Turn 3, where the German’s Haas machine slipped from his control, spun backwards and smacked into the outside barrier on exit.

Hulkenberg had moments earlier set the fastest time of the session as one of the first to sample the soft compound, and that lap was quick enough for ninth at the end of the hour despite the shunt.

Alex Albon, Nyck de Vries and Pierre Gasly also had big spins and slides, among other drivers who saved smaller snaps, but all managed to bring their cars back in one piece.

Carlos Sainz moved ahead of the broken-down Haas driver into fifth, but the Ferrari driver was almost 0.6s off the pace. Gasly followed for Alpine, the Frenchman just bettering Aston Martin teammates Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll

Hulkenberg’s lap was impressive for how early it was set, on a track that was still dusty and greasy. Esteban Ocon completed the top 10 in the second Alpine.

Sergio Perez was a distant 11th, some 1.4s off the pace and a second down on teammate Verstappen, though his sole hot lap also came very early in the session.

Oscar Piastri was 12th for McLaren ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, Albon and Lando Norris.

Zhou Guanyu was 2s off the pace in 17th, just ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and local favorite Logan Sargeant for Williams.

De Vries was last with only 10 laps on the hard tire, having returned to his garage after his early spin and not returned to the track.

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Russell and Verstappen at odds over sprint clash

George Russell says Max Verstappen should have known the risks associated with trying to hold position around the outside of a corner after the two drivers made contact on the first lap of the Azerbaijan sprint. Verstappen started third alongside …

George Russell says Max Verstappen should have known the risks associated with trying to hold position around the outside of a corner after the two drivers made contact on the first lap of the Azerbaijan sprint.

Verstappen started third alongside Russell, whose third place grid spot gave him the inside line for the first three corners, and the Briton made the most of it by claiming the apex of all three and forcing the Dutchman to try to cling on with a wider line to hold position.

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Both got through the first corner cleanly, but Russell’s front-right wheel tagged the left side of Verstappen’s car as they exited Turn 2, tearing a hole in the RB19’s sidepod and causing other minor damage.

Verstappen then slid wide at Turn 3, which gifted Russell the place until after the safety car restart, when the positions were swapped back around for good.

The Dutchman was furious about the collision and made a beeline for his rival in parc fermé, where they engaged in a brief argument captured by television cameras.

“It’s not purposeful, mate,” Russell said. “I’ve got no grip. I’m just locking up.”

Verstappen replied dismissively: “Mate, we all have no grip. We all need to leave a little bit of space”.

Russell walked away from the scene, but Verstappen shouted after him: “But expect next time the same, you know” before calling him a d***head under his breath.

Speaking after the exchange, Russell said he didn’t expect Verstappen to be so worked up about the contact.

“When he came over to me I thought he was coming over to say good battle, nice fight,” he said. “I was very surprised how angry he was.”

Russell said there was no ambiguity in his mind that he was entitled to claim all three corners with the inside line, protesting that it was up to Verstappen to avoid doing damage to his car.

“I think, from my side, his position was already lost,” he said. “Ever since eight years old in go karting, if you’re on the inside at the apex of a corner, it’s your corner, and if a driver is trying to resist a position on the outside, they’re taking a huge risk.

“On lap 1 on a street circuit, I was really quite shocked. He was trying to hold the position, but equally I’m here to fight. I’m here to win. I’m not just going to wave him by because he’s Max Verstappen in a Red Bull.

“He’s leading the championship, it was a little bit surprising from my side. I’ve got less to lose, and I went for it. Part of racing.”

Speaking to Sky Sports, Verstappen said Russell lacked perspective in trying to barge past a faster car.

“I mean it’s a bit of common sense,” he said. “I think you just have to picture yourself as well – I mean, [Mercedes] are off the pace, and to risk that much on lap 1 I think it’s not very rewarding anyway because I will get him anyway in the next few laps.

“The potential to damage your car as well, not only my car — of course I had a hole in my sidepod, but he could also get a puncture and then his race is over as well.”

The Dutchman suggested Russell lacked experience battling at the front.

“I would [have tried] to fight but not run into someone, because that’s not what you want to do – but that’s something maybe you also learn over time.

“I mean, of course I had my moments as well when I just started in Formula 1 where you make some silly ,mistakes or lock-ups or potential damage. Maybe it’s just part of the learning curve.”

Russell frustrated by red flag call that hampered win hopes

George Russell believes he was set to win the Australian Grand Prix before a red flag took him out of contention ahead of his retirement. The Mercedes driver had taken the lead off the line with Lewis Hamilton also overtaking Max Verstappen, to run …

George Russell believes he was set to win the Australian Grand Prix before a red flag took him out of contention ahead of his retirement.

The Mercedes driver had taken the lead off the line with Lewis Hamilton also overtaking Max Verstappen, to run one-two early on. He then took advantage of Alex Albon’s crash to make a pit stop under the safety car that looked to have strengthened his hopes but the red flag was then used to clear the track. Russell was left annoyed by how it allowed others to have a free stop.

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“I thought the red flag was totally unnecessary,” Russell said. “There was obviously quite a bit of gravel on the track but there was a clear racing line and we’ve seen it far worse in the past.

“It’s reminiscent of the decision last week in Saudi to bring out the safety car when the car was totally off the track. So I don’t really know what’s going on with some of the decisions at the moment — we’re all trying to work together with the FIA to improve things but it’s seemingly a bit of a challenge.

“Frustration and disappointment, because on a track like this you can’t overtake after the pit stop and when I saw Max and Lewis not pitting I was really surprised. I came out in P7 on the new hard, they were just ahead — I was thinking the race is ours now.

“I see no reason why we couldn’t have won the race today, seeing how close Lewis was to Max and the pace we’ve shown the past couple of weekends has been really strong. Max would obviously have had to pass Lewis as well, but it could have been our race this weekend.”

Russell had recovered to fifth after the restart but was then forced to retire with a power unit issue and says he wants to see the Mercedes potential rewarded with results after some positive pace at times.

“I feel like Saudi was probably on par with my best race weekend in F1 with probably Brazil last year, and again this weekend, the same again. I feel really comfortable in the car, the team is giving me the right tools, we’re getting the setup in the right window week-in, week-out and we’re ticking a lot of boxes.

“I feel like there’s nothing really more that we can be doing. It’s obviously frustrating to not see the hard work and the good work transpire into a good result.”

Russell bemused by ‘chaotic’ Alonso penalty confusion

George Russell faced a roller coaster of emotions both during and after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as he was unaware of the status of penalties for Fernando Alonso. Aston Martin took a five-second time penalty – given to Alonso for being out of …

George Russell faced a roller coaster of emotions both during and after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as he was unaware of the status of penalties for Fernando Alonso.

Aston Martin took a five-second time penalty — given to Alonso for being out of position on the grid — during his pit stop, but Russell thought it was still to be applied after the race when he was trying to chase down the Spaniard. Ultimately Alonso received a 10-second time penalty for not serving the original penalty correctly, promoting Russell to third place before the decision was overturned, something the Mercedes driver thinks is reflective of the pace that was seen.

“It was very chaotic for us because I knew he had a five-second (penalty) for being out of his grid slot,” Russell said. “I didn’t realize that he served that during his pit stop in the safety car.

“So, after the restart, I had Lewis (Hamilton) right behind me, trying to overtake me, and I was like, ‘Guys, we need to not fight with one another yet, we need to make sure we save the tire and we have them at the end, so we can both finish ahead of Fernando with his penalty.’ They then told me that he’d already served this penalty, so I was a bit confused and frustrated with that news.

“It was only in the last five laps I found out that he might be getting a(another) penalty. That’s when I pushed like a madman trying to close that gap. But to be honest, I think Fernando and Aston just had pace in their pocket, and they look really solid at the moment.”

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Speaking before Alonso’s third place was reinstated, Russell felt both the original penalty for the grid slot infringement and the potential larger one post-race were unfair.

“I think it was very harsh what happened to Fernando, in all honesty, I feel like some of these penalties have been a little bit too extreme, what we’ve seen this weekend for some drivers that we saw in qualifying and for what happened to Fernando.”

As for Mercedes’ uptick in performance, Russell concluded, “We definitely made a step in the right direction. I think, above all, we just truly maximized the potential of the car. We had a really strong qualifying, which was really enjoyable. I’m really pleased to come home in P4 on the road because I felt like that was the maximum that was possible. I was having fun out there — the car was feeling good. And we know we’ve got some more performance in the locker, in some races to come.

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