Qualy quotes: Sauber, McLaren, Williams

Charles Leclerc secured a fourth consecutive appearance in Q2; McLaren and Williams way off the pace.

Sauber

Charles Leclerc: “It was a good day overall. We made some good steps from FP3 to qualifying, and I am pleased to have finished in Q2 again. The track was new to me when I arrived in Montreal this weekend. After the last two days, I definitely feel comfortable driving here, and the car also feels good. Starting in P13 tomorrow is a positive, and I look forward to seeing what we will be able to do during the race to get a good result.” 

Marcus Ericsson: “After a promising Friday, today was more difficult for me. In FP3 I was not as comfortable with the balance of the car. We did some work in preparation for the qualifying session. Initially I felt better – unfortunately, I was pushing a bit too much and touched the wall, damaging the front right. I couldn’t rejoin the session and it was disappointing for me as the potential was there. At the moment, I am struggling a bit to put everything together in qualifying. Regarding the race, as we showed in the last weekends, we have the pace so we need to remain focused and fight back.”

McLaren

Fernando Alonso: “We knew this could be a difficult circuit for us, but yesterday we felt competitive, the car was feeling good and we were fast. Today the car was still feeling okay, but we lost that level of competitiveness. In FP3 we felt a little bit worse and less competitive and unfortunately, we confirmed in qualifying that we were not on the pace today. It’s a disappointing day but the race is tomorrow, and hopefully we can recover some places with a solid start and the right strategy. This is a circuit that provides good opportunities for overtaking, and I still think points are a possible target for us.”

Stoffel Vandoorne: “Today’s result is a bit disappointing. From this morning, we’ve found ourselves in this very tight group, and it seems like we didn’t make a step forward into qualifying. It’s a shame, as yesterday we had good pace going into FP1 and FP2, especially considering we didn’t run the Hypersoft in FP2. This morning we looked to be getting close to being able to get into Q3. In qualifying, there was nothing particularly wrong – the balance was good and I think we more or less got the maximum out of our car if you look at the lap-times – but we’re just lacking pace. It’s a shame we weren’t able to progress further. The race is a different story. There’s a lot to prepare for tomorrow – the race is always interesting here in terms of tyre degradation, especially for the guys that are going to have to start on the Option tyre – so we’ll have to wait and see. Our race pace is usually better, and at least we have the freedom of tyre choice, so hopefully that will give us an opportunity tomorrow. This is also a circuit where we can overtake, so we’ll see what we can do.”

Williams

Lance Stroll: “I thought there was a bit more in it. I locked up in the last chicane on my best lap and that lost something like two and a half tenths. However, it would not have been enough to get into Q2, and not enough to get another position as we were six tenths off Gasly in P16. Unfortunately, we are not as competitive as we should be, but I am still happy with my first run and my performance. In the race it is a whole other story and I hope the race pace will be better, as last time I started 17th here I finished 9th, so anything is possible. This weekend will be very special as it is my home race, I love the energy and I have a lot of butterflies in a good way.”

Sergey Sirotkin: “It’s been a very difficult session. We were struggling to understand how to make the tyre work best in the hot conditions that we faced yesterday in FP2, and today in qualifying. This is crucial as you can play around with the car balance a lot but we missed the peak of the tyre completely. I really tried to be positive going into the session as we have been working on improvements and felt we had a better understanding of the car. However, I am quite disappointed we couldn’t fight.”