Sat: STR, Renault, Manor, Sauber

Carlos Sainz made it through to Q2 at the Hockenheimring but none of the Renault, Manor or Sauber were able to progress.

Toro Rosso:
Carlos Sainz Jr: "A very difficult qualifying session. We are struggling here in Hockenheim – we always knew that a power circuit like this one was going to be a challenge for us, as we are not quick enough on the straights. Having said that, I think I put in a very good lap. I feel good in the car and the package is working, but this is the most we could extract from the car today. Tomorrow we will try and fight for more points – of course it won’t be easy but we will surely give it our all and try and finish as high up as possible; it would be good to go on holiday with a few more points in the bag!"

Daniil Kvyat: “I’m disappointed, I didn’t drive well in today’s qualifying session and my last lap wasn’t good enough to get through to Q2 – I lost my references, made some mistakes and just couldn’t put a good lap together. We looked promising yesterday, but today when it really mattered we were just not there. I’m upset and I’m not at my usual level, that’s for sure – we all go through some periods where we don’t feel good in the car and that’s where I am now. I just need to have a bit of a better understanding of what’s going on around me and try and come to some conclusions in order to feel confident in the car again. It’s a tough task to get back to my level, but I’m young and I’m sure we will find some answers soon. The good thing is that I feel that the solution isn’t that far away… We had a good Friday yesterday for the first time in a while, so we need to look into that. Tomorrow is the race and we will try to fight our way back. I haven’t got much to lose so I will just go for it!”

Renault:
Jolyon Palmer: “It’s good to be back in Q2 ! The car is improving overall, there is clear progress. We were close to Q2 in Silverstone, we should have been there for Hungary and now here we are in Hockenheim. I’m looking forward to the race ; we had better pace in Budapest but started lower in P17 than here. I was driving pretty well in Hungary bar one corner, so if I can drive well around the Hockenheimring for every corner then I should have a good chance to score points.”

Kevin Magnussen: “My lap wasn’t the best and I lost out by the smallest amount from getting into Q2. Both cars were very evenly matched and it was Jo that got the upper hand today. We didn’t seem to be able to pick up the pace between FP3 and qualifying as much as our rivals however our long run pace does look more favourable and that’s what we need for a stronger result tomorrow.”

Manor:
Pascal Wehrlein: "We were very close to Q2 today – just 0.15s – but I’m very happy with our qualifying because we managed to stay in front of Sauber, and also a Toro Rosso, which is positive. The team did a really good job, so my thanks to everyone for that. At the moment Renault seem quite strong and especially in the last sector. We’re still lacking a bit of downforce, so we couldn’t keep up today; we were losing half a second to them in that sector. But the most important thing is that we’re in front of Sauber, so I can’t be unhappy. Well, we’ve continued improving through the weekend, so I hope we can do an even better job in the race tomorrow. We can do something from P18 and of course I’ll be trying to get another special start, to make up some places off the line. I can’t wait!"

Rio Haryanto: "Very happy. We managed to improve every time we left the garage today. The times were very close through the field today. I think we’ve done a good job overall and I feel like I’ve taken a good step forward here. Also, we’ve made some good improvements recently and I think we’re seeing some of the benefit of those today. We did a good job to stay ahead of the Sauber and I’m in a better position for the start. Our race pace looks good, so I hope we can have a strong race."

Sauber:
Felipe Nasr: "It has been another difficult qualifying for us. I felt I was on a good lap, although we cannot see it in the result. At the moment, this is the maximum we can extract out of our current package in qualifying. We have saved a set of tyres, so hopefully we can make good use of them in the race. We normally have a decent race pace, so I am confident I can move up a few positions. As always, I will do my best."

Marcus Ericsson: "It is a disappointing result to start the race from the last row. It seemed to be a positive weekend, as we were going in the right direction and also found some positive results with the new rear wing. In terms of the car’s balance, I felt comfortable. But in qualifying, especially, our performance is not good enough. It will be a tough race, but, as always, we will do what we can."