The Uralkali Haas F1 team drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin qualified 18th and 20th respectively for the Belgian Grand Prix, the 12th round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in 2021 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
A rain shower before qualifying resulted in a 12-minute delay and as a wet track was declared, all but two cars pulled on Pirelli Cinturato Blue rain tires to assess the conditions at the start of Q1. Schumacher completed a timed lap on the extreme rubber, while Mazepin drove an additional lap. During a detour into the garage, both VF-21s switched to the green intermediate compound, as the lap times on the track fell quickly. Schumacher reeled off a number of consecutive fast laps and finished the session in 19th place overall with a 2: 03.973. Mazepin was thwarted by traffic on his final run, putting him 20th – his best lap was a 2: 04.939.
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen mastered the conditions for pole position in Q3 – the sixth pole of the season for the Dutchman. Verstappen’s best Q3 lap of 1: 59.765 beat George Russell von Williams by 0.321 seconds.
Nikita Mazepin: “It was a lot of fun to drive. I’m upset because today was a prime example of why you need experience in Formula 1. When you come from lower formulas, you have rain tires and try to get them to the max driving you have grip. Here you also have the Inters which are much faster and I thought the right tire with the amount of water to stay outside would be wet, but we had to box for Inters earlier had one lap on these Tires – it wasn’t enough to put together a good lap. “
Mick Schumacher: “Challenging conditions, but on the other hand a lot of fun – I enjoyed every second. I think the communication with the team was good today. We managed to make the right decisions at the right time and I think that helped us to be where we are now. I think we can be satisfied with the results we got today, maybe not in terms of ranking, but definitely in terms of the procedures we had and everything in terms of communication was very good . I’m really looking forward to tomorrow – I have a special helmet on, which protects me but is also a good luck charm. I’m very much thinking about keeping it! “
Günther Steiner: “A very interesting qualifying with the rain coming and going. We just tried to do our best and I think it’s not an easy task for our two boys – their first year in these conditions at Spa – but Both brought the cars home safe and sound, which was the most important thing. Now we’re just waiting to see how the weather turns out tomorrow and try to take advantage of it. All in all, not a bad day. “
View our Saturday gallery of Spa here.
The post Belgian GP: Notes on Qualifying Team – Haas first appeared on monter-une-startup.
