French GP: Team Notes on Qualification – Haas

The Uralkali Haas F1 team drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin qualified for 15th and 18th respectively for the French Grand Prix on Sunday, round 7 of the FIA ​​Formula 1 World Championship 2021 on the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Mazepin and Schumacher had to abandon their first Q1 runs because Yuki Tsunoda’s ailing AlphaTauri picked up the red flags after just four minutes in Turn 2. When the session resumed, Schumacher set a lap of 1: 32.942 with Mazepin setting a best time of 1: 33.554. A late fall by Schumacher in Turn 7 ended Q1 and the German’s participation in qualifying prematurely.

In 14th place on the timesheets and as the field was forced to abandon their last flying runs – including those of his teammate – due to the red flag, Schumacher’s best lap time was good enough to advance into Q2 – with the fastest 15 advancing in Q1. However, the German was unable to take part in Q2 due to the damage to his VF-21. Mazepin was eliminated in Q1, the Russian finished in 18th place ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and his rookie colleague Tsunoda.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen took his second pole position of the season and the fifth of his Formula 1 career. Verstappen’s fastest Q3 lap of 1: 29.990 beat Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes by 0.258 seconds.

Nikita Mazepin: “I wasn’t completely satisfied with the car. We have FP1, FP2 and FP3, which give you time to get into the groove and set your time, but Q1 can be completely different sometimes. Unfortunately, I have my lap not getting time done when it had to be done and as fast as it needed to be. When you have two red flags in a session and it is so short, that happens. When you look at the stats, things like that don’t happen often they happen, sleep is obviously a little interrupted on Saturday night, we say. It’s just one of those things. The race is so long that you get where your speed is, so let’s see. “

Mick Schumacher: “I pushed too hard in the corner and that knocked the rear out. The car is very affected by the wind – I don’t know whether the additional oversteer would have triggered. Nevertheless, we are in our first Q2 session of the year, so it will be brighter and hopefully we can get even more of these days in the future. There is damage to the car, how big, we don’t know yet. If everything is okay, we’ll start there And of course it is on paper, and that is important to me. If something happens I have 53 laps to catch up. I am optimistic that we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. The team is getting more and more motivated every day, I’m more motivated every day and these results prove that our hard work grows. “

Günther Steiner: “It would have been a good day if we hadn’t crashed on Mick’s last run. We are still investigating the transmission and whether or not we need to change it. So let’s hope it stays that way, because this would be the first time this year that we are entering Q2. Otherwise, there is nothing great to report as we have just moved on. Let’s hope we can start where we are now. “

Check out our Saturday gallery by Paul Ricard here.