Despite knowing the qualifying in Hungary would offer potential for a good result with the characteristics of their car, Toro Rosso didn’t imagine that their drivers would be lining up in P6 and P8 for the race on Sunday. The wet conditions worked in their favour and the correct decisions on tyres help on achieving the good result.
“It was a crazy qualifying for us, especially in these conditions but I’m super happy with the outcome! It was very tricky to keep the car on track, but the team made a fantastic strategy with the tyres and I managed to put a good lap in. It was super difficult but I really enjoyed it," said Pierre Gasly.
"When I saw the rain coming before Qualifying I thought there could be an opportunity, and the result of P6 is just incredible, especially after the tough few weekends we’ve had, it’s really an unbelievable result for the team. To get both cars into Q3 was a great job and it’s a mega day for Toro Rosso. It’s really important to have a good Qualifying here as it is hard to overtake and in the race we’ll give the others around us a hard time! I think we have good pace so we need to stay focussed and prepare well for tomorrow.”
Both Toro Rosso drivers have little experience in wet conditions but they were able to extract the maximum from the car. In Q3 there was only one lap that was going to count and both drivers gave it their all. The team held the cars in the pit stops with the aim of crossing the line right at the end of the session and this worked well too.
“The conditions were really tricky out there, but I’m incredibly happy to make it into Q3 for the first time," said Brendon Hartley.
I had a couple of little mistakes at the end of Q3 when I started pushing the limits and I fell just short of Pierre’s time, which put us in P8. The whole way through Qualifying the team did a brilliant job with communication and strategy and the car felt good. I think we’re always hanging around the top 10, and to get both cars through today is a really big achievement. It’s quite hard to pass here so I need to have the best possible start and a good first lap. There might be some strategy in play as it’s a little bit of follow the leader around here, so hopefully we can hang on to a points position tomorrow.”
