HONDA The Power of Dreams

Qualifying|22nd|1min 18.815s

Qualifying|21st|1min 18.758s

The Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team (AMAF1) took part in qualifying for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in Spain. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had struggled with a lack of competitiveness throughout Friday’s practice sessions and were unable to find the pace needed to challenge higher up the order.

Qualifying for Round 7 of the season got underway at 16:00 local time on Saturday, June 13. Q1 was held in hot conditions, with ambient temperatures of 31°C and track temperatures reaching 51°C.

In the 18-minute Q1 session, both Alonso and Stroll headed out immediately as the session began.

Stroll posted a lap of 1min 19.996s on his first run. He attempted to improve on his second run, but ran off the circuit during the lap and was forced to return to the pits without improving his time. On his third and final attempt, he set his best lap of 1min 18.758s.

Backed by strong support from the home crowd, Alonso recorded a 1min 19.286s lap on his first run. During his second attempt, he was improving his sector times before being forced to abandon the lap when yellow flags were shown following Stroll’s off-track excursion. Alonso returned to the pits and prepared for a final run.

On his third attempt, Alonso lost time in the opening sector. Although he improved to a best lap of 1min 18.815s, it was not enough to deliver the result he had hoped for.

At the end of Q1, Stroll finished 21st and Alonso 22nd, leaving both AMAF1 drivers to start the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix from the back row of the grid.

“We're still suffering from drivability issues here in Barcelona. We're down on downforce, which is especially tough around this track, and we don't have the power we need. We'll see what tomorrow brings.”

“There are no surprises that we qualified at the back as we know this is our level of car performance right now. We had downshifting issues and it was very difficult to drive the car in each Qualifying lap. ”

“It's always special to drive in front of the Spanish fans though, and thanks to them for their amazing support over the weekend.”

“We knew coming into the weekend that this track would expose our true pace, and that is reflected in our Qualifying result. Both drivers and the team gave it everything today, but we have to accept that this is our current position and do what we can in tomorrow's race.”

“There are no surprises in our positions in today’s qualifying with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team. In FP3 this morning, we executed the power unit run plan on both cars with no cooling issues, in spite of the high track temperatures. We also worked on different deployment strategies to prepare for qualifying and tomorrow’s race.”