Saturday: Hülkenberg in Q3, not Perez due to a problem at Force India

Nico Hülkenberg (No. 27) – 17th and 9th

The German is pleased with the progress made between FP3 and the qualifying session, which allowed him to perform well: « Given our performance this morning in the last practice session, I think it was a great effort by the team to make it to Q3 this afternoon. The wind was affecting us a lot, but fortunately the direction changed before qualifying, and it seems to have helped us. Then, it was necessary to remain calm, be meticulous and clean in the laps, and push as hard as possible with the car. »

For the Grand Prix, Hülkenberg appears quite confident: « For the race, I am rather optimistic because our performance on long stints seemed reasonable yesterday and I think we will be in the fight for points. In order to make things work in our favor and beat our rivals, we need to be flexible with the strategy tomorrow because it is usually difficult to overtake here. »

Sergio Perez (No. 11) – 18th and 13th

The Mexican fell victim to an issue with his VJM07 which prevented him from fully defending his chances: « It was a difficult session, with the main problem being the hydraulic leak that affected my car in Q2. This meant I was only able to do one run before parking the car in the garage. Without this, I believe we had the potential to be in Q3, especially because we made a good step forward with the balance this morning. »

For tomorrow, he knows that the race will be complicated starting from far behind but hopes to take advantage of a good strategy to climb back: « It’s a shame not to maximize our potential on this circuit because it’s so difficult to overtake. This means that we will have to try to climb back tomorrow with the strategy. I remain positive for the race because our speed on Friday during the long runs seemed good. »