Carlin Pleased With Pace in Qualifying

Yuki Tsunoda and Jehan Daruvala are pleased with Carlin’s pace in Sakhir after taking pole and third in a chaotic Qualifying session.

Tsunoda was glad to have taken pole after a mistake last weekend saw him start in last place.

He said: “I’m really happy. Especially from last week in Qualifying. I did a big mistake and I felt really sorry for the team.”

“I’m really happy with the drive to say thanks to Carlin for today, for the pole.”

The Red Bull Junior, who is being tipped for an Alpha Tauri seat in 2021, has been on the pace all weekend.”

After topping the practice session, he took pole position just over a tenth ahead of Nikita Mazepin in the Hitech.

Daruvala was also happy with the car’s pace on the circuit that has caught out many of the drivers on the grid.

However, he did think that he had more potential to show in Qualifying.

The Indian driver said: “I was kind of under powered on the acceleration out of Turn 1, and I didn’t make the most of it.”

“The next lap I found almost six or seven hundredths in the first sector, but the rears were done by then.”

“I think pole was definitely a little bit out of reach, but a front row lock-out for the team was possible.”

Both drivers will be looking to capitalise on their strong qualifying positions is tomorrow’s Feature Race.

The high speed nature of the circuit means that DRS overtakes and slipstreaming could be a major factor and leave the leader vulnerable.

Speaking about the Feature Race, Tsunoda said: “I think the FIA made the distance of the DRS zone a little bit shorter into Turn 1, so that will cause a few difficulties compared to last week.”‘

“There are only a few corners in the middle sector and it’s hard to make a gap from those corners.”

“Still, I think there’ll be a lot of overtakes. I’ll just do my job.”

The Japanese driver is mathematically still in the running for the Formula 2 title by taking the four points for pole position.

However, he would need a perfect weekend to snatch the title away from Championship leader Mick Schumacher, who starts in 18th.

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Image Credits: (C) Formula Motorsport Limited