Prema Going for the Win
Qualifying in Spa-Francorchamps finished with Robert Shwartzman in fourth and Mick Schumacher in seventh.
Despite two red flags, the session was positive for the Prema pairing. Robert Shwartzman will start from the second row as he improved on his second set of tyres. The Russian will want a great start from his position to try take as many points out of the lead in the driver’s championship while he’s closest rival starts out of the top ten.
Robert Shwartzman said: “In general, now in qualifying I feel like I’m there to try and fight for pole. The results today were not bad at all, P4, which in Spa means that we can go for it in the races. Today, I expected qualifying to be even better, but with the weather and the messy session it wasn’t easy to get the tyres warmed up and ready. Even if we made a change after the first run to help, in some corners I was still a bit too cautious. That’s probably where I lost time compared to the pole lap. The most important thing now is the race tomorrow. I hope to have really good pace and tyre management. It’s not going to be easy, but we will work as hard as we can.”
Mick Schumacher will not start that far behind him, with less two tenths splitting the teammates but will start down in seventh. He will be on the fourth row and will hope that he can have a drama free start so he can try make some overtakes at the start.
Mick Schumacher said: “Although we had hoped for a bit more than P7, we can still live with this result. Anyway, the decisive factor will be the tyre management over the entire race distance rather than the starting position. Spa also offers some good overtaking opportunities, so I am quite confident that we will be able to fight for the top positions tomorrow.”
Prema will be hoping for a good weekend in hopes of getting the championship battle back within their grasp.
Image Credits: (C) Formula Motorsport Limited
