PREMA Suffer Bittersweet Qualifying
PREMA had a bittersweet qualifying in Monza. The team showed good pace but could not fight for pole and had to settle for seventh and 16th for the Feature Race.
Mick Schumacher was a leading contender for pole and recorded the best time at the end of the early runs with the first set of tyres. Unfortunately, on a late flying lap, he lost control of the car and went into the barriers at Ascari.
Schumacher said: “Today misfortune and luck hit at the same time. The car felt good, and after the first attempt, I was on first place. In my last lap, I tried hard to improve my lap time again. Unfortunately, I lost the car in the third sector. That’s a shame because the lap was very fast until then, but luckily the damage is limited, as P7 is still a decent starting position. I’m very sorry for the team for the extra work shift now. I will try my best to get a good result for the guys in tomorrow’s race.”
Robert Shwartzman was caught out by the resulting red flag while he was down in 16th. The session was not restarted so the Russian will have to start the there for the start of race one.
Shwartzman said: “It has been a really bad qualifying for us here in Monza, as we have been lacking the speed. It feels strange because I like this track a lot, and last year I was really strong here. I pushed as hard as I could, but we are so far off from the other competitors, and we really don’t know why. It’s a bit confusing because probably last weekend we had the best car, and we haven’t done anything differently. I hope that we will find what is slowing us down and fix it for tomorrow. Here at Monza, with good pace, we can still recover.”
Both PREMA drivers will want to keep out of the usual first lap, middle of the pack drama and pick up a few places to help with their Championship campaigns.
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Picture Credit: (C) Formula Motorsport Limited
