Toro Rosso happy with Verstappen P8 on qualifying for tomorrow's Mexican GP

Max Verstappen (STR10-02, Car 33)

Third Practice Session – Best lap: 1:22.039, pos. 11th, 31 laps
Qualifying - Best lap: (Q1) 1:20.995, (Q2) 1:20.894, (Q3) 1:20.710, pos. 8th

“I’m very happy with P8! It wasn’t an easy qualifying for me today, especially after missing FP2 yesterday and struggling a bit this morning in FP3. But we managed to turn the car around very quickly; to make it into Q3 and manage to put a very good lap together, which wasn’t easy, is great! I’m very happy with today’s performance and it’s nice to be in front of both Force India’s.

Tomorrow’s race will be exciting. It looks like it could rain, and that would be great news for us, as our car is very good in the wet. I like this track, and it’s very special to see so many fans in the grandstands, they are very passionate and you can really feel their support, especially when you come into the stadium section, it’s very cool! Hopefully we can put on a good show for them tomorrow!”

Carlos Sainz (STR10-01, Car 55)

Third Practice Session - Best lap: 1:21.775, pos. 8th, 28 laps
Qualifying - Best lap: (Q1) 1:20.960, (Q2) 1:20.942, pos. 11th

“I’m quite happy with today, we made a big improvement to the car from yesterday to today and I felt much more comfortable with everything. We had good pace and it’s just a pity that we didn’t make it into Q3 – unfortunately we just didn’t put everything together and went out too early on the Option tyre; the track was evolving continuously. But to start from P11 tomorrow is not bad, we can choose what tyre to start the race on and we also have a good chance to score more points. I think tomorrow’s going to be a good day!”

Jody Egginton (Head of Vehicle Performance): “Some good work from the guys last night meant that we could run a full program with Max today and allow him to catch-up the time he lost yesterday. Both cars completed a good FP3 programme this morning and covered the final parts of our race and qualifying preparations. In Qualifying 1 both cars were evenly matched. Carlos was unlucky not to make it through into Q3, he was very close! Max on the other hand got through what was a very close Q2. Unfortunately on his second run in Q3 he locked-up into Turn 1 and flat-spotted his tyre on what should have been his quickest lap, but a P8 is a fair result, we can be happy with that and now focus on what will definitely be an interesting race tomorrow.”

Scuderia Toro Rosso