TGR Haas F1 Team drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman started Saturday’s on-track activities at Zandvoort with the 24-lap Sprint with Ocon finishing 14th and Bearman 15th.
Both drivers gained positions off the line as the Sprint commenced, with Ocon starting P15 and Bearman P17. A processional event followed however with Ocon – on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires, and Bearman – on the Red soft rubber, holding their respective lap one positions of P14 and P15 for the duration of the Sprint.
The afternoon’s qualifying session saw Ocon and Bearman attempting to extract maximum performance from their respective VF-26s. Bearman declared himself confident behind the wheel but was left chasing pace in Q1 – the Brit knocked out at the first stage in P20 setting a best lap of 1:13.826 on a third set of fresh softs.
Ocon fared slightly better progressing from Q1 with a lap of 1:13.544 that placed the Frenchman P15. Running two new sets of the soft rubber in Q2, Ocon’s second run produced a best effort of 1:13.137 to qualify P15 for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.
McLaren’s Lando Norris captured pole position in Q3 with the reigning world champion setting a fastest lap of 1:11.163, with Sprint winner George Russell making it an all-British front-row with P2 in his Mercedes (1:11.265).
Next Up:
Sunday August 23 – The 72-lap Dutch Grand Prix starts at 15:00 (Local).
Ollie Bearman:
“The Sprint felt pretty good to be honest, I was quite happy, the tires felt good, and the pace felt decent. I believe the issues we’re struggling with feel less apparent in the race with this type of track, so I was much more pleased with the balance this morning. I’m really confused now after qualifying because the feeling was much better and in the car I was a bit happier compared to yesterday, and even this morning. I felt like I was more confident, but the lap time was even harder to come by. I struggled more to get it out of the car, so it’s quite confusing. We’ll do our best tomorrow.”
Esteban Ocon:
“I think we were lacking a bit to the VCARB in the Sprint as they were pulling away from us, and we were pulling away from Williams behind, so Ollie and I were a bit in no man’s land. We split strategy, so that’s going to be interesting to choose which tire is best for tomorrow. It was quite a shame that the rain only came in the last lap, as it would’ve been fun for those watching. I don’t think we could’ve gone any faster in qualifying, it's three-tenths to the next car in front. I did a very good lap, well optimized, and there wasn’t anything we could’ve done better really. That’s where the performance is, which is difficult to say, but we need updates to come as quickly as they can – which should be the next race – for us to be able to fight higher up. We can do it when the car is healthy, and it’s been healthy for the last two events, so let's hope it can last.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:
“In terms of trackside operation, it was very, very positive. Esteban, again in qualifying, like in Sprint qualifying yesterday, got everything out of the car. What I’m happiest about is how everyone is working together, communication is clear, and that’s probably the best team effort in terms of how we are coordinating, how we’re working together with clarity of communication, it’s really encouraging. The tires are so sensitive here, and when you have a mixture of one timed lap versus prep lap runners, it’s hard to be completely in sync, and Ollie was unfortunate with (Yuki) Tsunoda and (Liam) Lawson, and missed a bit of tire prep, so he didn’t have grip. It’s unfortunate, but at least Esteban showed where the car is, which was ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon, in P15. Tomorrow, we want to finish this weekend on a high operationally, like this, and then get ready for Monza.”
