After a spectacular start, Lance and Checo saw all their hard work undone by an untimely Safety Car at Silverstone.
P13 – LANCE STROLL
Strategy: New Medium: 13 laps – New Hard: 26 laps – New Soft: 13 laps
“I think it’s a weekend to forget, to be honest. Things just haven’t
worked out for us. I had a good start and I was up three places by the
end of the first lap. Unfortunately we had to pit earlier than planned
to remove some debris from my left front brake duct and that really hurt
our strategy. We had been aiming for a one-stop race, but ended up
stopping twice because the team changed me to the soft tyre for the
final stint. I think the team was hoping the cars ahead would run out of
tyre life, but unfortunately it didn’t happen quickly enough.”
P17 – SERGIO PEREZ
Strategy: New Medium: 18 laps – New Hard: 6 laps – New Soft: 22 laps – Used Soft: 5 laps
“We were very unlucky today. The first stint was very strong – I was
managing my race, looking after the tyres and we were on course to score
some points. Then, the safety car came out just after I had pitted and
that’s what ruined my race. During the safety car period I also had an
issue with my steering wheel, which affected the brake balance and meant
it was too far forward. That’s why I ended up hitting Hulkenberg
because I couldn’t stop the car enough; I damaged my front wing and
dropped down to last. I cannot believe the tough luck we had today. It’s
so disappointing because we deserved a big result in our home race and
we had the speed in the car to score points.”
OTMAR SZAFNAUER, CEO & TEAM PRINCIPAL
“It’s wasn’t our day and we come away from our home race empty-handed. The safety car proved costly for us with both cars pitting shortly before it was deployed. We had hoped to get both cars home on one-stop strategies, but the safety car hurt us more than most and some of the cars we were racing effectively got a free pit stop. That’s racing and luck wasn’t on our side today. It’s a shame because we had cars capable of scoring points. A brake balance issue for Sergio contributed to the contact he made with Nico [Hulkenberg] and ended any chance of a recovery. We switched Lance to a two-stop race late on, in the hope that the fresh rubber might allow him to pick off some of the one-stopping cars, but we ran out of laps in the end.”