McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne will start the team's home race at Silverstone from eighth place on the grid– the highest starting position in his Formula 1 career to date.
The result was a real validation of the efforts of the young Belgian and his engineers, who have worked well together over the past few races to alter their preparation and approach in order to maximise performance.
Stoffel is now eager to see how well he can perform in Sunday's British Grand Prix with the ultimate goal to bring home as many points as possible.
“To take part in Q3 at Silverstone was a bit unexpected. But I've been working very well for the past couple of races, and we've clearly seen the improvements inside the team – in Azerbaijan, in Austria, and here at Silverstone this weekend, Fernando and I largely matched each other's pace. It's obviously a pretty good feeling to have made that extra step,” he said.
“We'd been hoping to get a rainy mixed-condition qualifying for a long time, and I think we were pretty strong in these conditions all session long. Then, when the track got drier, we maximised every chance we got.”
“As usual, it's very close in the midfield pack, and we usually see that some of the others have got a little something extra for qualifying. But I think the mixed conditions really helped us today. Every time I was on track, I managed to bank a good lap-time, and I think ninth in Q3 was really the maximum we could do today.”
Ed: (Seems like those reports in the German media could be true after all!)
