Guanyu Zhou signed his best qualification of the season with 13th place in Las Vegas. It's also his best qualifying since the 2023 Mexican Grand Prix, and the Stake F1 driver confirms that he enjoys driving the evolved Sauber C44.
“I'm very happy with the car and the package we brought. This morning I wasn't happy with the balance so I didn't prepare much but the car was good and I did good towers” Zhou said.
“I'm happy obviously, it's been a long time since I saw Q2 and this position, I had difficulties and it's not my favorite circuit but we managed to make everything work.”
Can the team finally unlock its points counter? Zhou believes it: “This is the best chance we have since Bahrain and Jeddah, we will try to think of strategies. We can start last and anything can still happen on these circuits, so we will see.”
Valtteri Bottas qualified 19th and will start last with his penalty, and he did not hide a certain disappointment after free practice which had been promising for him and his team.
“I think we saw some promising sessions, and we expected better. But the session was complicated, at the time of Q1 where the track was the best, I didn't do a good lap, and in the second one I had traffic, so it was difficult but it happens.”
The Finn is nevertheless certain that this package of developments is very positive: “I think we've taken a step forward with the new diffuser. We have to see if it's enough for the race pace, but we're going to give it our all.”
