Front row start for PREMA Racing and Robert Shwartzman in Barcelona

                                                                                                                                                                

PREMA Racing experienced a torrid yet exciting day at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Spanish venue, home to round six of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, provided an extreme environment for the competitors, featuring really hot conditions all-day long. That resulted in a challenging qualifying session which eventually saw Robert Shwartzman end up in second place. 

The Russian rookie led the way in the opening run with the first set of tyres, then kept his name at the front end of the charts in the second stint. He eventually managed to secure a front-row start and wrap up his best qualifying result in the series.

Mick Schumacher brought home a valuable placing too by rounding out the top-5. The 21-year-old German continued to show great form and put up a highly competitive pace right from practice. With the persistent heat, the challenges will be both physical and technical for the races, which will include high tyre degradation. However, today’s good pace raises the confidence ahead of tomorrow’s feature Race.

#20 MICK SCHUMACHER

“With fifth place on the grid, we are close to the front and in a decent starting position to fight for the podium tomorrow. My first attempt today was very good and with five drivers within a tenth of a second it was incredibly close halfway through the session. Unfortunately, I couldn’t improve with the second set of tyres. I’m really looking forward to the race, because we made a very strong impression in free practice today.”

Qualifying: P5

Fastest Lap: 1:28.889

#21 ROBERT SHWARTZMAN

“It has been quite a hot session. I’m really happy with how I improved from free practice, it was a pretty big step. The car balance was really good even if we still have a few things I would like to improve. Generally, we have a great pace and both runs were consistent. Unfortunately, the second was not fast enough to get pole. Indeed, P2 is a good place to start from tomorrow. It feels great to have such a solid starting point after two challenging weeks at Silverstone. We just need to focus on a good start and not make any mistake.”

Qualifying: P2

Fastest Lap: 1:28.564

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing