PREMA has up and down qualifying day at Spa-Francorchamps
PREMA Racing had a difficult qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps. After a positive run in wet conditions, a red flag was called when Jak Crawford fell victim to a spin and had to stop. When the session restarted, the situation improved dramatically, and the field quickly moved to slicks.
The two surviving PREMA cars of Ferrari Driver Academy’s Arthur Leclerc and Ollie Bearman were among the major contenders for pole as the laptimes quickly dropped. It all went down to a final flying lap. Unfortunately, due to a communication issue, Leclerc, like many other leading competitors, was unable to save enough fuel for the last lap and ended up in P20. Bearman showed outstanding speed potential, but a small mistake in the lap meant he had to be content with P8.
#4 ARTHUR LECLERC
“Really tricky qualifying, we’re not happy about what we have done. We had really difficult conditions and I think we put the slicks at the right time. Then there was a misunderstanding between me and the team so I was not able to do the last push lap of it because I didn’t have enough fuel. I’m disappointed because I felt there was much more to be done. In my last lap, I was improving quite a lot, but will start in P20.”
Qualifying: P20
Fastest lap: 2:13.191
#5 JAK CRAWFORD
“Unfortunately, it was a short session for me. I just made a really bad mistake, so I will start last for both races. It won’t be good for the points, but I’ll try my best to have some fun while fighting back.”
Qualifying: P30
Fastest lap: 2’23″648
#6 OLIVER BEARMAN
“We had a difficult qualy, P8 in the end. Considering how it’s looking, I’m not really disappointed, although I feel we had the potential to fight for pole today. I towed the pole guy around, which probably wasn’t the best, but I didn’t really have any other choice. On my final push, which I knew from the start it would have been the fastest, I made a mistake in the wet part of the track at the beginnoing of sector 2. I’m quite lucky to be within the top-8 because the rest of the lap I was quite fast. It’s a bit disappointing, but we will try to maximise the points tomorrow and see where we stand.”
Qualifying: P8
Fastest lap: 2’12″204
Source | Photo: PREMA Racing