20/09/2025
NEWS STORY
Pierre Gasly: "It was very tricky out there today with such strong winds. Sorry to the team for the mistake, which, regardless of the conditions, is on me.
"I just tried to brake marginally later into Turn 4 and as soon as I braked, I lost the rear and had to avoid the corner and go straight. I may have been caught out by a high gust of wind, but it is disappointing not to have put together that lap as it looked close to progressing to Q2. I was improving and we needed to take some risks to go through. We will try and get something from the race tomorrow. The car is difficult here, especially in finding any consistency, and we are just not at ease. We will try our best in the race and see what we can do to maximise our end result."
Franco Colapinto: "The car felt much better today and we made some good steps forward from yesterday. The first run on Softs in Qualifying was already looking more positive and we were in the mix to get through. I was up on my delta at the start of the final lap in Q1, but a big gust of wind into Turn 4 meant I lost the rear completely and made contact with the wall on the outside. Wind tends to play a major factor here, but it seemed more so today with gusts catching a lot of people out with multiple incidents and stoppages throughout Qualifying. It's a pity that we didn't get to complete the lap, as I felt with how the car was feeling, we had a good chance of getting through to Q2. Also sorry to the team for the extra work. Let's see what's possible tomorrow as this race tends to throw up a lot of surprises."
Flavio Briatore: "It has not been a good day for the team with both cars out in Q1. This track has proved difficult for us and we appeared to make small steps forward session by session in improving our package. We had to take some risks if we were to progress in Qualifying and both drivers were pushing extremely hard on all their laps. In the end, they were caught out by the tough conditions, much like other drivers were during the session. In any case, not the outcome we wanted and some repairs to do ahead of the race. It will be a tough race and we have to at least aim to be in a position to capitalise on any potential circumstance."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Baku here.