AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries has insisted a mistake during qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix did not influence his failure to reach Q2. The Dutchman finds himself skating on thin ice in F1 having struggled across the opening eight races of his rookie season, and is one of only two drivers to remain scoreless, alongside Williams' Logan Sargeant. Both Red Bull Motorsports Advisor Helmut Marko and de Vries' own Team Principal Franz Tost have indicated his position at the team is precarious, with both looking for urgent progress before F1 reaches the traditional summer break in four races' time. Under pressure, de Vries finished slowest of all in Friday's qualifying session, with an error on his final attempt underlining his struggles. Addressing the failure and pointing to teammate Yuki Tsunoda's inability to reach the second segment, de Vries said: "I think we were not quite strong enough, especially as the session evolved, I felt like we were losing performance. "In my last run, I did a poor Turn 1 - that was my mistake, I think I lost two-tenths so that would have put us a little closer and in the mix. "But nevertheless, I don't think we were quite strong enough to proceed to Q2 on merit."
Same challenge
Drivers were afforded just one practice session under F1's alternative Sprint weekend format, but former Formula E World Champion de Vries was quick to dismiss any influence a lack of running could have had. "It is the same challenge for everyone," he added. "It was just not adapting enough to the changing circumstances, the track temp was cooling down, people were fitting new tyres and the track was ramping up." On his prospects for the Sprint, he said: "It is a new day, a separate day with new opportunities. It is not influencing Sunday and the weather conditions will be different so I guess we will have another shot at it."
Most read
