Nikita Mazepin was the 19th best today with his 1:19.303 behind his teammate and right before Lance Stroll who had the crash that caused the only red flag of the session during during Q1. Thanks to the peanlties applied to Russell, Tsunoda, Norris and Ocon will start from the 15^th place.

About the session the Russian driver said, “It was an OK qualifying session – I was happy with the gradual improvement I made. We knew we were missing pace compared to the others at the beginning of the weekend. I ran out wide on the last corner of my final lap which cost me a bit of time but apart from that, the lap was fine.”

Nikita accepted the difficulties he faced over the weekend and tries to remain hopeful “I’ve had a very difficult FP1, FP2 and FP3 so I think we’ve recovered quite well to end up with a car that I’m more or less comfortable with – I tried to maximize what I had today.”

The session didn´t finish without a controversy though. While both Haas drivers were in line to set their last lap in Q1 Mazepin asked the team on the radio to overtake Schumacher because he was too slow but the team said no. The driver accepted the order since it was his time to stay behind after drivers alternate positions each race but wasn´t shy to show his discontent in front of the reporters after the session finished and suggested to Sky Sports that he gave up his position in the past (Zandvoort) and that he feels the rules are not the same to both sides of the garage.