After a frustrating qualifying performance, Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley is predicting a tough race at the Albert Park circuit for the Australian Grand Prix where tyre degradation and strategy will play an important part.
In qualifying, Hartley qualified in 16th and was on the cusp of making it into Q2 while team-mate Pierre Gasly only managed 20th after taking a trip through the gravel of Turn 3 in his final flying lap of the first part of qualifying.
“It was a little frustrating today, I think one tenth would have moved us up a few places and the car definitely had it in it," said Hartley. "In the last lap there were a couple of small errors and it’s frustrating to be so close to the cut off to Q2.
"I knew there would be huge track evolution through the run but we decided to go out first – a lot earlier than the other car – which could be considered a disadvantage but it gave us the option to maybe do two laps at the end.
"I think it was the right call, I just didn’t quite get everything out of it to get to Q2. The good thing is the car was definitely quick enough to get to Q2 today.
"This morning was really encouraging in mixed conditions and equally on the long run yesterday, so I think our strength is our long run pace. Once this said, this track it’s probably one of the hardest on the calendar to pass – it’s a tall order!
Looking ahead to Sunday's race, Hartley believes that Toro Rosso will be set for a difficult afternoon due to it being difficult to overtake around the street circuit:
"Tyre degradation will be a big story, so maybe managing tyres and a good strategy can bring us into the game. We’re in that midfield battle, passing will be hard tomorrow and we’ll do our best…we’ll have to wait and see,” he added,
Like Hartley, Gasly highlighted overtaking as one of the problems that he faces in Australia, making a good result potentially difficult to achieve for the Frenchman:
“I’m really disappointed because it’s not the first qualifying we wanted and I think there was potential to get into Q2. It was very close after the first run, but I just pushed too hard and locked up… and that was it, it was the only lap we had and by pushing hard I made a mistake," he said.
"Up until Turn 3 I was two-tenths up on Brendon but this midfield is so tight that we need to get everything right.
"The degradation is quite high around here and at the moment we still don’t know what the conditions will be like tomorrow, so we need to come back and I’ll push hard to overtake.
"It’s difficult to pass around this track so P20 is not ideal, but we’ll do everything we can to gain positions. I think the car definitely has more potential so I’m ready for a fight tomorrow.”
