Haas experiences a qualifying session of extremes: Bearman misses out on Q3 by a tiny 0.007 seconds, while Ocon flourishes after a complete turnaround in his car.
Haas driver Oliver Bearman experienced a qualifying session full of ups and downs. After an impressive Q1, it briefly looked as though the young Brit could seamlessly continue his form from the previous day. But at the decisive moment, he lacked that little bit extra that makes all the difference. In the end, he finished 11th by a razor-thin margin.
“Nothing special,” said Bearman about the slump in Q2. “The part of qualifying that broke our neck was the fact that we took one less soft tire into qualifying than our opponents.” This meant he had to drive his first attempt in Q2 on used tires – a clear disadvantage: “The used tire was terrible in qualifying. With the new tire, I then found five tenths, which was completely crazy.“
Despite the enormous time gain, the lap was not perfect: ”I think we were very close to the car’s potential, but it was just a little bit off. It was seven milliseconds off Q3. The lap was clean, but I probably didn’t use all the available grip.”
Bearman is convinced that if he had had the same tire strategy as his competitors, reaching Q3 would have been realistic. “Exactly,” he says when asked if the Q1 performance could have been repeated. “In Q2, I did the lap on used tires, and I aborted my second attempt in Q1 because we were sure we were in. We needed the tire—and that caused me to lose a lot of rhythm.“
”It’s so close”—Bearman still sees opportunities for the race
Despite narrowly missing out on the top 10, Bearman remains optimistic for the Grand Prix. The tire compromise in qualifying could even turn out to be a blessing in disguise in the race. “What set us back slightly in qualifying was that we had one less soft tire. But we have one more medium tire than our opponents,” he explains. “That gives us a lot of flexibility, and that’s exactly what we wanted.”
In retrospect, Bearman would still have preferred to choose an additional soft tire: “If we had known that qualifying would be so close, with the top 15 within three tenths, I would have taken the extra soft to start a little further up the grid.” Nevertheless, he sees the starting position as positive: “I’m happy that we are where we are – with an extra medium compared to the people around us.”
Ocon experiences a 180-degree turnaround: “The best moment of the year”
While Bearman was eliminated by a tiny thousandth of a second, Esteban Ocon experienced what was probably the most dramatic turnaround of his year so far. On Friday, the Frenchman was still devastated. “We had reached rock bottom yesterday, it was a disaster,” he explains. “We were five tenths per lap off where we should have been, and to be honest, we didn’t know where to look.”
The analysis was devastating: “Every corner cost us almost a tenth. That’s why I said: Maybe I’ve gotten bad, maybe I’m rubbish and we need to reset everything.” But overnight, the team made a radical change that earned the Frenchman P8. “We completely rebuilt the car,” says Ocon. “Every setting was changed, even ones you wouldn’t even think of.” The effect was immediately noticeable: “The car was alive today. It has been since the third practice session. It’s working the way it should have been working for many races.”
Ocon annoyed: many points given away in 2025
Ocon’s relief is palpable. “I’m really happy. But it’s frustrating because we should have had a lot more points – much earlier. We’re not yet sure why it’s working. We need to continue to understand. But today it paid off; yesterday was a total disaster.”
The team continued to support him during the recent difficult phase, and now there is at least a basis for the future. “It’s a good foundation for next year. We have to keep searching, keep questioning – but today we got some answers.” He wasn’t surprised that Q1 and Q2 were extremely close: “It was very close, but that was also the case here last year. This track creates magic.”
