Nicholas Latifi hailed his Williams team after reaching Q3 in qualifying for the British Grand Prix.
The Canadian had been the only driver not to reach Q2 before this weekend, but in wet conditions at Silverstone, did even better than that as he claimed P10 on the grid.
After just pipping through in P15 in Q1, Latifi was then guaranteed a Q3 spot when he moved up inside the top 10 just before more rain prevented those behind from improving.
And post-session, he praised the work Williams did to get him through.
“A very special day in tricky conditions,” Latifi smiled. “To get through to Q2 was a great achievement and a nice confidence boost, then Q3 was more than we could’ve hoped for!
Q3! That one felt good!? #BritishGP #NL6 pic.twitter.com/FPt4XziXwl
— Nicholas Latifi (@NicholasLatifi) July 2, 2022
“When it does rain you obviously hope that there is an opportunity. What was really key was being in the right place at the right time and the team did a great job with that, with the track positioning.
“Straight out of the pits things felt good and I was getting into a rhythm,” he explained. “The team did a great job in Q1 and Q2 of putting me in the right place on the track.
“We saw how important that was for Q2 getting that lap in at the right time before the track got worse with the weather, and yes, we got the lap when we needed to.”
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Looking ahead to the race, however, Latifi admits he may be looking in his mirrors more than what’s in front of him.
“My car’s not the 10th-fastest car, clearly, on the grid, but with the rain, we managed to do a great job as a team and put ourselves there,” he said.
“Tomorrow, for the race, it’s most likely going to be dry, we’re going to have a lot of faster cars coming from behind.
“We have to see what we can do; at the end, we have to focus on our race and whatever the result is going to be, it’s going to be.”
Usually it needs a pretty well-trained eye to spot the differences when a team brings upgrades… Not so with the Williams this weekend!#F1 #Formula1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/WOg4vfS0PD
— InsideRacing.com (@INSIDERACINGcom) July 1, 2022
In Q1, Latifi’s progression came at the expense of Alex Albon, who has been running a heavily upgraded car compared to his teammate.
However, beating the London-born Thai driver didn’t mean much to the recently-turned 27-year-old.
“We’ll see what happens in the debrief but I think naturally in the wet, we are always gonna see cars qualify out of position. So I think if it was a dry session, it probably would have shone through a little bit more,” he said of the updates.
“It’s not been necessarily the easiest weekend for the team to really understand and quantify what this new upgrade package is bringing, especially with the wind, but there are some positive signs you’ve seen already from it. So that’s obviously encouraging.
“I’m watching with a keen eye as well because I know I’ll be getting that in a few races.”
As for Albon, he rued missing out on the best of the conditions in Q1.
“At the end of Q1 we opted to do a cool-down lap,” he said. “It was a tight call, but in hindsight, I don’t think it was the best choice.
“We lost too much tyre temperature. The track was starting to dry, and everyone was starting to get faster, but I just couldn’t find enough grip. Everyone was getting quicker, but actually, for me, the grip was lower.”