Racing Point will warn their drivers to take care after locking out the second row on the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
As Red Bull’s pace crumbled in qualifying, the so-called ‘Pink Mercedes’ were able to strike, with Lance Stroll scoring his best ever result on a Saturday in third, though he did of course start second for the Italian Grand Prix in 2017.
“My lap at the end really felt like it was spot on. It always feels great when you put it all together at the end of qualifying,” he said.
“[I’m] very happy at the moment, the car was really strong all the way throughout qualifying, throughout the weekend really.
“We’ve had the pace, it was just about piecing it together during that qualifying session.
“Really great job by all the guys, I’m really pleased with the session.
“Now my sight is set on tomorrow, going to try and grab some big points.”
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To make the situation even better for Racing Point, Stroll and teammate Sergio Perez will also join Mercedes in starting on the medium tyre, avoiding the high-degrading soft compound.
“For sure it was a gamble,” the Canadian said on making that call.
“But that’s going to put us in a good position for tomorrow so I’m really happy we managed to get through on the mediums.”
The only worry for the Silverstone-based team during the qualifying session was the health of Perez.
“It was a good result for the team but from my side, a lot of things happened,” said the Mexican.
“During qualifying, I wasn’t feeling 100% physically. For some reason, I started to feel dizzy during the session.
“I don’t know why. I’m a bit sore on the neck from yesterday. It happened suddenly.
“My neck hurts a bit but I suddenly started to feel dizzy in some parts of the circuit.
“Even so, with all that, to be fourth is a good result for tomorrow.”
Saturday’s result matched the third and fourth Racing Point achieved in their first race under its current name back at Spa in 2018.
But having now created the opportunity to score a podium, Racing Point CEO Otmar Szafnauer admits protocols will be in place to ensure it is not wasted.
“We’ve got to be careful that on lap one we employ the same protocols that we had before,” he told Motorsport.com.
“They have got to give each other room and, you know, it’s the first laps that are critical.
“We have to make sure that they don’t come together in those laps.
“So we’ll be talking to them, and making sure that the team comes first and we don’t slip back into the ways of before.”
