Haas’ Oliver Bearman is “disappointed” to miss out on Q3 at 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Standing in for the suspended Kevin Magnussen, Bearman suffered a crash at Turn 1 mid-way through FP3 on his first flier which cost him track time as he missed the remainder of the session.
The 19 year-old Brit eventually recovered to qualify 11th on the grid but missed out on Q3 to Williams’ Alex Albon by 0.122 seconds in “a tough session.”
Reflecting upon his performance in Qualifying, Bearman felt that he was lucky to even reach Q2 after a late double yellow-flag for Alpine Esteban Ocon, who will be his teammate next season at Haas.
The rookie also rued an error through Turns 8, 9 and 10 which cost him a potential Q3 spot.
“I was firstly lucky to get into Q2 because there was a double yellow out there which I lost a lot of time with, but I managed to scrape through. We were really on the limit to get into Q3 if it wasn’t for the mistake I made in the castle section.”
Bearman though was more deflated by his FP3 error which he believes cost him the experience to potentially reach Q3, although he has qualified 11th in each of his first two F1 Qualifying sessions, having driven for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia.
“I’m quite disappointed in myself, not necessarily for qualifying but for FP3 where I lost a lot of laps and experience. ”
Haas Team Principal, Ayao Komatsu praised Bearman for having the right mentality to mount a “recovery” from FP3 to Qualifying, and again in the gap between Q1 and Q2.
“What’s impressive is how he was able to reset after FP3 ahead of Q1, and also in-between Q1 and Q2, to then deliver like that.
“He’s kicking himself because he lost about three tenths on his second run in Q2, but after his FP3 session, to deliver P11 and getting so close to getting into Q3, he did such a good job.”
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