Sirotkin hails German GP qualifying as 'very important' for Williams

Sergey Sirotkin believes his German Grand Prix qualifying result has marked a “very important” moment in Williams’ season as it looks to turnaround a tough start to 2018. 

The Russian progressed into Q2 for just the third time this year before taking advantage of an absent Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo to qualify 12th and within 0.1s of Fernando Alonso’s McLaren. 

Williams has been boosted by an upgraded front-wing at Hockenheim as it bid to cure the stability issues that have plagued its FW41 so far this season, and Sirotkin insisted he felt the full benefits of the update. 

“I think it’s a very important moment because it’s been a tough year,” Sirotkin explained. “I was always saying that we’ve been working well, we were improving here and there and sometimes you could see the results, sometimes you could not. 

“In those moments where you could not see results obviously it was a lot of extra pressure on the team. There were quite a few negative comments and it was quite difficult to keep working and not paying attention to what the people are saying and just focus on our job. 

“Now the big upgrades are coming, the one we have been waiting for quite a while. Finally we could prove that all the hard work is playing now in our favour, so its very important for all the team to see it finally does pay off.”

When asked if he felt the performance jump was upgrade or circuit related, Sirotkin replied: “Its both. Let’s be honest. I don’t want to say we are the biggest heroes ever and suddenly we found something which gives us seventh places on the grid.

“But half of those places is definitely coming from it. But for sure the other half is coming from the track conditions and a little bit the track layout too.”

Sirotkin remained cautious about Williams’ chances of a points finish on Sunday, but added he is aiming to be as close as possible in order to capitalise on any drama further up the grid. 

“Looking at where we are, I would say for sure we should fight for the points,” he said. “If we face the conditions like we had yesterday for FP2 I don’t think our long run pace was good enough to make our way through to the points and obviously we have the quick cars passing through. 

“Realistically if we face more normal conditions I don’t think we do really have the pace to gain a few places and stick there yet. For us in this moment I think it is very important, even if we are not able to get to the points we have to make sure that we stay as close as possible behind in case something happens.”

In the other side of the Williams garage, Lance Stroll failed to hook-up a strong lap as he ended up being elimintaed from Q1 having set the 18th-fastest time.