“A little bit of misfortune” strips Q3 dream from Doohan

A stroke of bad luck cost Jack Doohan the chance to fight for a place in Q3, however, the Australian is focusing on the positives, admitting that out-qualifying his more experienced teammate has given him “good confidence” for tomorrow.

Out of the gates, Doohan made it clear that a cautious approach was not one he’d be taking.

The Australian was one of the first drivers out of the pitlane, putting his head down as he recorded his first time in Q1.

The lap placed Doohan at the top of the pack, however, in an unrepresentative fashion as the majority of the hot contenders were yet to follow suit. 

When they did, it was the back of the pack for the crowd favourite meaning his final run was all the more crucial.

Getting to work in the final moments of Q1, the Australian edged himself ahead of Pierre Gasly to advance to Q2 with the eighth fastest time. 

“I think the positives, were we were slightly in front of Pierre, both runs — not that that’s important, but it’s good confidence for myself,” he admitted.

“And yeah, I think we’re in a good place for tomorrow.” 

The 22-year-old added: “You know, first qualifying of the year, shaking off the cobwebs of the pressure, obviously, for everyone. 

“New cars, new teams for some people. And yeah, I think we’re all pushing to the limit. We’re all humans and people make mistakes. 

“But yeah, I was just glad that the team here at the track and back at the factory did a great job to give me a comfortable car. The cars are already gathering rain tomorrow.”

In Q2, Doohan was confident that he would be able to take on the session by setting a top-ten time, however, his opening run was deleted due to track limits meaning his second tour of Albert Park was all the more important. 

Through no fault of his own, the Australian’s run came to a legitimate end in the second sector when he was forced to slow for yellow flags after Lewis Hamilton’s end of Q2 spin.

To make matters worse, Doohan was also faced with a duo of slow-moving cars through the final corner sequence, voiding the lap and his chances of a Q3 showing in Melbourne.

Ultimately, his fastest lap of the session was a 1:16.863s, placing him P15 for his home Grand Prix.

“Yeah, it was good. Q1 was strong, Q2 was looking strong as well,” Doohan said.

“I think we were confident for Q3, just got a bit unlucky with the yellow flag with Lewis, which brought a close to our chances of that. 

“But all in all, it was looking very strong, even on that lap we were two-tenths up before that happened.

“That was out of our control, so I think we did everything we could to position ourselves well, but now we just have to turn our heads and look forward to tomorrow.”

“Definitely [impressed with the car], I think some good changes,” he added.

“We switched over to a more sort of standard place for qualifying — I felt a lot more comfortable straight away, which helped a lot. 

“We were taking steep steps forward and just unfortunately got a little bit of misfortune. 

“I’m sure it won’t be the last time, but we just look forward to maximising it for tomorrow.”

Yet to “really [take] it in”, Doohan may have to wait one additional hour to race in front of his home crowd with discussions surrounding a possible weather-related delay currently ongoing.

Image: BWT Alpine F1 Team

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