Gasly: We reduced the downforce for speed.

      Pierre Gasly posted the eighth-fastest time in the Belgian Grand Prix sprint qualifying. After the session, the Alpine driver explained that, following practice, the team changed the downforce settings to increase the car's straight-line speed. His teammate Franco Colapinto qualified nineteenth.

      Pierre Gasly (8th): "We definitely deserved the result, so I'm pleased with the outcome of such a tense Friday. During practice, we faced some difficulties, so we adjusted the settings between sessions to reduce some downforce and thereby increase high-speed performance on the straights. This made it challenging to drive in the second sector, but finding the right balance is one of the challenges we face at Spa. I'm happy with how the team worked before qualifying and how they turned things around. I narrowly made it out of the first part—luckily, due to yellow flags caused by Lewis’s spin, but such things happen. Then I drove a really good lap in the second part, and in the final runs, I set the eighth time. Our goal for the sprint is to score points."

      Franco Colapinto (19th): "Today, I had problems with the car's balance and grip on the track. We made adjustments to the setup, but given the limited practice time, I started qualifying not feeling completely confident in the car. This evening, we'll review all the data to see if we can improve the situation tomorrow and come back stronger. Spa is a challenging track that requires full confidence in the car at high speeds. Even before the weekend started, we knew we would need certain conditions to be competitive. The weather forecast for the remaining days remains uncertain, but at Spa, weather is always hard to predict. I hope the weather will be on our side and provide additional opportunities tomorrow and on Sunday."