PREMA Racing took P8 in the qualifying session for the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Jeddah.
Going back on track for round three at the Saudi street course, the team showed great potential but was unable to collect the dividends in a tough qualifying session that featured a red-flag interruption.
The Italian was in P2 the moment the red flag came, but eventually dropped to P8.
Sebastian Montoya put up an impressive early run but could not improve with his second set and, after the stoppage, he was already beyond the peak performance of the tyres.
#9 SEBASTIAN MONTOYA
"Disappointing session. We have been working really hard, I have been getting better, and behind the scenes, things are getting really good. It's frustrating to get these results, especially on a track where there was so much potential, as we saw this morning in FP. In qualifying, the first lap is good, it's a shame for the red flag, and then when we went out again, we just didn't have the tyres in the right place and it cost us. We go for the races, where the pace should be quite strong. We keep working, onto the rest of the weekend!"
#10 GABRIELE MINÌ
"It's a P8 in qualifying and a P3 for the reverse grid. Not really satisfied with this result, but I think we saved it quite well because after the first set, we were really far behind. We made a step on the car between the sets and that helped me massively, the lap felt quite good in the car but it was only good enough for P8. We need to analyze the session a bit and try to be fast in the races. We can score some good points from where we are."