New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley is maintaining his usual positive attitude going into the first European race of the season tomorrow for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, despite being forced to miss qualifying after an off in Free Practice three this morning.
 
Having had the benefit of taking part in pre-season testing at the Spanish circuit, Hartley was confident of a strong showing coming into the weekend. Working through a set programme in Free Practice, Brendon’s times were coming down and he was setting himself up for a final push at the end of Free Practice three. Sadly however, his session was cut short when an incident on the entry to turn 9 ended his session and the resulting damage prevented him from taking any further part in the day’s running.
 
Brendon Hartley – #28 Scuderia Toro Rosso:
“The off in FP3 was quite a big impact! We normally run a bit of kerb on the entry to Turn 9, but I took one or two centimetres too much and I just clipped the dirt area which flipped the car around pretty quick. The car was feeling good this morning, I didn’t have a clean run at the end of the session, so the lap time didn’t show the true pace we had. I’ll try and stay positive. I’ll have a good sleep and come back tomorrow fresh, anything is possible. I know the team started from the back of the grid last year and scored points, so that has to be the goal for tomorrow.”

Timetable:
Race – 66 Laps
15:10 – 17:10 (Local Time – UTC+2)
01:10 – 03:10 (New Zealand – UTC+12)