Roberto Merhi: “My qualifying was really awful”

Roberto Merhi has described his qualifying at the Moscow Raceway as “really awful” after beaching his car in Q1.

The HWA Mercedes driver spun his C-Coupe into the gravel after running slightly wide coming out of Turn 3, and despite only damaging the car superficially, was unable to continue in the session and will line up last.

“My qualifying was really awful,” said Merhi afterwards. “I was doing well on my first lap but pushed it to the limit on the very last turn and drove over the track boundary.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t match the time posted on my first lap during subsequent laps [and] finally, I pushed too much once again and came completely off the track.”

However, the Spaniard feels he can score points in tomorrow’s race, given his impressive charge from 21st to seventh last time out at the Norisring and during other races earlier in the season.

“I need to draw a line under today’s qualifying and concentrate fully on tomorrow’s race,” he continued. “I have already demonstrated in the last points-scoring fixtures that my strengths lie primarily in the race itself.”