José María López blames mistake for missed pole position opportunity

I always say it is very difficult, so sometimes Q3 is about confidence and Yvan had more of that today probably. We didn’t expect to be at the front, we were worried about the pace, and the team did an incredible job to prepare the car and give us good material to work with.

I just made a mistake and lost about four tenths, but it happens when you are on the limit and you are pushed by your team-mate and the outside opposition. With these top level drivers it’s not easy. I still think I have a good starting position in both races, I would say, so the goal is to score points. We want to take the manufacturers’ championship lead and I personally want to keep my first place in the drivers’, but we must not forget we are 80 kilos heavier than everybody else. It’s a big thing for us.

I was trying to go for the limit. The engineer saw the data and told me I was losing time on the entry, so I tried and I couldn’t do it, I just lost the car and went off. It was not a key moment luckily, because I didn’t break anything and it was not in Q2 when we didn’t have enough time to do more laps.

I’m looking for consistency, it will not make a difference how many races you win and where you win them. It’s about points, and that’s what I’m looking for. I go into every weekend knowing I can do it, and that gives me confidence. Of course I would like to win, so we will see tomorrow.