O’Sullivan hopeful of claiming victory in Sprint Race after ‘tricky’ Spa Qualifying

ART Grand Prix driver Zak O’Sullivan was pleased to qualify 10th at Spa after a “tricky” Qualifying session, with his targets now set on claiming a second victory of the season in the Sprint Race.

The Briton had been down in P15 after his first run on the second set of Soft tyres but put in the fastest first sector on his next effort on his way to climbing up to P10.

This puts O’Sullivan on reverse grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint Race and in with a good chance of scoring well in the Feature. It’s a result he was delighted with giving his and the team’s struggles.

QUALIFYING: Aron pips Bortoleto and Hadjar to Spa Pole

“Yeah, it was quite a tricky quali as always at Spa,” said O’Sullivan. “You are always managing a slipstream and how close you want to get to the car in front in sector one to then have a clean sector two, but not bad.

“P10 in the end and quite a good last lap and luckily it gave me that position which puts me on pole for tomorrow. All in all, quite happy. I’m struggling a bit for pace over the past few rounds but it's nice to get something out of it.”

O’Sullivan also explained why a Qualifying session at Spa can be quite difficult, revealing that the issues the drivers had to contend with today will also be there at Monza for Round 11.

“It's always the same at Spa, because everyone wants a slipstream,” he described. “So, it will be the same at Monza after the summer break as well, so any slipstream track everyone kind of stacks up in sector three.

“But it's part of the fun, I think we had a nicer time than F3 looking at their quali, but it is what it is and it's kind of the fun of qualifying on a slipstream-dependent track.”

READ MORE: Hadjar eyeing further improvements despite topping Practice at Spa

Considering the struggles he is currently having with the car, O’Sullivan says getting a top 10 result is good especially as he and the team continue to work hard behind the scenes to solve them.

Looking ahead to the weekend though starting tomorrow, while he is hopeful that some strong results can be achieved, he is also wary of the unpredictable weather.

“We will see about the rest of the weekend,” said O’Sullivan. “You never know what the weather is going to do, last I checked it looked like it could be wet tomorrow, but we will see. Obviously starting from pole here is always a bit difficult with the slipstream but I'll see, I'll push for it and try to get a win.”