Voisin says top 10 Silverstone Qualifying result has been ‘a long time coming’

Callum Voisin was left with mixed emotions after Qualifying ninth at his home race in Silverstone. While the Rodin Motorsport driver was pleased with the result, he felt there was more on the table.

In a dramatic 30-minute session, that saw the track go from dry to wet and back to dry in the closing stages, Voisin completed a late lap of a 1:45.347 that initially put him on provisional Pole.

However, with several drivers all improving behind him, he ended up in ninth, and while it is his best Qualifying result of the year, he was left wondering whether he should have pushed more in the final sector.

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“That was probably the toughest Qualifying I've ever had in my whole career,” said Voisin. “It was extremely difficult, it was a complete guessing game of what was going to happen, I don't think anybody predicted it.

“I'm still quite frustrated because I knew there was a lot more in there, especially when I see I was under four-tenths away from Pole. It is very frustrating because I know where the time is.

“But at the end of the day, still happy to be in the top 12 and to be able to fight for both races, at least I didn't go off, because the start of the session was very bad.”

As he talked through the final minutes of the session, Voisin admitted he had no idea that the track conditions were improving when he left the pitlane.

Having initially set the 16th-best time, he admitted he went out with the hope of improving his position, given that some parts of the track had already started to get drier.

“I had no clue,” said Voisin of the late change in track conditions. “I wanted to go out anyway because I was in such a bad position. I was in P16, so I wanted to go out anyway, I just went all out and went for it.

“It was either get P16 not trying or give it a massive go and see what happens. It was tricky, looking on the out-lap and the build lap to see where it is dry, and where it is wet.

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“Obviously I knew in the dry parts I was going to have to make up some good times especially in Sector 2, that was the main focus, and the last sector was about bringing it home.

“In hindsight maybe I could have pushed a bit harder, but it was just trying to bank the lap in. I'm relatively happy with the lap, it is frustrating, but other people had a worse quali I guess so can't be too unhappy.”

This is Voisin’s best Qualifying result of the season, and he is delighted to finally find a place in the top 12 given that he believes they have had the pace to do this since Imola back in May.

“It's a long time coming. We've had this sort of pace since Imola, only in Barcelona we haven’t had this sort of pace,” he said.

“I think this is where we should be and hopefully this will be our time to be in the top 12 every quali and fight for more points, that's my main goal and that's what I am happy about, so hopefully we get the ball rolling this weekend.”

As for his hopes for the rest of the weekend, Voisin continued: “The slightly good thing with my mess up is that we have two strong starting positions for the races, with P4 and P9, so in the mix for both. We can definitely move forward, I think the pace is definitely better than P9 and I've done a fair few overtakes around here so that's all good.”