Interview
Felbermayr targets ‘more aggressive’ opening lap to secure Race 1 victory in Jeddah after claiming second consecutive front row start
Kick Sauber's Emma Felbermayr was left wanting more after qualifying P8 in Jeddah for Rodin Motorsport, giving her a second shot at starting on the front row in the reverse grid Race 1.
Felbermayr found herself 0.108s adrift of her teammate Ella Lloyd in yesterday’s Qualifying session with a time of 2:05.189 and the rookie will line up for the first race of the weekend alongside the McLaren-backed Briton, giving Rodin a valuable opportunity to close the early gap of 13 points to third-place PREMA Racing in the Teams' Standings.
Although disappointed not to have qualified higher, with Felbermayr over eight tenths adrift of polesitter Chloe Chambers, she nevertheless appeared optimistic about her chances of claiming her first race win in the series.
“(I’m) happy, but still not really happy to be honest," she explained. "We are still missing some speed – still like a tenth we are missing. But anyway, pole position for the reverse grid race and at least we improved from Free Practice.
“When we did a race run in testing, we showed quite good pace so I’m happy to go for it tomorrow."
Felbermayr previously set the seventh-fastest lap time at Shanghai International Circuit last time out, granting her a P2 spot in Race 1.
However, the potential of a podium finish fell away from her as she was passed by numerous competitors and later dropped out of the points following two incidents of contact with Alba Larsen and Tina Hausmann.
She eventually crossed the line in P11, leaving Felbermayr keen to express her intention to make the most of her reverse grid pole and work on the lessons she took from Round 1 in China.
“Compared to Shanghai, I probably need to be more aggressive on the first lap,” admitted Felbermayr after Qualifying. “At least the start was good in China so I want to repeat this – maybe a little bit better!
“This is getting better and better every time I do a start. I think we’re going to improve a lot from China as I already have front row experience.
“I think I did some improvements with handling everything going on on track and setting up the lap at the right time, but there’s still some work to do. I still don’t have a lot of experience so we are getting closer and closer every time.”