‘I want to win in this sport’ – David eyeing Sprint victory after strong Silverstone qualifying

Yevan David is keen to score as many points as possible this weekend after his best qualifying result of the season at Silverstone.

The AIX Racing driver was strong throughout the day, finishing with the 11th fastest time of this morning’s Free Practice.

That strong form continued in Qualifying where he was a constant inside the top 10 before ending up in P11 once again in the final classification. Speaking afterwards, the Sri Lankan driver expressed his delight at the result.

“Honestly, I feel pretty good,” said Slater post session. “It was the best qualifying by far, and the main thing is that we're going to be starting on the front row tomorrow – P2 for the Sprint Race.

“It's a great place to do it, here at Silverstone, I’ve got my family here, it's my engineer's birthday and team coordinator's birthday.

“So in that aspect, it's a nice weekend. But overall, I'm just very much looking forward to the race, as well as the Feature Race.

“The objective for both, no matter where we're starting, is to score points, finish in the top 10, collect as many points as possible and just keep it clean. So moral is high, spirits are high, even coming from the sim.”

Talking more in depth about how the session went, David reflected on the closeness of the session, with just two and a half tenths separating him from potentially being in P2.

“I think this is a very high speed track,” said David. “So in high speed corners, even if the difference in delta is quite a lot you don't lose as much as low speed corners.

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“But at the same time, it suits different people differently. I feel like for me, having these high speed corners, having the confidence to attack is what made the difference for me with the car as well.

“I was able to just trust the car coming from the sim as well. It was quite accurate, so we're quite happy in that aspect, and this track is mainly about confidence.

“You can work on technique and everything, but confidence is the main thing, and that's what we had today. But it's not been smooth sailing my first season in Formula 3.”

When asked if this result means he has fully clicked with his car, David responded: “I would say it's clicked, but not fully yet because I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Silverstone is a very specific track.

“Not everyone knows the track as well and it's on the hard compound. So we need to see when we're moving forward.

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“But at the same time, I'm going to take the ups, I'm just going to take what I've learnt and keep the spirits high with the team and move forward. It's just doing one step at a time.

“We shouldn't be expecting anything beyond this point, whether it's good or bad. We just need to be focusing on what we need to do now and then move forward. But definitely it has been an improvement from all the other rounds. So in that aspect, I'm very happy.”

Looking ahead to Saturday, David will be starting on the front row behind championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu. His aim for the Sprint Race is very clear.

“I'm going to be going for it. I always want to win,” he said. “I want to win in this sport, in life in general and in my career. So I'm definitely going to go for it. We just have to be smart.

“I'm going to be speaking to the team tonight, about what our strategy is for tomorrow, and what I need to think about. Also, this is my first time starting on the front row, so just seeing what I can do from that aspect.

“Just going for it, have some fun, and we have a great opportunity on our hands.”