I enjoyed today. Silverstone is one of those fun tracks, especially on low fuel with new tyres, and I’m feeling satisfied with our performance. My laps were clean and tidy, and it was a smooth session. The updates we brought here are working really well and without them I don’t think it would have been possible to be in the top ten today. So from that perspective I’m very happy because we know there is more to come as we explore and learn about our car. For this weekend, the long run pace has looked competitive, but the cars ahead of me also look very quick and we will have to work hard to come away with points.

I am disappointed to have missed out on Q3 because the car was definitely capable of making the cut. I was expecting to be in the top ten, but in the end I missed out by a couple of hundredths, which was unfortunate. The weekend so far has been a bit of a struggle for me, trying different options with the set-up and getting used to the new car. The b-spec car is a big step forward, but we are still exploring the limits of what it can do. When we understand it fully, I think there is great potential. For the race tomorrow, I think we can be competitive. Eleventh place is not a bad place to start and I think we can fight well from there to get some points.

To be starting our home race in ninth and eleventh places is a very solid effort by the team. Nico continued his strong qualifying form by making Q3 for the third race in a row. Checo hasn’t been as happy with the set-up of his car, but he performed well today and lines up just a couple of places behind his teammate. In the days leading up to this weekend, we have pushed incredibly hard to deliver our b-spec car and I’m happy to see the updates delivering the step forward we anticipated. It means we are well-placed going into tomorrow’s race with a good chance of scoring some important points.