I’ve been struggling all weekend long to get the balance where we wanted, and finally we got a decent car balance. We had to change so much on the car, which is a bit strange, so we need to analyze a bit more deeply what happened. Eventually, I was pretty happy with the car. We had a bit of an issue at the end of Q1. We left the garage very tight on time, so the team asked me to push really hard on the out lap, which isn’t ideal for the tires. But, we made it and everyone was pleased with that. In Q2 we tried something a bit different. It didn’t quite work as expected, but tomorrow is a long race so we’ll see.

Qualifying was very competitive. We worked all the way through FP3 trying to optimize the setup of the car and I was ready to go. I was saving all my energy for the last lap in Q2, which was going to make all the difference. I had a perfect lap, but I’m a bit disappointed as I took a lot of risks and tried to push much further than what was possible. I went a bit wide in turn 14 and that was it. I’m sorry for the guys as they’ve worked so hard over the weekend, but we’ll keep focused and I’ll be pushing all the way in the race.

I think we did the best we could to finish up P12 and P13. We struggled getting prepared for qualifying, but both the team and the drivers got it together. We seem to like to put some drama into whatever we do. With Romain in Q1 we were on the edge trying to get him out in time. First we lost a mirror and then a wheel nut got stuck on his second run. The guys did a fantastic job to get it sorted and Romain was able to cross the line one second before time was up. Esteban did a great job. The cars are very close to each other – within one tenth of a second, in fact – which shows that both drivers can compete at the same level.