Third in Qualifying is a pretty good birthday present today. The whole weekend I was not fully happy with the car and in the last practice session I didn’t have the perfect balance, but in Qualifying we managed to pull it together and the car was pretty good. To be four or five tenths off pole position on this track and knowing they can turn up their engines in Qualifying means we are doing a good job. I think on the long runs we are a bit more competitive so I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow. So far on Saturdays I’ve been a happy guy and on Sundays that has changed. Let’s hope it is different tomorrow and I’m sure we can have a good race. I’m also hoping for no sandwiches!

I did all I could today and I think we both got the most out of the car. We’re half a second from Lewis around here so I think we can be pretty happy with that. It gives us a chance in the race tomorrow even if it’s dry. I would have loved to be on third today, but that half a tenth was actually Max’s birthday gift from me and I wanted to start on fourth really, because that’s where I started last year and I won. This is obviously all planned in my mind. I did a bit of a lift of the throttle just before the finish line, so yeah it’s of course all calculated. I think Seb is probably going to do a rain dance tonight so I might join him, hold hands and light some candles. But honestly, some rain would be interesting for the race, so we can dance tonight, as long as we don’t dance tomorrow. If he gets near me then, we haven’t had a good enough race.

A very positive Qualifying for us today. To have locked out the second row and to be within half a second of pole at this circuit represents a job very well done. With Max and Daniel in P3 and P4 respectively on tomorrow’s grid, and on the evidence of the weekend so far, we would hope to be competitive and able to have a say in how the race plays out. The conditions are predicted to be very different to today with some rain around, certainly for the start of the race, so it could be an interesting start and with Sebastian starting from the back, it is all set up for a compelling final grand prix around Sepang.